Negotiation support systems and team negotiations: The coalition formation perspective

The use of software to support negotiations has captured the attention of academics and practitioners for some three decades and the research stream of negotiation support systems (NSS) has emerged. Over the years, many NSS have been developed and used in training and research but they have been rarely deployed in organizations. Our speculation is that much existing research is confined to dyadic (i.e., one-to-one) settings which may not adequately reflect the real-world situations in which teams, rather than individuals, often engage in negotiations. To address the gap, our current research aspires to conceptualize the NSS in supporting team negotiations and to theoretically examine their impact. Coalition formation has been a prevalent organizational phenomenon that constitutes important dynamics in any negotiating team; it will be conceptualized as the mechanism through which NSS impacts upon team negotiation outcomes in our paper. Globalization has rendered cross-cultural negotiations a commonplace; at the same time, culture serves as a most salient attribute in activating coalitions. In light of the above, cultural diversity is studied as the antecedent to coalition formation and moderates the influence of NSS on the extent of coalition formation. A set of research propositions, derived from a theoretical framework, are raised and their implications discussed.     

Exploring the user interface of negotiation support systems from the user acceptance perspective

Despite the fact that Web-based negotiation support systems (NSS) have gained momentum in B2B electronic commerce, there have been few studies investigating the way the NSS interface might be utilized to promote user acceptance. This paper presents the results of an empirical study investigating NSS, from a user acceptance perspective and utilizing a technology acceptance model. We have explored the influence of three constructs embedded in NSS: playfulness, causality and subjective norm. The role of causality, in particular, has never been tested within the context of user interface and user acceptance of the system, so we developed a prototype NSS called CAKES-NEGO. Empirical results garnered from 174 valid questionnaires proved the validity of our proposed research model: the NSS user interface, embedded with the three constructs, causes users to consider the system more favorably.     

Exploring computer-based multilingual negotiation support for English-Chinese dyads: can we negotiate in our native languages?

The increasing number of international negotiations involving multiple languages has triggered a growing reliance on computer-based multilingual support. Whereas empirical studies on negotiation support systems (NSS) have shown that NSS generally improve negotiation performance, very few NSS exist that cater for multilingual negotiations. With multilingual support, international negotiators of different language backgrounds are expected to address communication barriers and problems. This study involves the development of an NSS prototype with multilingual support as well as a laboratory experiment to examine the efficacy of such support on six important negotiation outcome variables (individual outcome, joint outcome, equality of outcome, time to settlement, satisfaction with process and satisfaction with outcome). Findings suggested significant effects of NSS support on individual outcome and joint outcome. Multilingual support helped to improve equality of outcome (under qualified conditions), but the time taken was significantly longer. The paper underlines the possibility and significance of computer-based multilingual support to address diverse linguistic groups in global negotiation context.     

基于Web的NSA和NSS集成的商务洽谈系统

商务洽谈是解决电子商务冲突的最好方法之一。该文研究和讨论了基于Web的集成商务洽谈的两大实现技术：洽谈软件代理NSA和洽谈支持系统NSS，并给出了一个基于Web的NSS和NSA集成的商务洽谈系统框架。     

谈判支持系统（NSS）研究

冲突决策是一类复杂的多人决策问题，它涉及到许多非结构化因素。本文对于复杂冲突问题分析的计算机系统－谈判支持系统进行了研究，分析了谈判支持系统的需求，工作机制和技术实现等问题。     

基于人工心理偏好表示的多方—多属性谈判支持系统

为了解决多方—多属性谈判支持系统中谈判人偏好表示的难点问题,设计了一种基于人工心理偏好表示的多方—多属性谈判支持系统。首先建立了基于云模型的人工心理描述模型,模型充分表达了人工心理的模糊性和随机性。并分析了基于云模型人工心理偏好表示的多方—多属性谈判过程,同时给出通过中介方式基于云模型人工心理偏好表示的谈判建议解求解方法。最后以系统雏形与谈判实验为案例,结果表明该方法能较好地表达谈判支持系统中谈判人的偏好。     

多Agent多问题协商模型

在多agent环境中,协商是多agent系统能够成功运转的关键.根据参与协商agent的数目和协商问题的数目,多agent环境中的协商可以分为双边-单问题协商、双边-多问题协商、多边-单问题协商、多边-多问题协商.前3种协商是多边-多问题协商在不同维上的简化.利用协商-协商过程-协商线程的概念建立了一个多边-多问题协商模型MMN(multi-agent multi-issue negotiation).该模型通过提供一个灵活的协商协议支持多agent环境中的不同协商形式,并且支持agent在协商过程中的学习.     

