Title: Agent-supported negotiations in the e-marketplace

Authors: Eva Chen, Rustam Vahidov, Gregory E. Kersten

Addresses: John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. ' John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. ' John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, and School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract: A key requirement for customer-oriented e-marketplaces is the personalisation and customisation of products and services, as well as personalised fulfilment. Negotiations are at the core of these processes. In this paper an e-marketplace, eAgora, is discussed. It allows buyers and sellers to engage in multi-issue negotiations. eAgora implements several protocols based on a negotiation phase model constructed for this system. Its services include a software agent that generates and critiques offers. Based on a small-scale usability testing with participants, who conducted negotiations with and without the agent, the agent|s services were found useful. The users also requested additional agent|s services including enhanced offer critique and partial negotiation automation.

Keywords: e-commerce; e-marketplace; critiquing agent; negotiation protocols; e-negotiation systems; electronic commerce; electronic marketplace; electronic negotiation; personalisation; customisation; software agent; agent-based systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2005.006387

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2005 Vol.3 No.1, pp.28 - 49

Published online: 02 Mar 2005 *

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