Abstract
Automated negotiation mechanisms are desirable to enhance the throughput of e-marketplaces. However, existing negotiation mechanisms are weak in supporting real-world negotiations because they assume the availability of complete information about static negotiation spaces where both negotiator’s preferences and market conditions remain unchanged. This article illustrates the design and development of evolutionary negotiation agents which are able to learn from and adapt to dynamic negotiation environment. Our experimental results show that the proposed evolutionary negotiation agents outperform a Pareto optimal negotiation mechanism under dynamic negotiation conditions such as the presence of time pressure. These agents can also achieve near optimal negotiation outcomes under dynamic negotiation environment. Our research work opens the door to the development of intelligent negotiation agents to streamline real-world e-marketplaces.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barbuceanu, M., Lo, W.K.: Multi-attribute utility theoretic negotiation for electronic commerce. In: Dignum, F.P.M., Cortés, U. (eds.) AMEC 2000. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2003, pp. 15–30. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Bazerman, M., Magliozzi, T., Neale, M.: Integrative bargaining in a competitive market. Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes 35, 294–313 (1985)
Bui, H.H., Venkatesh, S., Kieronska, D.: Learning other agents’ preferences in multiagent negotiation using the bayesian classifier. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems 8(4), 275–293 (1999)
Chavez, A., Maes, P.: Kasbah: An agent marketplace for buying and selling goods. In: First International Conference on the Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology, pp. 75–90 (1996)
Cheng, C.B., Chan, C.C., Lin, K.C.: Intelligent agents for e-marketplace: Negotiation with issue trade-offs by fuzzy inference systems. Decision Support Systems 42(2), 626–638 (2006) (in press)
Choi, S.P.M., Liu, J., Chan, S.-P.: A genetic agent-based negotiation system. Computer Networks 37(2), 195–204 (2001)
Cross, J.: The Economics of Bargaining. Basic, New York (1969)
Duda, R., Hart, P.: Pattern Classification and Scene Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, New York (1973)
Dumas, M., Governatori, G., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Oaks, P.: A formal approach to negotiating agents development. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 1(2), 29–50 (2002)
Ehtamo, H., Ketteunen, E., Hämäläinen, R.: Searching for joint gains in multi-party negotiations. European Journal of Operational Research 130, 54–69 (2001)
Faratin, P., Sierra, C., Jennings, N.R.: Negotiation decision functions for autonomous agents. Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems 24(3-4), 159–182 (1998)
Faratin, P., Sierra, C., Jennings, N.R.: Using similarity criteria to make issue trade-offs in automated negotiations. Artificial Intelligence 142(2), 205–237 (2002)
Fatima, S., Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.R.: Comparing Equilibria for Game-Theoretic and Evolutionary Bargaining Models. In: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce V, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 70–77 (2003)
Fatima, S., Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.R.: An agenda based framework for multi-issues negotiation. Artificial Intelligence 152(1), 1–45 (2004)
Gerding, E., van Bragt, D., La Poutré, H.: Multi-issue negotiation processes by evolutionary simulation, validation and social extensions. Computational Economics 22, 39–63 (2003)
Goldberg, D.: Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimisation and Machine Learning. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1989)
Guttman, R., Moukas, A., Maes, P.: Agent-mediated electronic commerce: A survey. Knowledge Engineering Review 13(2), 147–159 (1998)
Harinck, F., De Dreu, C.: Negotiating interests or values and reaching integrative agreements: the importance of time pressure and temporary impasses. European Journal of Social Psychology 34(5), 595–611 (2004)
He, M., Jennings, N.R., Leung, H.: On agent-mediated electronic commerce. IEEE Trans. on Knowledge and Data Engineering 15(4), 985–1003 (2003)
Heiskanen, P.: Decentralized method for computing pareto solutions in multiparty negotiations. European Journal of Operational Research 117, 578–590 (1999)
Jaiswal, A., Kim, Y., Gini, M.: Design and implementation of a secure multi-agent marketplace. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 3(4), 355–368 (2004)
Jennings, N., Sycara, K., Wooldridge, M.: A roadmap of agent research and development. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 1(1), 7–38 (1998)
Jennings, N.R., Faratin, P., Lomuscio, A.R., Parsons, S., Sierra, C., Wooldridge, M.: Automated negotiation: prospects, methods and challenges. Journal of Group Decision and Negotiation 10(2), 199–215 (2001)
Kim, J., Segev, A.: A web services-enabled marketplace architecture for negotiation process management. Decision Support Systems 40(1), 71–87 (2005)
Kraus, S.: Negotiation and cooperation in multi-agent environments. Artificial Intelligence 94(1–2), 79–97 (1997)
Kraus, S., Sycara, K., Evenchik, A.: Reaching agreements through argumentation: A logical model and implementation. Artificial Intelligence 104(1–2), 1–69 (1998)
Krause, P., Ambler, S., Elvang-Goransson, M., Fox, J.: A logic of argumentation for reasoning under uncertainty. Computational Intelligence 11, 113–131 (1995)
Krovi, R., Graesser, A., Pracht, W.: Agent behaviors in virtual negotiation environments. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 29(1), 15–25 (1999)
Lau, R.Y.K.: The State of the Art in Adaptive Information Agents. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 11(1), 19–61 (2002)
