Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Self-regulation through social institutions: A framework for the design of open agent-based electronic marketplaces

  • Published:
Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that allowing self-interested agents to activate social institutions during runtime can improve the robustness (i.e., stability, reliability, or scalability) of open multiagent systems (MAS). Referring to sociological theory, we consider institutions to be rules that need to be activated and adopted by the agent population during runtime and propose a framework for self-regulation of MAS for the domain of electronic marketplaces. The framework consists of three different institutional types that are defined by the mechanisms and instances that generate, change or safeguard them. We suggest that allowing autonomous agents both the reasoning about their compliance with a rule and the selection of an adequate institutional types helps to balance the trade-off between the autonomy of self-interested agents and the maintenance of social order (cf. Castelfranchi, 2000) in MAS, and to ensure almost the same qualities as in closed environments. A preliminary report of the evaluation of the prototype by empirical simulations is given.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  • Axtell R (2001) Effects of interaction topology and activation regime in several multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Multi-Agent Based Simulations, Boston, MA USA, July 2000, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 1979), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York pp 33–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger PL, Luckmann T (1966) The social construction of reality. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Boella G, Damiano R (2002) A game-theoretic model of third-party agents for enforcing obligations in transactions. In: Sartor G, Cevenini C (eds) Proceedings of the Workshop on the Law of Electronic Agents (LEA02)

  • Bourdieu P (1990) In other words. Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology. University Press, Polity Press, Stanford, Cal., Cambridge/UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu P (1998) The forms of capital. In: Halsey AH, Lauder H, Brown P, Stuart Wells A (eds) Education. Culture, Economy, and Society. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, pp 46–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu P (2000) Pascalian meditations. Stanford University Press, Stanford/Ca

    Google Scholar 

  • Bratman M (1987) Intentions, plans and practical reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Broersen J, Dastani M, Hulstijn J, Huang Z, van der Torre L (2001) The BOID architecture: Conflicts between beliefs, obligations, intentions and desires. In: Proceedings of Autonomous Agents 2001, pp 9–16

  • Castelfranchi C (1999) Prescribed mental attitudes in goal-adoption and norm-adoption. Artificial Intelligence and Law 7(1):37–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castelfranchi C (2000) Engineering Social Order. In: Omnici A, Tolksdorf R, Zambonelli F (eds) Proceedings of the First International Workshop (ESAW’00) on Engineering Societies in the Agents World, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1972, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg: pp 1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Colombetti M, Fornara N, Verdicchio M (2002) The role of institutions in multiagent systems. Atti del VII convegno dell Associazione italiana per l intelligenza artificiale (AI*IA 02), Siena

  • Conte R, Castelfranchi C (2001) Are incentives good enough to achieve (info)social order. In: Dellarocas C, Conte R (eds) Proceedings of the Workshop on Norms and Institutions in MAS (at AGENTS2000), Barcelona, Spain, 2000

  • Dellarocas C (2001) Negotiated shared context and social control in open multiagent systems. Social Order in Multiagent Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Dignum F (2001) Agents, markets, institutions and protocols. In: Dignum F, Sierra C (eds) The European AgentLink Perspective, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 1991), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York pp 98–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Dignum F (1999) Autonomous agents with norms. Artificial Intelligence and Law 7(1):69–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dignum F (2004) Abstract norms and electronic institutions. In: Lindemann G, Moldt D, Paolucci M, Yu B (eds) Proceedings of Regulated Agent-Based Social Systems, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 2934), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 93–103

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio P (1997) Culture and cognition. Annual Review of Sociology 23:263–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esser H (2000) Soziologie. Spezielle Grundlagen, Bd. 5: Institutionen, Campus, Frankfurt a.M

    Google Scholar 

  • Esteva M, Rodriguez JA, Sierra C, Garcia P, Arcos JL (2001) Agent-mediated electronic commerce. In: Dignum F, Sierra C (eds) The European AgentLink Perspective, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 1991), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 126–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Froomkin AM (1997) The essential role of trusted third parties in electronic commerce, 75 Oregon L. Rev. 49.

  • Hahn C, Fley B, Florian M (2005) Social reputation: A mechanism for flexible self-regulation of multiagent systems. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (under review)

  • Kollingbaum MJ, Norman TJ (2003) Norm consistency in practical reasoning agents. In: Dastany M, Dix J (eds) PROMAS Workshop on Programming Multiagent Systems

  • Lopez y, Lopez F, Luck M, d’Inverno M (2002) Constraining autonomy through norms. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, pp 647–681

  • Lopez y, Lopez F, Luck M, d’Inverno M (2004) Normative agent reasoning in dynamic societies. In: Jennings NR, Sierra C, Sonenberg L, Tambe M (eds) Proceedings of the 3rd International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2004), New York, USA, 2004. ACM Press, 535–542

    Google Scholar 

  • Verhagen H (2000) Norm autonomous agents, PhD thesis, Stockholm University

  • Schillo M, Bürckert H-J, Fischer K, Klusch M (2001) Towards a definition of robustness for market-style open multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Autonomous Agents pp 75–76

  • Schillo M, Fischer K, Fley B, Florian M, Hillebrandt F, Spresny D (2004a) FORM–-A sociologically founded framework for designing self-organization of multiagent systems. In: Lindemann G, Moldt D, Paolucci M, Yu B (eds) Regulated Agent- Based Social Systems, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 2934), Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 156–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Schillo M, Fischer K, Hillebrandt F, Florian M, Dederichs A (2000) Bounded social rationality: Modelling self-organization and adaption using habitus-field theory. In: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Modelling Artificial Societies and Hybrid Organisations (MASHO), pp 112–122

  • Schillo M, Knabe T, Fischer K (2004b) Autonomy comes at a price: Performance and robustness of multiagent organizations. In: Hillebrandt F, Florian M (eds) Adaption und Lernen in und von Organisationen, Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp 127–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott RW (2001) Institutions and Organizations, 2nd edn. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Tennenholtz M (1989) On stable social laws and qualitative equilibria. Artificial Intelligence 120(1):1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Wooldridge M, Jennings N, Kinny D (1999) A methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents, AA99, ACM Press, New York, pp 69–76

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Deduction and Multiagent Systems, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 (Building 43), 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Christian Hahn

  2. Department of Technology Assessment, Hamburg University of Technology, Schwarzenbergstr. 95, 21073, Hamburg, Germany

    Bettina Fley & Michael Florian

Authors
  1. Christian Hahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bettina Fley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michael Florian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Hahn.

Additional information

Christian S. Hahn studied computer science and economics at Saarland University and received his diploma in 2004. Currently, he works in a project of the priority program ‘Socionics’ funded by the German Research Foundation at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).

Bettina Fley studied sociology, economics, law, and social and economic history at the University of Hamburg and received her diploma in 2002. She currently works in a project in the priority program ‘Socionics’, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), at the Department of Technology Assessment at the Hamburg University of Technology.

Michael Florian, received his master in sociology at the University of Münster, where he also finished his doctoral degree in 1993. Since 1995, he holds a position as a senior researcher (‘Oberingenieur’) at the Department of Technology Assessment at the Hamburg University of Technology and heads the sociological part of a project in the priority program ‘Socionics’ funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hahn, C., Fley, B. & Florian, M. Self-regulation through social institutions: A framework for the design of open agent-based electronic marketplaces. Comput Math Organiz Theor 12, 181–204 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-006-9543-9

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-006-9543-9

Keywords