Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to automate existing market processes, but they also offer opportunities to design new, innovative market mechanisms. In this paper we investigate one such mechanism, the multidimensional auction, in which bidders bid not just on price, but also on the underlying value drivers such as quality and delivery time. We experimentally investigate how two design parameters affect the performance of the electronic multidimensional auction: the length of the auction and the information architecture. The information architecture of the market describes what type of information is available to whom, or when and how it becomes available to whom during the market process. Electronic market performance is measured in terms of winner efficiency and Pareto optimality. Increasing either the number of auction rounds or revealing more information about the state of competition and the bid taker’s preferences improves electronic market performance, but there is an unexpected interaction effect, as combination of the two did not yield significant performance improvements. This suggests that there may be a phenomenon of information saturation at work: beyond a certain point, more information does not improve market performance any further. 1

New information technologies invariably provide excellent opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of decision making and negotiation, through the development of novel decision support techniques. Emerging Internet related technologies and, in particular, the World Wide Web provide yet another opportunity for radical change and improvement in the support and practice of negotiations. This view is supported by the results of a cross-cultural experiment that we have been conducting over the past year as part of the InterNeg project, observing computerassisted international negotiations over the Web. One of the surprises from this experiment is the degree of acceptance that the Web/computer technology achieved among a user base comprising both experienced negotiators and students. In this paper we report our experimental results and suggest the reasons behind and requirements for successful acceptance of Web based negotiation support technology, with the aim of stimulating further exploration of the opportunities held out by these new technologies.

Abstract. The rapid expansion of Decision and Negotiation Support Systems has been built mainly on decision theoretic approaches. This has resulted in the decision maker being viewed through the lens of the problem. In this paper the focus is on the decision maker's view of the problem. Three levels of problem articulation are described. Special emphasis is placed on the needs level and the implications it carries for the cognitive and instrumental levels. The three levels of articulation, the organizational model of making decision in social settings and the three basic approaches to decision making form the basis for computer support focused on understanding and change rather than preferences and outcomes. We argue that in the dynamic, interactive context characteristic of negotiations, a cognitive support system based on restructurable modelling provides a richer basis for support.

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 manmachine collaboration. We describe a scenario-based approach to gathering requirements for such a system. We wrote five scenarios containing part of the envisioned functionality in the most important use situations, e.g. face-to-face negotiation, on the phone, collaborative or mobile preparation. We used claims analysis to clarify our design decisions. To evaluate our claims we organized focus groups including six general and six job negotiation experts. The filmed scenarios were used together with two claims each to guide the discussion. Based on the data analysis we constructed 12 design guidelines for NSS.

Several studies of two-party negotiations have shown that negotiators more often than not reach inefficient compromises. We analyze the circumstances under which rational agents make inefficient compromises and refrain from improving them. We do this by describing and interpreting various negotiation situations and by developing formal constructs and theorems for determining the character of a negotiation situation. Key among these concepts is the notion of opposition. Although opposition is defined in terms of the utility functions, it is more fundamental in the sense that it is more intuitive to decision makers and can be used in contexts in which the parties' utilities are unknown or are partially known. The effects of various rationality assumptions on efficiency and their implications for negotiation support systems are discussed. We argue that the prescriptive/descriptive approach advocated by negotiation analysts lacks sufficient explanatory powers to be effectively used in negotiation support and that negotiation support systems should not constrain the parties to the set of efficient points. Keywords: bargaining, negotiations, negotiation analysis, conflict analysis, decision and negotiation support, rationality, utility, efficiency, opposition Acknowledgments This work has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Comments and suggestions made by Wojtek Michalowski are very much appreciated. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the MCDM Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, 1994.

Software agents can be useful in forming buyers ’ groups since humans have considerable difficulties in finding Pareto-optimal deals (no buyer can be better without another being worse) in negotiation situations. Then what are the computational and economical performances of software agents for a group buying problem? We developed a negotiation protocol for software agents that we evaluated to see if the problem is difficult on average and why. This protocol provably finds a Pareto-optimal solution and furthermore, minimizes the worst distance to ideal among all software agents given strict preference ordering. This evaluation demonstrated that memory requirements (and not execution time complexity) limit the performance of software agents in this group buying problem. We have also investigated if software agents following the developed protocol have a different buying behaviour than the customer they represented would have in the same situation. Results show that software agents have a greater difference of behaviour (and a better behaviour since they can always simulate the obvious customer behaviour of buying alone their preferred product) when they have similar preferences over the space of available products. We also discuss the type of behaviour changes and their frequencies based on the situation.

Automated negotiations have been an active research topic for many years. Most of the research work on this area focuses either on the abstract and theoretical models or on the system architectures for standalone negotiation applications. There is little work on identifying and studying practical algorithms for automated negotiations. In this paper, two algorithms have been proposed and their innovative applications have been discussed. The first algorithm guarantees that negotiation results are Pareto optimal solutions. The second algorithm guarantees that an agreement can be agreed upon after a certain number of proposal/counterproposal exchanges. These two algorithms can be used in the two-phase model for the automated negotiation process. In addition to these algorithms, their applications in information privacy negotiation have been described. In the information privacy management domain for service industries, it is critical for service requestors to only reveal the absolute necessary private information to the service providers. Traditionally, service requestors usually give whatever private information service providers have asked for. The grave consequence is that service providers may misuse the private information provided by service requestors, even though the service providers may have promised not to reveal it. Service requestor should have an efficient way to negotiate with service providers about the appropriate private information to be revealed. Algorithms described in this paper can facilitate the privacy negotiation process. In order to show the concept of negotiation in information privacy, credit card information has been used to illustrate the application of algorithms. 1.

The advent of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce market has created needs and opportunities for firms to negotiate deals online. Most negotiation support systems (NSS) in past research are text-based and the related findings could not be generalized to negotiating situations utilizing advanced electronic communication technology. This paper investigates the impact of NSS and conflict level on negotiation outcomes where participants communicated through a videoconferencing channel. Findings suggested that dyads with videoconferencing NSS support achieved higher joint outcome, but spent more time in reaching agreements - in low but not high conflict negotiation situation. Conclusion and implications were drawn.

How to apply negotiation principles to E-business is an important topic for both negotiation research and E-business research. Automation of E-business negotiation is even more challenging due to the inherent complexity of business negotiations. Some research has been done in this area, but a comprehensive model for automated E-business negotiation is still missing. Furthermore, existing work in this area does not consider the negotiation process from a full life cycle perspective; therefore valuable information from a previous negotiation is not properly used for the future negotiations. This report discusses two important issues related to automated E-business negotiation: model and life cycle. A system architecture based on the model and the life cycle is proposed.

Abstract. INSPIRE is a web-based negotiation support system that has been used for the last three years for negotiation training and research. It has also been used in teaching written communication skills. In this paper we discuss implications of using the system in teaching English as a Second Language and English for Academic Purposes in multilingual classes and points out the benefits that this new technology offers. We also show how extending classroom boundaries to remote regions of the world add to increased students ' involvement and enhance language acquisition. 1.