An Agent-Based Multi-Issue Negotiation System in E-Commerce

• Published in: Journal of electronic commerce in organizations 2003-01, Vol.1 (1), p.1-16
• Main Authors: Shih, Timothy K, Chiu, Chuan-Feng, Hsu, Hui-Huang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic staff; Adjustment; Agents; Attributes; Computation; Computer aided decision processes; Computers; Electronic commerce; Internet; Negotiation; Negotiations; Software agents; Technology; Utility theory; Weighting
• ISSN: 1539-2937; 1539-2929
• DOI: 10.4018/jeco.2003010101

Due to the growth of the Internet and computing power of PCs, activities in the real world have been changed with the help of computers. Internet commerce became an interesting research area along with the change of this new computing environment. In a traditional commerce environment, negotiation was an interesting topic in the past. In the new Internet commerce environment, computer-supported negotiation becomes interesting in academics. In this paper, we propose a computer-supported negotiation agent system on the Internet that helps buyers make decisions. We believe that a negotiation mechanism is based on a multi-attribute utility theory and the negotiation strategy focuses on the weighting adjustment on multiple issues. Therefore, our negotiation mechanism is based on a multi-attribute utility theory and the negotiation strategy focuses on the weighting adjustment on multiple issues. On the other hand, software agents are a useful technology in this new computing environment and the technology has several advantages in solving different computing problems. In a negotiation process, the user cannot handle the complex process individually. Also, the process is a time consuming task. Thus, we use the advantage of agent technology as the major system developed approach. With the help of the technology, the system can be more efficient in many Internet commerce applications.