Negotiation Support System Research Articles

LEARNING BY DOING: THE BENEFITS OF ADOPTING AN ONLINE NEGOTIATION SUPPORT SYSTEM INTO AN ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES COURSE

The paper reports on the benefits of imbedding an online negotiation support system (NSS) into the experiential learning framework of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. Proponents of experiential learning projects in the second/foreign language classroom emphasize the benefits of learning by doing. To test the claim, the performances of students in two advanced level EAP courses at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, were compared. One course was developed with the principles of content-based (CBI) instruction, with input primarily from academic texts; the other course also used content-based instruction but was enhanced by an experiential learning project for which the online negotiation system was adopted. Participation in the project provided a novel learning experience for second language learners at Carleton, with counterparts from universities in three additional countries (Austria, Poland, and Taiwan) also participating. A statistical analysis of student grades showed that the students in the EAP course enhanced by the experiential learning project obtained significantly higher grades on the final assignment in comparison to the students in the “traditional” CBI course.The paper also demonstrates that this teaching and training system enhances learning by promoting learner autonomy, critical thinking, and academic language development. Relevant aspects of the experiential learning project led to enhanced learning outcomes, supporting the claim that learning by doing benefits language acquisition. The paper proposes a new experiential learning model, applicable to ESP/EAP instruction, i.e., the sustained-content experiential learning model which can be applied to any project that emphasizes learning through direct experience. The model depicts the importance of sequencing academic content tasks that build on each other allowing learners to accumulate knowledge and language and prepare them to engage in a meaningful, authentic communication. It also illustrates the importance of using reflection as an effective learning tool that helps develop critical thinking and analysis, skills necessary for academic success.

A negotiation support system for defining utility functions for multi-stakeholder self-adaptive systems

A negotiation support system for defining utility functions for multi-stakeholder self-adaptive systems

Conflict resolution in the era of cognitive multicriteria decision‐making: an AHP‐retributive approach

AbstractThis paper puts forth the foundation for a different type of negotiation that reflects in a more realistic way the behavior of human beings when making complex decisions, aligned with the cognitive process involved. The positive and the negative aspects of decisions reflect two components in the human brain: the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala. The first component deals with behavior related to rewards or potential gains, and the other with behavior related to risk aversion or potential losses. Negotiations require communication, learning, accommodation of positions, and development of alternatives and modification of constraints. Negotiation support systems help and advice negotiators; structure and analyze the problem; elicit preferences to construct a preference function; visualize different aspects of the problem and the process; and facilitate communication and learning. The methodology used is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process previously employed in a retributive conflict in which each party calculates the incremental benefits it gets and the costs to its opponent. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is used to show the viability of the approach and the type of inputs we need to study conflicts with this approach. The negotiation platform that we describe here help the actors to start and engage a negotiation from noncooperative parties. It can also be used in human– negotiations to expedite reaching an agreement if one exists. However, we are not seeking automated negotiations. Advantages and risks of Artificial Intelligence contribution in negotiation support systems for cognitive and retributive conflict resolution based on AHP (CRCR‐AHP) are also discussed.

Information support of the negotiation process at the stage of initiation of the cooperative production project in aircraft

The peculiarities of the first stage (initiation) of negotiations on the organization of cooperative production of aircraft are considered. It is shown that this stage is characterized by an unacceptably high level of risk, due, on the one hand, the likelihood of significant additional financial costs during the project, and on the other - the loss of potential subcontractors, if no consensus is reached between negotiators. A critical review of existing computerized negotiation support systems was conducted. It is concluded that there is a problem that is insufficient efficiency of the negotiation process at the stage of initiating projects of cooperative production of aircraft due to, including, the lack of specialized computer information support, which in making appropriate decisions would allow to take into account the specifics stage of project initiation, and the subject domain "Cooperative production in aircraft". Based on the specifics of this problem, the purpose of the article is formulated, namely the development of effective means of information support for negotiations on cooperative production at the initial stage (initiation), which will save money, firstly, by reducing the negotiation time, and secondly - reducing irrational decisions that lead to additional costs during project implementation. Based on the specifics of the subject domain, the conclusion is made about the need to develop problem-oriented methodological tools, and on their basis - a specialized software system for decision support (DSS) negotiators in initiating projects of cooperative production in aircraft. As a formal basis for the construction of such systems, it is proposed to use an agent approach with elements of situational management theory. The results of the study are illustrated using conditional scenarios.

Fuzzy Representation of Principal's Preferences in Inspire Negotiation Support System.

