A negotiation model in agent-mediated electronic commerce

Proceedings of the 12th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37521), 2004

E-commerce is expected to dominate the market if coupled with the appropriate technologies and mechanisms. Mobile agents are one of the means that may enhance the intelligence, and improve the computational efficiency of systems in the e-marketplace. In this paper, we propose a dynamic multilateral negotiation model that can be used to extend the functionality of autonomous agents, so that they reach to an agreement aiming to maximise their owner's utility. The model considers both contract and decision issues, is based on real market conditions and has been empirically evaluated.

2006 Eighth International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing, 2006

In our recent work we have established that to develop an extensible agent-based e-commerce system it is necessary to logically separate the negotiation process from other parts of the system. This note deals with the design of the "negotiation box"-the component that actually runs the negotiation processes. Furthermore, interaction of the negotiation box with the rest of the system is addressed.

European Journal of Operational Research, 2008

E-commerce will strongly penetrate the market if coupled with appropriate technologies and mechanisms. Mobile agents may enhance the intelligence and improve the efficiency of systems in the e-marketplace. We propose a dynamic multilateral negotiation model and construct an efficient negotiation strategy based on a ranking mechanism that does not require a complicated rationale on behalf of the buyer agents. This strategy can be used to extend the functionality of autonomous intelligent agents, so that they quickly reach to an agreement aiming to maximise their owner's utility. The framework proposed considers both contract and decision issues, is based on real market conditions, and has been empirically evaluated. Moreover, it is shown that in a linear framework like the one we employ more elaborate ranking mechanisms do not necessarily improve efficiency.

2015

Cooperative Information Agents II Learning, Mobility …, 1998

A key lesson learned from economic and game theory research is that negotiation protocols have substantial, rippling effects on the overall nature of the system. online auctions are increasingly popular negotiation protocols for software agents (and humans) to compete on the prices of goods and services. This paper takes a critical look at these competitive protocols in retail markets from economic, game theoretic, and business perspectives. Our analysis suggests that online auction protocols are, in fact, less efficient and more hostile than would be expected (or desired) in retail markets. Furthermore, we identify the importance of customer satisfaction and propose more cooperative multiagent decision analysis tools (e..g, Multi-Attribute Utility Theory) and negotiation protocols (e.g., Distributed Constraint Satisfaction) as promising techniques to support it.

2000

Agent technology has been applied to the Electronic Commerce domain, giving birth to what is known as agent-mediated Electronic Commerce. Current real-world applications refer only to the delegation of product or merchant brokering tasks to software agents. Automated negotiation is a less explored stage in this field, since it implies the trust of bargaining power to software agents. We here present SMACE, a layered platform for agent-mediated Electronic Commerce, supporting multilateral and multi-issue automated negotiations.

Proceedings of the 2nd ACM conference on Electronic commerce - EC '00, 2000

This paper describes MARI (Multi-Attribute Resource Intermediary), a project which proposes to improve online marketplaces, specifically those that involve the buying and selling of non-tangible goods and services. MARI is an intermediary architecture intended as a generalized platform for the specification and brokering of heterogeneous goods and services. MARI makes it possible for both buyers and sellers alike to more holistically and comprehensively specify relative preferences for the transaction partner, as well as for the attributes of the product in question, making price just one of a multitude of possible factors influencing the decision to trade. Ultimately, we expect that the ability to make such specifications will result in a more efficient, richer, and integrative transaction experience.

2001

The world of E-comn~rce presents ample opportunity to fully utilize the capability of intelligent agents. The highly dynamic, fast-moving and information-rich environment can often be overwhelming for the human participant. Agents can intelligently assist users by mimicking human behaviour and adapting themselves to their client's specification. This paper explores the viability of running a society of agents in a simple marketplace to negotiate on behalf of human clients. The type of agent chosen for this role is a plan-based agent. This architecture offers the flexibility and reasoning power required to maximize the possibilities presented in the environment chosen.

2001

Market research suggests that organisations, in general, have a differentiation strategy when approaching Electronic Commerce. Thus, in order to be useful, agent technology must take into account this market characteristic. When extending its application to the negotiation stage of the shopping experience, one should consider a multi-issue approach, from which both buyers and sellers can profit. We here present SMACE, a layered platform for agent-mediated Electronic Commerce, supporting multilateral and multi-issue negotiations.

Expert Systems with Applications, 2004

The bloom of electronic commerce has changed the whole outlook of traditional trading behavior. Through the Internet, different business entities can now easily interact with each other and then have their transactions within a minimum time. However, the advanced hardware facilities for Internet infrastructure and the entrancing Web sites are not the only decisive factors to guarantee a successful business in the electronic market. To enable the transactions, the problems that ensue during the complicated activities in electronic commerce have to be resolved. This paper presents an agent-based system to support two types of activities most related to the decision-making process in the Internet commerce. The first part of our system is for interactive recommendation; and the second part, for automated negotiation. Experiments have been conducted to evaluate their corresponding performance and the results show the efficiency of the proposed system and its potential toward the future electronic market. q