Mediation with Incomplete Information: Approaches to Suggest Potential Agreements

Abstract

In bilateral Negotiation Analysis, the literature often considers the case of complete information. In this context, since the negotiators know the value functions of both parties, it is not difficult to calculate the Pareto efficient solutions for the negotiation. Therefore, rational negotiators can reach agreement on this frontier. However, these approaches are not applied in practice when complete information is not available. The research question of our work is "It is possible to help negotiators achieve an efficient solution in the absence of complete information regarding the different parameters of the model?". We propose to derive incomplete information about the preferences of negotiators from the statements they make and the offers they exchange during the negotiation process. We present and discuss three approaches that use this information in order to help a mediator proposing a better solution than the compromise the negotiators have reached or are close to reach.

Group decision making with incomplete information: a dominance and quasi‐optimality volume‐based approach using Monte‐Carlo simulation

“…One can reduce the set of feasible parameters to one “representative” parameter vector (Kadzinski et al., ) and thus obtain a unique group utility function. Other methods consider the entire set of feasible parameters, and, for example, use volumes to make probabilistic statements about preferences (Sarabando et al., ). Sarabando et al.…”

“…Sarabando et al. () propose to derive incomplete information about the preferences of negotiators from the statements they make and the offers they exchange during the negotiation process. They present and discuss three approaches that use this information in order to help a mediator proposing a better solution than the compromise the negotiators have reached or are close to reach.…”

“…The approach followed in this paper combines elements of the volume computation approaches and the dominance‐based approaches: It consists in exploring the parameter space defined by the constraints presented in the previous subsections, so that we can measure the relative volume of the feasible set of parameter values where certain properties hold. An analogous approach has been suggested for the context of bilateral negotiations with incomplete information (Sarabando et al., ).…”

Levels of incomplete information in group decision models – A comprehensive simulation study

“…Decision methods using incomplete information have also been proposed in the context of group decision making [22][23][24][25][26][27]. At the group level, incomplete information refers to the weights of group members in the aggregation procedure.…”

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

“…The models we develop in this paper could also be used to unilaterally support one party. In that case, the supported party would need to provide some estimate about the other party's preferences, similarly to the system developed by Lim (1999), possibly in the form of incomplete information (Sarabando et al 2012).…”