Mareike Schoop

N egoisst: a negotiation support system for electronic business-to-business negotiations in e-commerce

Electronic negotiations can range from simple offer exchanges to complex communicative acts concerning packages of products and services. In contrast to dominant approaches aiming at automating the negotiation process (e.g. auction models), we introduce the notion of negotiation support for human negotiators conducting complex electronic negotiations. The negotiation support system Negoisst for business-to-business electronic commerce is presented that is based on theories of communication and information systems and that combines communication and document management. Negoisst has been successfully validated for e-negotiations in the construction industry.

The pragmatic web: a manifesto

he Web has been extremely successful in enabling information sharing among a seemingly unlimited number of people worldwide. The evergrowing amount of documents on the Web, however, results in information overload and often makes it difficult to discover the information that is relevant. The goal of the Semantic Web is to develop the basis for intelligent applications that enable more efficient information use by not just providing a set of linked documents but a collection of knowledge repositories T THE PRAGMATIC WEB: AMANIFESTO By Mareike Schoop, Aldo de Moor, and Jan L.G. Dietz

Business data management for business-to-business electronic commerce

Business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B EC) opens up new possibilities of trade. For example, new business partners from around the globe can be found, their offers can be compared, even complex negotiations can be conducted electronically, and a contract can be drawn up and fulfilled via an electronic marketplace. However, a sophisticated data management is required to provide such factilities. In this paper, the results of a multi-national project on creating a business-to-business electronic marketplace for small and medium-sized enterprises are presented. Tools for information discovery, protocol-based negotiations, and monitored contract enactment are provided and based on a business data repository. The repository integrates heterogeneous business data with business communication. Specific problems such as multi-linguality, data ownership, and traceability of contracts and related negotiations are addressed and it will be shown that the present approach provides efficient business data management for B2B EC.

DOC.COM: a framework for effective negotiation support in electronic marketplaces

Abstract Today, research in electronic negotiations focuses on negotiation protocols that support the negotiation of only a few properties. These protocols are mainly designed for automated negotiations between software agents. However, for peer-to-peer negotiations in business-to-business electronic marketplaces, such protocols are less appropriate. For example, negotiations about multiple attributes, complex attribute combinations, or frame contracts require more sophisticated support of the involved interactions and communication acts. In this paper we present a novel approach to the effective support of electronic negotiations among human negotiators. Our approach is based on the following observation. The outcome of a successful negotiation process is a business contract. The contract evolves during the negotiation, coordinated through the exchange of structured messages such as offers, requests, quotations, counteroffers, and acceptances. Therefore, each negotiation between business partners involves the exchanges of documents and messages. Furthermore, documents and messages are interrelated in that a message leads to a new contract version which itself is the medium for a new negotiation step and thus initiates a new message. In contrast to the current practice of separate management of messages and documents, we create a powerful framework for effective negotiation support in electronic marketplaces by combining communication and document management. Our approach enables monitoring of contractual obligations and traceability of both documents and messages and their interrelations.

An introduction to the language-action perspective

The conventional perspective on information systems stresses the contents of messages rather than the way they are exchanged [18]. For example, data flow diagrams are used as primary design tools. Thus, the focus is on the form and structure of messages [12]. In contrast, the Language-Action Perspective emphasises what people do while communicating, how language is used to create a common reality for all communication partners, and how their activities are coordinated through language. Here, the focus is on the pragmatic aspect of language, i.e. how language is used in particular contexts to achieve practical goals such as agreements or mutual understandings. This new approach argues that as social action is mediated through communication, the main role of an information system should be to support organisational communication [23,25]. LAP has since developed into a new paradigm for the design of computer systems.