An experimental investigation of the impact of NSS and proximity on negotiation outcomes

Negotiations are often not as rational as desired due to the cognitive difficulty of finding optimal agreements. With higher information-processing capacity and capability, negotiation support systems (NSS) are viewed as a viable solution to overcome this difficulty and help negotiators achieve integrative agreements. In addition, advances in network communication technology have enabled distributed meetings to be carried out easily. This in turn leads to the notion of conducting distributed negotiations by combining NSS and distributed communication technology. This study examined the impact of NSS in face-to-face and distributed settings. The results suggested that NSS led to higher and fairer outcomes for both face-to-face and distributed dyads. Another interesting finding from this study is that there were gains with respect to initial expectations of outcomes when NSS support was provided. As corporations expand globally, NSS will play a significant role in coordinating distributed negotiations, saving time and cost.     

An experimental investigation of the impact of NSS and proximity on negotiation outcomes

Negotiations are often not as rational as desired due to the cognitive difficulty of finding optimal agreements. With higher information-processing capacity and capability, negotiation support systems (NSS) are viewed as a viable solution to overcome this difficulty and help negotiators achieve integrative agreements. In addition, advances in network communication technology have enabled distributed meetings to be carried out easily. This in turn leads to the notion of conducting distributed negotiations by combining NSS and distributed communication technology. This study examined the impact of NSS in face-to-face and distributed settings. The results suggested that NSS led to higher and fairer outcomes for both face-to-face and distributed dyads. Another interesting finding from this study is that there were gains with respect to initial expectations of outcomes when NSS support was provided. As corporations expand globally, NSS will play a significant role in coordinating distributed negotiations, saving time and cost.     

A Real-Time Negotiation Model and A Multi-Agent Sensor Network Implementation

This paper describes a negotiation model that incorporates real-time issues for autonomous agents. This model consists of two important ideas: a real-time logical negotiation protocol and a case-based negotiation model. The protocol integrates a real-time Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model, a temporal logic model, and communicative acts for negotiation. This protocol explicitly defines the logical and temporal relationships of different knowledge states, facilitating real-time designs such as multi-threaded processing, state profiling and updating, and a set of real-time enabling functional predicates in our implementation. To further support the protocol, we use a case-based reasoning model for negotiation strategy selection. An agent learns from its past experience by deriving a negotiation strategy from the most similar and useful case to its current situation. Guided by the strategy, the agent negotiates with its partners using an argumentation-based negotiation protocol. The model is time and situation aware such that each agent changes its negotiation behavior according to the progress and status of the ongoing negotiation and its current agent profile. We apply the negotiation model to a resource allocation problem and obtain promising results.     

A win–win method for multi‐party negotiation support

In this paper, we introduce an interactive multi‐party negotiation support method for decision problems that involve multiple, conflicting linear criteria and linear constraints. Most previous methods for this type of problem have relied on decision alternatives located on the Pareto frontier; in other words, during the negotiation process the parties are presented with new Pareto optimal solutions, requiring the parties to sacrifice the achievement of some criteria in order to secure improvements with respect to other criteria. Such a process may be vulnerable to stalemate situations where none of the parties is willing to move to a potentially better solution, e.g., because they perceive – rightly or wrongly ? that they have to give up more than their fair share. Our method relies on “win–win” scenarios in which each party will be presented with “better” solutions at each stage of the negotiations. Each party starts the negotiation process at some inferior initial solution, for instance the best starting point that can be achieved without negotiation with the other parties, such as BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement). In subsequent iterations, the process gravitates closer to the Pareto frontier by suggesting an improved solution to each party, based on the preference information (e.g., aspiration levels) provided by all parties at the previous iteration. The preference information that each party needs to provide is limited to aspiration levels for the objectives, and a party's revealed preference information is not shared with the opposing parties. Therefore, our method may represent a more natural negotiation environment than previous methods that rely on tradeoffs and sacrifice, and provides a positive decision support framework in which each party may be more comfortable with, and more readily accept, the proposed compromise solution. The current paper focuses on the concept, the algorithmic development, and uses an example to illustrate the nature and capabilities of our method. In a subsequent paper, we will use experiments with real users to explore issues such as whether our proposed “win–win” method tends to result in better decisions or just better negotiations, or both; and how users will react in practice to using an inferior starting point in the negotiations.     

基于模糊多准则决策的谈判模型

针对目前谈判支持系统中谈判模型存在的难以准确获知谈判人的偏好，以及利用偏好构造其效用函数的问题，应用模糊数学的方法，将谈判人的偏好和对目标值的评价用梯形模糊数表示，由此提出一种基于模糊多准则决策方法求解谈判问题的模型。通过示例分析计算，表明该模型能帮助谈判各方达成一个满意解。     

Cooperative-Competitive Healthcare Service Negotiation

Service negotiation is a complex activity, especially in complex domains such as healthcare. The provision of healthcare services typically involves the coordination of several professionals with different skills and locations. There is usually negotiation between healthcare service providers as different services have specific constraints, variables, and features (scheduling, waiting lists, availability of resources, etc.), which may conflict with each other. While automating the negotiation processes by using software can improve the effciency and quality of healthcare services, most of the existing negotiation automations are positional bargaining in nature, and are not suitable for complex scenarios in healthcare services. This paper proposes a cooperative-competitive negotiation model that enables negotiating parties to share their knowledge and work toward optimal solutions. In this model, patients and healthcare providers work together to develop a patient-centered treatment plan. We further automate the new negotiation model with software agents.     