Lau, R.Y.K.: Towards Genetically Optimised Multi-Agent Multi-Issue Negotiations. In: Sprague, R. (ed.) Proceedings of the the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2005), Big Island, Hawaii, January 3–6. IEEE Press, Los Alamitos (2005)
Lau, R.Y.K., Chan, S.Y.: Towards Belief Revision Logic-Based Adaptive and Persuasive Negotiation Agents. In: Zhang, C., W. Guesgen, H., Yeap, W.-K. (eds.) PRICAI 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3157, pp. 605–614. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Lau, R.Y.K., Tang, M., Wong, O.: Towards Genetically Optimised Responsive Negotiation Agents. In: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE/WIC International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology, Beijing, China, September 20–24, pp. 295–301. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2004)
Lau, R.Y.K., Tang, M., Wong, O., Milliner, S., Chen, Y.: An Evolutionary Learning Approach for Adaptive Negotiation Agents. International Journal of Intelligent Systems 21(1), 41–72 (2006)
Lomuscio, A.R., Jennings, N.R.: A classification scheme for negotiation in electronic commerce. Journal of Group Decision and Negotiation 12(1), 31–56 (2003)
Matos, N., Sierra, C., Jennings, N.R.: Determining successful negotiation strategies: an evolutionary approach. In: Demazeau, Y. (ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS 1998), Paris, France, pp. 182–189. IEEE Press, Los Alamitos (1998)
Matwin, S., Szapiro, T., Haigh, K.: Genetic algorithm approach to a negotiation support system. IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics 21(1), 102–114 (1991)
Miechmann, T.: Learning and behavioral stability: An economic interpretation of genetic algorithms. Journal of Evolutionary Economics 9(2), 225–242 (1999)
Montano, B.R., Malaga, R.A.: A Weighted Sum Genetic Algorithm to Support Multiple-Party Multi-Objective Negotiations. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 6(4), 366–377 (2002)
Narayanan, V., Jennings, N.: An adaptive bilateral negotiation model for E-commerce settings. In: Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology (CEC 2005), pp. 34–41 (2005)
Nash, J.F.: The bargaining problem. Econometrica 18, 155–162 (1950)
Oliver, J.R.: A machine learning approach to automated negotiation and prospects for electronic commerce. Journal of Management Information Systems 13(3), 82–112 (1996)
Oliver, J.R.: Artificial agents learn policies for multi-issue negotiation. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 1(4), 49–88 (1997)
Oliver, J.R.: On learning negotiation strategies by artificial adaptive agents in environments of incomplete information. In: Kimbrough, S.O., Wu, D.J. (eds.) Formal Modelling in Electronic Commerce, pp. 445–462. Springer, Berlin (2005)
Pruitt, D.: Negotiation Behaviour. Academic Press, London (1981)
Raiffa, H.: The Art and Science of Negotiation. Harvard University Press (1982)
Rosenschein, J., Zlotkin, G.: Rules of Encounter: Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation among Computers. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)
Rosenschein, J., Zlotkin, G.: Task oriented domains. In: Rules of Encounter: Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation among Computers, pp. 29–52. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)
Roth, A., Murnighan, J., Schoumaker, F.: The deadline effect in bargaining: Some experimental evidence. American Economic Review 78(4), 806–823 (1988)
Rubinstein, A.: Perfect equilibrium in a bargaining model. Econometrica 50(1), 97–109 (1982)
Sierra, C., Faratin, P., Jennings, N.R.: Deliberative automated negotiators using fuzzy similarities. In: Proceedings of the EUSFLAT-ESTYLF Joint Conference on Fuzzy Logic, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, pp. 155–158 (1999)
Sim, K.M., Choi, C.Y.: Agents that react to changing market situations. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics 33(2), 188–201 (2003)
Singh, R., Salam, A.F., Iyer, L.: Agents in e-supply chains. Communications of the ACM 48(6), 108–115 (2005)
Sycara, K.: Multi-agent compromise via negotiation. In: Gasser, L., Huhns, M. (eds.) Distributed Artificial Intelligence II, pp. 119–139. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (1989)
van der Putten, S., Robu, V., Poutré, H.L., Jorritsma, A., Gal, M.: Automating supply chain negotiations using autonomous agents: a case study in transportation logistics. In: Nakashima, H., Wellman, M.P., Weiss, G., Stone, P. (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2006), Hakodate, Japan, May 8–12, pp. 1506–1513. ACM, New York (2006)
von Neumann, J., Morgenstern, O.: The Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1994)
Wilkenfeld, J., Kraus, S., Holley, K., Harr, M.: Genie: A decision support system for crisis negotiations. Decision Support Systems 14(4), 369–391 (1995)
Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.: Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice. Knowledge Engineering Review 10(2), 115–152 (1995)
Ye, Y., Liu, J., Moukas, A.: Agents in electronic commerce. Electronic Commerce Research 1(1-2), 9–14 (2001)
Zeng, D., Sycara, K.: Bayesian learning in negotiation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 48(1), 125–141 (1998)
Zeuthen, F.: Problem of Monopoly and Economic Warfare. Routledge and Kegan-Pail, London (1967)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lau, R.Y.K. (2009). An Evolutionary Approach for Intelligent Negotiation Agents in e-Marketplaces. In: Nguyen, N.T., Jain, L.C. (eds) Intelligent Agents in the Evolution of Web and Applications. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 167. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88071-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88071-4_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-88070-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-88071-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)