Mining Trading Partners' Preferences for Efficient Multi-Issue Bargaining in E-Business

• Published in: Journal of management information systems Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 79 - 104
• Main Authors: Lau, Raymond Y.K., Wong, On, Li, Yuefeng, Ma, Louis C.K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01-07-2008; M. E. Sharpe; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Agency theory; Bargaining; Bayesian analysis; Bayesian learning; e-business; Electronic commerce; Information storage and retrieval systems; Information technology; Knowledge discovery; Knowledge management; Machine learning; multiissue bargaining; Negotiation; Negotiations; Preferences; Settlement counteroffers; Special Section: Online Coordination and Interaction; Studies; Text analytics; Time pressure; Utility functions
• ISSN: 0742-1222; 1557-928X
• DOI: 10.2753/MIS0742-1222250104

Classical negotiation models are weak in supporting real-world business negotiations because these models often assume that the preference information of each negotiator is made public. Although parametric learning methods have been proposed for acquiring the preference information of negotiation opponents, these methods suffer from the strong assumptions about the specific utility function and negotiation mechanism employed by the opponents. Consequently, it is difficult to apply these learning methods to the heterogeneous negotiation agents participating in e-marketplaces. This paper illustrates the design, development, and evaluation of a nonparametric negotiation knowledge discovery method which is underpinned by the well-known Bayesian learning paradigm. According to our empirical testing, the novel knowledge discovery method can speed up the negotiation processes while maintaining negotiation effectiveness. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first nonparametric negotiation knowledge discovery method developed and evaluated in the context of multi-issue bargaining over e-marketplaces.