Evaluations of Tactics for Automated Negotiations

Abstract

Automated negotiation under the infrastructure of e-commerce is becoming an important issue. However, although the communication protocols and frameworks of automated negotiation have been extensively investigated, the corresponding tactics and strategies are still underdeveloped and need to be evaluated further. Based on the negotiation model proposed by Faratin et al., this paper examines the performance of automated negotiation tactics and intends to provide concise suggestions for the users of automated negotiation. First, theoretical analysis is used to evaluate the behavior-dependent tactics. Constructive conclusions are obtained when single-issue negotiations are considered. Next, a new framework for applying single-issue tactics to multi-issue negotiation is proposed. Based on this framework, theoretical analysis is then extended to multi-issue cases. Finally, different from the previous work, exhaustive simulations based on two-issue negotiations are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of behavior-dependent and time-dependent tactics. The experimental results provide several important insights into negotiation tactics.

ADSLANF: A negotiation framework for cloud management systems using a bulk negotiation behavioral learning approach

“…(1), ρ S1 P1 and ρ S2 CP 1 are generated based on negotiation strategies followed by the concerned negotiation parties. A strategy is composed of TD, behavior-dependent, offer-dependent, and proposal-dependent negotiation tactics [19]. In order to achieve negotiation coordination between rational agents, a varying degree of concessions with respect to multiple issues are generated by the strategies.…”

Designing a multi-issues negotiation support system based on prospect theory

“…This study simplifies the concession tactics raised by Faratin et al [6] into three types: time-dependent, resource-dependent, and imitative. The negotiation mechanism that defines a number of concession tactics can be found in a previous study [6] and the performances of time-dependent and resource-dependent tactics have been examined [16]. In this study, the Boulware tactics, Relative Tit-For-Tat, and Resource-estimation tactics are implemented and integrated into a unified agent model in the proposed system.…”

An Analytical Approach to Offer Generation in Concession-Based Negotiation Processes

“…However, this is rarely the case and furthermore an increasing number of issues renders the approach computationally complex. Recent approaches in automated negotiations extend the concept of single issue concession tactics, which can be based on time or reciprocity, to generate multiple issue offers (Faratin et al 1998;Lee and Chang 2008). The formulation of such decision making functions for autonomous software agents is one of the major tasks of automated negotiation research (Jennings et al 2001).…”

“…This, however, can cause inefficiencies as the potential for logrolling and integrative outcomes is ignored. Other strategies use single issue tactics to determine the utility value of the next offer to propose-and therefore also the extent of the next concession (Lee and Chang 2008). However, these approaches leave the actual offer in the issue space to be determined.…”