Electronic Markets for Architects—The Architecture of Electronic Markets

In recent years there has been a move towards more cooperation in the construction industry. While the traditional practice is that the architect chooses the trades, provides the construction plan, and tells the trades what to do, a new initiative has been formed to create cooperative construction teams. Here the architect will discuss details of the construction plan with the trades concerned and all parties work cooperatively on the construction project. This means that there will be many coordination tasks and that communication plays a pivotal role. The paper presents a framework for and an implementation of an electronic marketplace to support such cooperative construction teams. It will be argued that there must be a co-design of the business system (i.e. cooperative construction teams) and the IT system (i.e. the marketplace including the search, negotiation, and fulfilment phases) for efficiently supporting small and medium-sized companies participating in cooperative teams and interacting on electronic marketplaces.

DOC.COM: combining document and communication management for negotiation support in business-to-business electronic commerce

Negotiation in traditional commerce is a complex communication process. Research in negotiation support for electronic commerce has focused on new negotiation protocols such as auctions. However, for peer-to-peer negotiations in business-to-business electronic commerce, such protocols are inappropriate. The authors present a novel approach to the effective support of electronic negotiations. Existing negotiation processes in traditional commerce are analysed to find out about negotiation patterns and to anticipate potential problems. Our aim is to exploit the potential of information technology to overcome (most of) these problems for electronic negotiations. Electronic negotiations between business partners involve the exchanges of documents and messages. Documents are contracts which evolve during the negotiations. The evolution is coordinated through the exchange of structured messages such as offers, requests, quotations, counteroffers, and acceptances. In contrast to the current practice of separate management of messages and documents, we propose a powerful framework for effective negotiation support in electronic commerce by combining communication and document management.

Support of Complex Electronic Negotiations

In recent years, business negotiations have increasingly been conducted using electronic systems. Such negotiation systems need to provide an added value other than the mere application of information technology to enable complex negotiations via electronic means (see the chapter by Kersten and Lai, this volume). Negotiation support systems aim at this goal but are usually focused either on communication support, on decision support, or on contract management. It will be argued that only an integrative approach can support complex electronic negotiations. The approach implemented in the Negoisst system will be discussed. Various experiments have been conducted with Negoisst to determine its usefulness and benefits compared to traditional negotiation settings (see the chapter by Etezadi, this volume). In particular, the sophisticated communication support has been analysed (see the chapter by Koeszegi and Vetschera, this volume) and the various types of decision support have been evaluated. It will be shown in this chapter that the system offers sophisticated support that can be applied to any industry and product.

To Monitor or Not to Monitor - The Role of Trusted Third Parties in Electronic Marketplaces

Electronic marketplaces provide a forum for bringing together sellers and buyers of certain goods or services. Today a number of commercial marketplaces are in operation. To make a marketplace attractive to potential participants it must be distinct from its competitors. One way to do so is to provide efficient functionalities complementing the existing support of search negotiation and fulfilment. In this paper the emphasis is on monitoring and tracing functionalities that a marketplace can offer through a trusted third party (TTP) acting as a mediator. The possibility to trace back the reasons for a contract enables the participants to view the history behind an agreement. Monitoring certain phases of the business transaction can prevent a number of problems that can occur in electronic commerce. In this paper we will present different models of TTPs based on the monitoring and tracing facilities and illustrate them using a real-world scenario.

Impact of and Interaction between Behavioral and Economic Decision Support in Electronic Negotiations

In this study we compare the effects of two distinct approaches in negotiation support: negotiation analysis providing economic decision support, and mediation analysis offering behavioral decision support. Those negotiators with economic or behavioral decision support at their disposal were expected to reach better results. Furthermore, behavioral decision support would not only lead to more integrative behavior, but also to more satisfaction about process variables. The hypotheses were tested in a laboratory experiment with 224 undergraduate students from four European universities. Contrary to our expectations, economic decision support did not yield better results, but instead increased informal communication, whereas behavioral decision support led to fewer, but larger concessions. Satisfaction of subjects with the negotiation process and outcomes reflects the strength of the support approaches. The implications of these results and the impact of both types of decision support are discussed.