Abstract
In order to successfully reach an agreement in a negotiation, both parties rely on each other to make concessions. The willingness to concede also depends in large part on the opponent. A concession by the opponent may be reciprocated, but the negotiation process may also be frustrated if the opponent does not concede at all.
This process of concession making is a central theme in many of the classic and current automated negotiation strategies. In this paper, we present a quantitative classification method of negotiation strategies that measures the willingness of an agent to concede against different types of opponents. The method is then applied to classify some well-known negotiating strategies, including the agents of ANAC 2010. It is shown that the technique makes it easy to identify the main characteristics of negotiation agents, and can be used to group negotiation strategies into categories with common negotiation characteristics. We also observe, among other things, that different kinds of opponents call for a different approach in making concessions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Axelrod, R.: The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books (1984)
Baarslag, T., Hindriks, K., Jonker, C.M., Kraus, S., Lin, R.: The first automated negotiating agents competition (ANAC 2010). In: Ito, T., Zhang, M., Robu, V., Fatima, S., Matsuo, T., Yamaki, H. (eds.) Innovations in Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations. SCI, vol. 319. Springer, Heidelberg (2010) (to appear)
Deutsch, M., Coleman, P.T., Marcus, E.C.: The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, 1st edn. Jossey-Bass (April 2000)
Faratin, P., Sierra, C., Jennings, N., Buckle, P.: Designing flexible automated negotiators: Concessions, trade-offs and issue changes. Tech. rep. (1999)
Faratin, P., Sierra, C., Jennings, N.R.: Negotiation decision functions for autonomous agents. Int. Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems 24(3-4), 159–182 (1998)
Fatima, S.S., Wooldridge, M.J., Jennings, N.R.: Optimal Negotiation Strategies for Agents with Incomplete Information. In: Meyer, J.-J.C., Tambe, M. (eds.) ATAL 2001. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2333, pp. 377–392. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Gode, D.K., Sunder, S.: Allocative efficiency in markets with zero intelligence (zi) traders: Market as a partial substitute for individual rationality. Journal of Political Economy 101(1), 119–137 (1993)
Hindriks, K.V., Tykhonov, D.: Towards a Quality Assessment Method for Learning Preference Profiles in Negotiation. In: Ketter, W., La Poutré, H., Sadeh, N., Shehory, O., Walsh, W. (eds.) AMEC 2008. LNBIP, vol. 44, pp. 46–59. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Kersten, G., Noronha, S.: Rational agents, contract curves, and inefficient compromises report. Working papers, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (1997), http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:iasawp:ir97050
Kersten, G.E., Zhang, G.: Mining inspire data for the determinants of successful internet negotiations. InterNeg Research Papers INR 04/01 Central European Journal of Operational Research (2003)
Lai, H., Doong, H.S., Kao, C.C., Kersten, G.: Negotiators’ communication, perception of their counterparts, and performance in dyadic e-negotiations. Group Decision and Negotiation 15, 429–447 (2006)
Lewicki, R.J., Saunders, D.M., Minton, J.W.: Essentials of Negotiation. McGraw-Hill, Boston (2003)
Lin, R., Kraus, S., Tykhonov, D., Hindriks, K., Jonker, C.M.: Supporting the design of general automated negotiators. In: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations, ACAN 2009 (2009)
Lin, R., Kraus, S., Wilkenfeld, J., Barry, J.: Negotiating with bounded rational agents in environments with incomplete information using an automated agent. Artificial Intelligence 172(6-7), 823–851 (2008)
Lomuscio, A., Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.: A Classification Scheme for Negotiation in Electronic Commerce. In: Dignum, F., Sierra, C. (eds.) AgentLink 2000. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1991, pp. 19–33. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Pruitt, D.G.: Negotiation Behavior. Academic Press (1981)
Rubinstein, A.: Perfect equilibrium in a bargaining model. Econometrica 50(1), 97–109 (1982), http://www.jstor.org/stable/1912531
Sierra, C., Faratin, P., Jennings, N.: A service-oriented negotiation model between autonomous agents. In: Boman, M., Van de Velde, W. (eds.) MAAMAW 1997. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1237, pp. 17–35. Springer, Heidelberg (1997)
Thomas, K.W.: Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update. Journal of Organizational Behavior 13(3), 265–274 (1992)
Wellman, M.P., Wurman, P.R., O’Malley, K., Bangera, R., de Lin, S., Reeves, D., Walsh, W.E.: Designing the market game for a trading agent competition. IEEE Internet Computing 5(2), 43–51 (2001)
Williams, C.R., Robu, V., Gerding, E.H., Jennings, N.R.: Using gaussian processes to optimise concession in complex negotiations against unknown opponents. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. AAAI Press (January 2011)
Zachariassen, F.: Negotiation strategies in supply chain management. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management 38, 764–781 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Baarslag, T., Hindriks, K., Jonker, C. (2011). Towards a Quantitative Concession-Based Classification Method of Negotiation Strategies. In: Kinny, D., Hsu, J.Yj., Governatori, G., Ghose, A.K. (eds) Agents in Principle, Agents in Practice. PRIMA 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7047. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25044-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25044-6_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25043-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25044-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)