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A fuzzy system approach to multilateral automated negotiation in B2C e-commerce

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Abstract

Software agents in e-commerce systems are assigned to the participants. Buyer and supplier agents into multi-agent system architecture of the e-commerce system negotiate with others through an automated negotiation mechanism. In this study, an automated negotiation to interact between buyer and supplier and attain agreement for both is presented. A fuzzy inference system was used to automate negotiation process and consider two effective factors in the negotiation process: requirements and preferences. Requirements are qualitative or quantitative values which the participants assign to the issues of negotiation. Preferences of the participants are priorities assigned by them to issues. These values express an importance measure of issues from a participant perspective. Proposed model applies different fuzzy inference system (FIS) schemes for qualitative and quantitative negotiation issues to enhance the satisfaction level of the buyer and supplier. The FISs infer based on the preferences and requirements of both parties. Additionally, analytic hierarchy process was used to get preferences of the issues. In this proposal, mediator uses issue trade-offs strategy in which multiple issues are traded-offs against one another. The model applies a fuzzy system approach to make trade-offs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their thanks to the anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions which improved the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Young Researchers and Elites Club, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Bahador Shojaiemehr

  2. Department of Computer Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

    Marjan Kuchaki Rafsanjani

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  1. Bahador Shojaiemehr
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  2. Marjan Kuchaki Rafsanjani
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Correspondence to Marjan Kuchaki Rafsanjani.

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Shojaiemehr, B., Rafsanjani, M.K. A fuzzy system approach to multilateral automated negotiation in B2C e-commerce. Neural Comput & Applic 25, 367–377 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-013-1491-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-013-1491-y

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