The Criteria for Effective Electronic Negotiation Systems

Abstract

Negotiations continue to play an important part of our lives and in particular influences can be seen in the growth in electronic commerce through various auction and online stores. Estimates of up to 7bn were predicted for Christmas 2006, a rise of about 35%-40% on the previous year [1]. This growth can only enhance the demand for electronic negotiation systems or at least highlight the lack of commercial e-negotiation systems. Such systems, though available in mostly academic circles will need to be enhanced before they can replace traditional face-to-face negotiations. As e-commerce continues to grow, we anticipate a faster uptake of negotiation systems if their design can mimic traditional systems. Our work proposes to draw the key attributes that need to be present for a successful negotiation system by examining the current state of the art in electronic negotiation frameworks. The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 elaborates on the need for electronic negotiation systems, with Section 3 examining the current literature in negotiation frameworks, whilst Section 4 presents the attributes which we found required in negotiation frameworks. Conclusions are drawn in Section 5.