Development of a DRAM spots negotiation system using core hierarchy negotiation mechanism

The major factors of the DRAM negotiable transactions system in this research are the concession strategy and the negotiation mechanism of the sellers and buyers. In terms of negotiation mechanism, the core hierarchy model negotiation mechanism makes use of multistage sub-negotiates procedure to do multi-attribute negotiation for the sellers and buyers. The negotiable mechanism can further increase the successful rate of negotiation and the acceptable degree. In terms of concession strategy, research in the Liang and Doong, the concession strategy is constituted by times of negotiation, method of concession and times of persistence. There are less interactive concession for the sellers and buyers in the concession method of the negotiation in the related research. This research is to study the negotiable results that using various combinations of interactive concession strategy and the core hierarchy model negotiation mechanism. Be used as the reference of negotiation for the DRAM to trade on network.     

An agent architecture for multi-attribute negotiation using incomplete preference information

A component-based generic agent architecture for multi-attribute (integrative) negotiation is introduced and its application is described in a prototype system for negotiation about cars, developed in cooperation with, among others, Dutch Telecom KPN. The approach can be characterized as cooperative one-to-one multi-criteria negotiation in which the privacy of both parties is protected as much as desired. We model a mechanism in which agents are able to use any amount of incomplete preference information revealed by the negotiation partner in order to improve the efficiency of the reached agreements. Moreover, we show that the outcome of such a negotiation can be further improved by incorporating a “guessing” heuristic, by which an agent uses the history of the opponent’s bids to predict his preferences. Experimental evaluation shows that the combination of these two strategies leads to agreement points close to or on the Pareto-efficient frontier. The main original contribution of this paper is that it shows that it is possible for parties in a cooperative negotiation to reveal only a limited amount of preference information to each other, but still obtain significant joint gains in the outcome.     

基于MAS的电子商务谈判支持系统

随着Internet技术的发展,网上电子商务谈判方式正在兴起。为了提高谈判效率,并增加谈判的智能辅助机制,该文引入Agent技术,重点介绍了以多Agent系统为基础的谈判支持系统(NSS)设计框架。在此系统中,建立了一个结合多目标决策理论和基于偏好理论的决策模型。     

PLAMUN: a platform for multi-user negotiation

This paper presents a web-based negotiation support system (NSS) that allows multiple buyers and multiple sellers to negotiate on a common platform. It has been implemented on the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur intranet to help students to trade old books and bicycles online. In this paper we discuss the architecture and the key features of the system. The system guides the participants to modify their perceptions and preferences and to make offers during the negotiation process. The suggestions are generated by the negotiation system so as to find buyer-seller allocations that benefit all parties in the trade and maximize the utility of the system.     

Agent协商研究进展

自2001年Jennings研究协商以来,已经成为MAS研究的热点。介绍了协商的定义、研究内容、应用领域;分析了协商的复杂性;总结了通用的单议题协商和多议题协商协议的对策论模型;综述了Agent多议题协商的策略与学习算法;并分别介绍了两种典型的多议题协商：拍卖和并发协商,给出组合拍卖、多属性拍卖和并发协商的基本模型及其研究进展;最后探讨了协商存在问题和将来可能的发展方向,指出作为交互、竞争与合作的基础,协商需要继续深入的探讨,也必将成为多Agent系统研究的主流。     

基于辩论的多Agent商务谈判认知模型

针对在基于辩论的谈判中如何表示Agent的认知结构和决策机制的问题,提出一个应用于商务谈判的Agent的认知决策模型。该模型由卖方和买方Agent两部分构成,其中,Agent的认知结构用自我目标认知以及对对方的目标认知等集合来表示,Agent的决策用多目标优化模型来辅助进行。基于辩论的谈判实例验证了该模型的实用性。     

基于时间约束的不完全信息的战略协商模型

在实证的一对一协商中，协商Agent不仅要面临自己的最后期限的压力，同时又要预测协商对手的最后期限和其类型，协商Agent的协商战略必须满足理性与均衡的要求。提出了通过形式化的方法建立轮流出价协商模型，给出了轮流出价协商战略均衡的条件定义，求出了基于时间限制的不完全信息环境下满足均衡组合的协商战略，建立了依据均衡战略的实用化协商算法，最后分析了该算法产生的实验数据，并在相同环境下与Zeus协商模型比较显示，依从本模型的均衡战略的协商Agent能根据对对手的不确定信息的信念动态地采取行动，以获得最大的期望收益。