Abstract
Negotiation is one of the basic forms of interpersonal communication, especially important in contemporary business. Although we assume that only humans can engage in negotiations, there are many negotiation support systems and software agents designed to assist human negotiators before and during the process. They were developed to overcome human cognitive biases and limited ability to handle information. They can support human negotiators, but also be used in place of humans to carry out negotiations on their own. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of different types of electronic negotiation, most recent advances in that area, some challenges in electronic negotiation, and interaction between humans and agents in negotiation.
TopThe Human Side Of Negotiation
People usually see negotiations as either confrontational or cooperative. In confrontational negotiations, the parties look only for their own gain, which leads to a win-lose outcome. It is essentially a zero-sum game in which only one side wins, and the other party normally does not want to deal with that person again. In cooperative negotiations, also known as win-win approach, the participants look for mutual gain, creating value for all the parties, and a long-term relationship (Cohen, 2002).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Opponent Modeling: Learning about the strategy of the opposing party in electronic negotiation.
Negotiation: A process in which two or more parties try to deal with their opposing interests and/or settle their disagreements.
Human-Agent Negotiation: A form of negotiation which takes place between human negotiators and autonomous negotiating agents.
Automated Negotiation Agent: Software capable of negotiating with humans or other automated agents.
Negotiation Strategy: The overall pre-determined plan to achieve negotiation goals.
Negotiation Support Systems: Software applications designed to support negotiating parties through the process of negotiation.