A market-driven model for designing negotiation agents

Although there are many extant agent-based systems for negotiation in e-commerce. the negotiation strategies of agents in these systems are mostly static. This article presents a model for designing negotiation agents that make adjustable rates of concession by reacting to changing market situations, To determine the amount of concession for each trading cycle, these market-driven agents are guided by four mathematical functions of eagerness trading time, trading opportunity and competition. Trading opportunity is determined by considering: (i) number of trading partners. (ii) spreads-differences in utilities between an agent and its trading partners, and (iii) probability of completing a deal. Competition is determined by the probability that an agent is not considered the most preferred trader by other negotiating parties, Motivated by factors such as corporate policies and resource needs, eagerness represents an agent's desire to complete a deal. Agents with different time sensitivity to deadlines employ different trading strategies by making different rates of concession at different stages of negotiation. In this article, three classes of strategies with respect to remaining trading time are discussed. Theoretical analyses show that market-driven agents are designed to make prudent and appropriate amounts of concession for a given market situation.