We consider the negotiation problem, in which an agent negotiates on behalf of a principal. Our considerations are focused on the Inspire negotiation support system in which the principal’s preferences are visualised by circles. In this way, the principal describes the importance of each negotiation issue and the relative utility of each considered option. The paper proposes how this preference information may be implemented by the agent for determining a scoring function used to support decisions throughout the negotiation process. The starting point of our considerations is a discussion regarding the visualisation of the principal’s preferences. We assume here that the importance of each issue and the utility of each option increases with the size of the circle representing them. The imprecise meaning of the notion of “circle size” implies that in a considered case, the utility of an option should be evaluated by a fuzzy number. The proposed utility fuzzification is justified by a simple analysis of results obtained from the empirical prenegotiation experiment. A novel method is proposed to determine trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, which evaluates an option’s utility using a series of answers given by the participants of the experiment. The utilities obtained this way are applied to determine the fuzzy scoring function for an agent. By determining such a common generalised fuzzy scoring system, our approach helps agents handle the differences in human cognitive processes associated with understanding the principal’s preferences. This work is the first approach to fuzzification of the preferences in the Inspire negotiation support system.

The impact of negotiators’ motivation on the use of decision support tools in preparation for negotiations

AbstractThorough preparation for a negotiation is considered critical for the achievement of successful relational and substantive results. Careful specification of preferences and determining the negotiation offer scoring systems is one of the most important preparation activities. To facilitate this process, preference elicitation aids have been designed and implemented in decision and negotiation support systems (NSSs). This paper shows that negotiators’ motivation affects the use of simple elicitation aid and elicited preferences. We identify three types of motivations: epistemic, social, identity, and assign the factors that describe them. Then, using the dataset from electronic negotiation experiments, we apply logistic regression to identify those motivations that allow distinguishing negotiators who make errors in the determination of the scoring systems from those who do not make them. The key result allows us to identify relational‐ and learning‐oriented goals of the identity motivation as having a significant and direct impact on the negotiators’ classification. Accommodating and competing approaches of social motivation impact agents' accuracy with the differences observed for gender. Surprisingly, epistemic motivation represented by rationality and experientiality factors does not affect users’ accuracy in the prenegotiation phase. The results obtained can be used to design decision support tools adjusted to the motivational profiles of the NSS users.

Towards cognitive decision support: A model of behavioural assessment of multi-criteria methods

Abstract The Negotiation Support Systems often implement multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) techniques for building a negotiation scoring system. Those formal models should meet the needs, motivations, expectations, and cognitive abilities of users. In this paper, we try to explore the effects of decision maker’s subjective perception of ease of use, time requirements, interface, preference representation, and efficiency of a particular MCDA method on the choice regarding the future use of this method. The multinomial logistic regression model is built and analysed. The analysis is based on data from online decision making experiments, where three MCDA methods were implemented, i.e. AHP, SMART, and TOPSIS. The study provides several interesting findings, concerning the behavioural aspects of multiple criteria decision aiding in software support systems. Most of the users recommended TOPSIS as the best one for supporting decisions in the future. This is a fast technique, for which we used an attractive graphical interface, suggesting that these factors play a crucial role in the users’ choices. However, the causative regression model showed that the user’s positive experience in using a particular method, i.e. its effectiveness in solving an exemplary numerical case, has the highest impact on the method’s choice for future use. The second most important factor is the adequacy in representing the user’s preferences by this method. We show, however, that the strengths of effects and their significance may vary across the methods. Understanding the decision maker’s evaluations of the MCDA techniques may help build a cognitive negotiation support system that satisfies the user’s expectations.

A fuzzy ranking of negotiation packages for the INSPIRE negotiation support system

Abstract Preferential information may be visualized in many different ways, and this constitutes an important issue in the principal-agent decision-making context, e.g., in representative negotiations. In the INSPIRE negotiation support system, the principal’s preferences are visualized by circles with different radii. Agents evaluate the principal’s preferences in such a manner that they digitize these preferences using numbers directly proportional to the size of the circles, drawn by the principal. The manner, in which an agent understands the concept of the circle size is unknown. The main goal of this paper is to propose such an image of principal’s preferences, which is independent of an individual agent’s evaluation. Individual negotiators may differ in their understanding of this concept. This means that the notion of “circle size” is a linguistic variable that may be described by a fuzzy set. The empirical studies referred to show that the size of the circle is a value between the radius and the area of this circle. In this paper, the principal’s preferences are defined as a fuzzy preorder between fuzzy “circle sizes”. We distinguish here two kinds of the INSPIRE method. All considerations are illustrated by means of a short case study based on INSPIRE data.

