Discussion of Information Technology-Related Activities of Internal Auditors

In order to purchase a product cheaper, a lot of customers have been trying to search one or more marketplaces. Ever since the commercial use of the Internet, several types of marketplaces have been operating successfully on the Internet. Some of them are online shopping malls, auction markets, and group-buying markets. They have the price settlement mechanisms of their own. Online shopping malls where many stores are located support a customer to purchase the product that matches his/her requests such as price, function, design, and so forth. In online auction market, a customer can buy the product by making bids sequentially and competitively until a final price is reached. In online group-buying market, a customer can purchase the product by aggregating the orders from several buyers so that cheaper prices can be negotiated. The cheaper customers could purchase the same product item, the more satisfied they would be. However, it is very difficult for the customer to determine the marketplace to purchase, considering different kinds of marketplaces at the same time. Even though the purchasing price is cheapest in one marketplace, it is very difficult for customers to convince it the cheapest for all marketplaces. Therefore, rules and methods have been developed for purchase decision making in multiple marketplaces to reach the optimal purchase decision as a whole. They can maximize customer's utility and resolve the conflicts with other marketplaces through multi-agent negotiation.