Mediator: Towards a negotiation support system

2012

A negotiation support system includes both a decision support system (DSS) component and an electronic communication component. In this laboratory study, all buyer-seller bargaining pairs communicated electronically but access to the custom-built DSS was varied, with the goal of answering the important question asked in the paper’s title.

Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, 2013

Negotiations are a particular form of communication and collective decision-making. Like all forms of collective action, negotiations involve different parties, which can be individuals, groups, or organizations. Three characteristics distinguish negotiations from other forms of collective decision-making as group decisions or social choice (voting) procedures: • There is some conflict of interest between the parties involved. • An agreement can be reached only by consent of all parties. If parties are not able to reach consensus, one particular outcome (usually the status quo) will take place. • An agreement is not reached immediately but involves an interactive process in which offers are exchanged until a mutually acceptable solution is found. Research on electronic systems to support negotiations began in the 1980s as an extension to the concept of decision support systems. Early research on negotiation support systems (NSS), for example, Ref. [1], focused on the multiperson aspect of negotiations and the possibilities of information technology to connect parties across time and space. The latter aspect gained importance with the rise of the internet and

Group Decision and Negotiation, 1994

In June of 1992 the Systems Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences organized a Workshop on Support Systems for Decisions and Negotiation. More than eighty presented papers dealt with the design and application of decision support systems, modeling and support for group decision making, negotiation, mediation, and bargaining. Many of the papers introduced novel and interesting concepts. Other papers presented applications from a variety of areas, for exampie, environmental planning, water resource management, petroleum exploration, and engineering design.

1996

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the application of information processing technologies such as GSS to the field of negotiations. This paper explores the theoretical and practical integration of principled negotiation, the ESD framework, and the MeetingWorks GSS in supporting negotiation processes. Recent developments in negotiation theory and practice have identijed "'principled negotiation" as an improved way of resolving disputes. Evolutionary Systems Design (ESD) is a widely-used formal modeling j-amework for task-oriented group processes including group decision making, planning, policy making, and negotiation. A4eetingWorks is a comprehensive group support system (GSS) that provides a variety of tools to assist task-oriented groups.

Acis 2005 Social It Thinking About the People Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2005, 2005

While Information Technology has been used to support negotiation there is little research in the domain of knowledge management in legal negotiation. In this paper we discuss the nature of negotiation knowledge and how such knowledge can be utilized to construct negotiation decision support systems. We conduct an in-depth examination of the notion of a BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and given a useful BATNA, how we can use issue and preference elicitation and compensation and trade-off strategies to provide negotiation decision support. We conclude by indicating how current negotiation support systems can be extended to support Online Dispute Resolution and haw we can extend the Family_Winner system in light of the need to more adequately manage negotiation knowledge.

Group Decision and Negotiation, 1997

This paper summarizes a parametric theory of negotiation as a basis forshedding light on negotiation support system possibilities. Previously, thetheory has been used to analyze prior research accomplishments in the area ofnegotiation support systems. Here, we discuss implications of the theory thatare relevant for future research and development of negotiation supportsystems. The implications are concerned with three topics: a high-levelgeneric characterization of these systems, an identification of theirpossible support functions, and a taxonomy for classifying suchsystems.

Naval Research Logistics, 1991

Mediators increase the effectiveness of negotiation processes. The art of mediation includes interpersonal skills, ability to convince, and proficiency in argumentation. The science of mediation represents an analytical approach to problem solving, a systematic analysis of the process, of players' positions, and of their goals, aspirations, and concessions. Analytical tools for mediation can be used by mediators, but these tools can also support negotiators in their analysis, verification of their positions, and choices. The knowledge of effective and safe alternatives, of sets of compromises, and the knowledge of the possible outcomes of concessions may be used to develop an effective strategy and to increase a negotiator's bargaining power. Models to analyze alternatives, to verify concessions made by the opponents, to determine effective alternatives, and to search for solutions that yield mutual gains, to aggregate opponents' proposals, to look for coalition members, and to simulate some of the actions of a mediator are discussed in the article.

… Designing beyond the …, 2009

Negotiation support systems (NSS) can enhance humans' performance in negotiations. Much research in this area focuses on finding optimal bids. However, there is little research on human factors in technological negotiation support. We believe an in-depth analysis of the task involving experts and users is needed to build a new generation of NSS focusing on man-machine collaboration. We describe a scenario-based approach to gathering requirements for such a system. We wrote five scenarios containing part of the ...

Group Decision and Negotiation, 2007

With negotiation being an often difficult process involving complex problems, computer-based support has been employed in its various phases and tasks. This article provides a historical overview of software used to support negotiations, aid negotiators, and automate one or more negotiation activities. First, it presents several system classifications, including implemented models, system architectures, and configurations of various systems interacting with human negotiators. Then, it focuses on NSSs (negotiation support systems) and related systems introduced in the early 1980s and on ENSs (e-negotiation systems), which are deployed on the web. These broad categories are discussed from four perspectives: real-life applications, systems used in research and training, research results, and research frameworks.

Implementing an e-market for limited supply perishable asset (LiSPA) products is a problem at the intersection of online purchasing and distributed decision support systems (DistDSS). In this dissertation, we introduce and define LiSPA products, provide real-world examples, develop a framework for a distributed system to implement an e-market for LiSPA products, and provide proof-of-concept for the two major components of the framework. The DistDSS framework requires customers to instantiate agents that learn their preferences and evaluate products on their behalf. Accurately eliciting and modeling customer preferences in a quick and easy manner is a major hurdle for implementing this agent-based system. A methodology is developed for this problem using conjoint analysis and neural networks. The framework also contains a model component that is addressed in this work. The model component is presented as a mediator of customer negotiation that uses the agent-based preference models mentioned above and employs a linear programming model to maximize overall satisfaction of the total market. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my wife, Stacie, and to our sons, Frankie, Dominic, Vincent, and Joseph. Stacie, endeavoring upon this journey would have been impossible without your support, understanding, and adventurous nature. Your patience and belief in my abilities are the reasons for our success. Boys, your existence alone provides the daily motivation I need to be successful, and your individual and collective success continually inspires me to do the best work possible. the top of the mountain. You are truly a master at your craft.