International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report

The International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report presents the findings of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy’s inaugural examination into the preferences, experiences, practices and perspectives of international dispute resolution users around the globe. The survey examined three major international dispute resolution mechanisms: international commercial arbitration, international commercial mediation, international commercial litigation, as well as hybrid dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation-arbitration and arbitration-mediation. The survey also inquired into the use of technology in international dispute resolution, such as predictive analytical tools and negotiation support systems, and asked the users to express whether they were satisfied with the use of technology. The report summarizes findings from each mechanism in turn and explores the key trends drawn from the data, identifying currents of change that impact international dispute resolution.

Implementation of a multi-agent multi-criteria negotiation protocol for self-sustainable smart grids

ABSTRACT Smart grids, IoT and big data are the drivers of change in the energy sector. The presented research builds on these concepts by establishing a cooperative model that supports autonomous, self-sustainable and self-organised energy communities. It is based on a multi-agent and multi-criteria negotiation protocol in which consumers are involved on one side, while suppliers take part on the other side. The model maximises utility functions and gains of both sides according to the changing real-time demand and supply of electricity. The negotiation support system aims to automate, aid and structure the decision-making process in the energy sector by the means of monotonic concession protocol and autonomous agents. In addition, machine learning is applied to find patterns in big data pertaining to energy consumption, while blockchain is introduced to reliably store distributed data and to manage contractual relationships between actors in the market. The system hence consists of several interconnected modules that deal with data, knowledge, intelligence, decision-making, negotiation and communication.

Heuristics and biases as sources of negotiators’ errors in the pre-negotiation phase. Review of literature and empirical research

Purpose – Heuristics and biases are simplifying strategies that people (in the analysed issue – negotiators) use in the decision-making process, even when they can take advantage of supporting tools (e.g. Negotiation Support System), which will allow them to make the optimal choice [Wachowicz, 2006]. Many empirical studies have found that decision makers use heuristics and are biased [Bateman, Zeithaml, 1989; Jackson, Dutton, 1988; Kahneman et al. 1982; Zajac, Bazerman, 1991]. Therefore, the question should be asked: are negotiators, like managers (whose decisions were examined), instead of consciously and intentionally using tools supporting decision-making during negotiations, subject to heuristics and cognitive errors? As a consequence of this general question one may ask the specific research questions: (1) What heuristics do the negotiators undergo? (2) How do heuristics influence the decision-making process? (3) How can the impact of heuristics and biases be minimized by taking advantage of negotiation support tools? Research methods – The article is a review of psychological, sociological and management sciences theories, concepts and empirical researches on heuristics and biases. The review was made according to the following categories: (a) theories that recognize the inevitability of heuristics in the decision-making process, (b) theories that attempt to identify opportunities to minimize or even reduce the impact of heuristics on decisions, and (c) those that offer alternative solutions. Results – The summary highlights those heuristics which might occur in the decision-making process in the pre-negotiation phase. Originality/value – There is no research exploring the role of specific heuristics and biases in particular stages of negotiations.

How do I tell you what I want? Agent\u2019s interpretation of principal\u2019s preferences and its impact on understanding the negotiation process and outcomes

In this paper we analyze how the way in which the principal’s preferences are visualized may affect the accuracy of representation of this principal by their agent. We study the processes of multi-issue electronic representative negotiations conducted by agents on behalf of their principals by means of the negotiation support system that implements a simple decision support tool for eliciting the preferences and building a system of cardinal ratings for feasible negotiation offers. First, we investigate the accuracy of agents’ scoring systems and compare their concordance to the preferential information provided to them by their principals by means of single verbal description and two different visualization techniques, one using bar graphs and the second—circles (pies). The concordance is measured by means of the notions of ordinal and cardinal accuracy. Then we analyze how the scoring systems with various inaccuracy indexes influence the agents’ perception of negotiation process, i.e. the interpretation of concessions made by parties and the structures of concession paths. We also study what is an impact of inaccurate scoring systems on the negotiation outcomes, i.e. the final contracts, their ratings and efficiency. The results obtained show that the bars are slightly better in more precise representation of principals preferences. They allow agent to determine a little more accurate scoring systems, which help to understand the negotiation process better by minimizing the cardinal error of evaluation of the offers in concession paths. Yet, no significant impact on the outcomes have been found. An interesting prescriptive conclusion that can be drawn is that to assure an adequate representation of principal’s preferences the agents should be offered the bar-based visualization. Also, a checkup mechanism should be introduced to the preference elicitation procedure that assure the agents to be ordinally concordant with the priorities of their principal’s preferences.

