Design of Software Agent-Populated Electronic Negotiation System and Evaluation of Human - to - Agent Negotiations

Negotiation is a flexible mechanism for facilitating effective economic exchanges. Electronic negotiations allow participants to negotiate online and use analytical support tools in making their decisions. Software agents offer the possibility of automating negotiation process using these tools. The purpose of this work is to make progress towards outlining design-theoretical principles for agent-enhanced negotiation systems (AENS). This paper describes an electronic marketplace named DIANA (Deal-making system Incorporating Agents in Negotiations and Auctions) that allows involving software agents in negotiations. It also presents the results of experiments in agent-to-human negotiations. Various types of agents have been configured and paired up with human counterparts for negotiating product sale. The paper discusses the results and presents a set of rules for the design of AENS.

[1]  Salvatore T. March,et al.  Design and natural science research on information technology , 1995, Decis. Support Syst..

[2]  Shirley Gregor,et al.  The Anatomy of a Design Theory , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[3]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Agents that buy and sell , 1999, CACM.

[4]  H. Raiffa,et al.  Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making , 2003 .

[5]  Arie Segev,et al.  Automated Negotiations: A Survey of the State of the Art , 1997, Wirtschaftsinf..

[6]  Sarit Kraus,et al.  Can automated agents proficiently negotiate with humans? , 2010, CACM.

[7]  Dirk Neumann,et al.  Shaman: Software and Human Agents in Multiattribute Auctions and Negotiations , 2006, Negotiation, Auctions, and Market Engineering.

[8]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Negotiation, Auctions, and Market Engineering , 2009 .

[9]  Nader Azarmi,et al.  Software Agents and Soft Computing Towards Enhancing Machine Intelligence , 1997, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[10]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[11]  N. R. Jennings,et al.  To appear in: Int Journal of Group Decision and Negotiation GDN2000 Keynote Paper Automated Negotiation: Prospects, Methods and Challenges , 2022 .

[12]  Kuldeep Kumar,et al.  Agent-based negotiation and decision making for dynamic supply chain formation , 2009, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell..

[13]  Wen-Yau Liang,et al.  The agent-based negotiation process for B2C e-commerce , 2010, Expert Syst. Appl..

[14]  Pattie Maes,et al.  A Real-Life Experiment in Creating an Agent Marketplace , 1997, Software Agents and Soft Computing.

[15]  Sven A. Carlsson.  Developing Information Systems Design Knowledge: A Critical Realist Perspective , 2005 .

[16]  Rustam M. Vahidov,et al.  Situated Decision Support Approach for Managing Multiple Negotiations , 2006, Negotiation, Auctions, and Market Engineering.

[17]  Omar El Sawy,et al.  Building an Information System Design Theory for Vigilant EIS , 1992, Inf. Syst. Res..

[18]  Gregory E. Kersten,et al.  WWW-based negotiation support: design, implementation, and use , 1999, Decis. Support Syst..

[19]  Gregory E. Kersten,et al.  Agent-supported negotiations in the e-marketplace , 2005, Int. J. Electron. Bus..