How Online Negotiation Support Systems Empower People to Engage in Mediation

How Online Negotiation Support Systems Empower People to Engage in Mediation

Insights from negotiations models on water sharing conflicts in the development of water basin plans

Collective decision making and negotiated outcomes are promoted for the water sector in order to increase ownership, commitment and participation. Negotiation processes for the development of water basin plans are, however, complex and tedious. This paper investigates the contribution of negotiation theory in facilitating basin plan development as a collective decision-making process. It outlines the typical water sharing conflict during the development of a basin plan. Later, it explains benefits from the approaches of game theory and complexity science in framing the negotiation process. Knowledge from selected, commonly used models in the study of water sharing conflicts at the basin level is summarised and compared. These models provide useful and complementary insights into the value of participation and the careful design of the negotiation process by using negotiation support systems.

Modeling sequential bargains and personalities in democratic deliberation systems

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce a negotiation support system (NSS) with a theoretical modeling that considers the aspects of human personality and negotiator’s behavior to assist the decision-making of public managers and stakeholders in democratic bargaining processes and support social-efficient outcomes.Design/methodology/approachA game theoretical modeling of public participatory negotiations characterized by complete and perfect information is explored with the inclusion of personality aspects and negotiation styles. The importance of the negotiation knowledge disclosure in the sequential bargains of participative budgeting is highlighted by an experiment with 162 state-owned companies’ managers and graduate students to present the contribution of the system’s applicability.FindingsA considerable number of Pareto-efficient deliberation agreements are obtained with few interactions when the negotiation strategies and the personality aspects of opponents and stakeholders are freely available (a symmetry in the public negotiation knowledge). In addition to the set of Pareto-efficient agreements, those with the best social outcome (i.e. that maximize the group satisfaction despite individual losses) are observed when the informational tool for personality and negotiation style inference is enabled.Originality/valueMany scholars argue for Pareto-efficient allocation instead of equal divisions of resources within participative democracies and public governance. This work provides a new system with an empirical application and theoretical modeling which may support those arguments based on the nonverbal negotiation aspects.

Personality Traits and Negotiation Style Effects on Negotiators' Perceptions in a Web-Based Negotiation

This article investigates the relationship between the prior knowledge of someone's personality traits and negotiation styles in negotiations supported by web-based negotiation support system (NSS) and the negotiator's perception of the usefulness of NSS, ease of use of communication mechanisms, and outcome satisfaction. A distributive negotiation problem between dyads was proposed for participants. The dyadic analyses were performed using the actor-partner interdependence model. As a result, the analyses found significant effects of prior knowledge of information about personality traits and negotiation styles on the negotiator's perception (actor effects) of the usefulness and ease of use of communication mechanisms, and an indirect effect on outcome satisfaction. Significant effects were also found in the relationship between the opponents' perceptions (partner effects) on ease of use of communication mechanisms and prior knowledge about personality traits and negotiation styles, as well as their effects on outcome satisfaction.

REFLECT, a Decision Support System for Harmonizing Spatial Developments with Groundwater Resources

A sustainable drinking-water supply requires durable securing of the resource. With an increase in spatial pressure, the need is increasing to prioritize measures based on the vulnerability of the resources and the impact of surrounding land use functions. This is especially challenging in the Province of Overijssel with groundwater abstraction sites in vulnerable Pleistocene sandy soils and increasing spatial pressure from both agricultural and urban areas. The governance of the groundwater abstractions in the Province of Overijssel is based on a combination of precaution and a risk-based approach. The Province has adopted REFLECT to assess the risks of spatial developments. REFLECT is a negotiation support system that gives an overview of the vulnerability of the groundwater abstractions and risks of several land use functions on the groundwater quality. REFLECT has been used to obtain the current risk scores of all drinking water abstractions in the Province and following the EU Water Framework Directive. Spatial insight of risks was used to identify and target measures reducing these risks. Moreover, REFLECT has been applied to decide on a local spatial development near an abstraction. Knowledge of the impact of land use changes on groundwater quality helped the municipality harmonizing the spatial plan with the interest of the drinking water abstraction and creating a step-forward in the protection level of the abstraction site. These applications illustrate that REFLECT is an instrument that fits well within riskbased groundwater governance which aims at safeguarding of the public water supply by harmonizing land use functions

The Utilitarian Decision Making from Islamic Perspectives: Review and Settlement Attempt

Utilitarian decision making is a far-famed mechanism that alleged to model humans decisions with the help of certain functions known as utility functions. Utilities metaphorically evaluate alternatives and approximate the satisfaction afforded by each. The utilitarian model is considered the fundamental basis of several artificial intelligence techniques such as game theory, evolutionary, heuristic, and fuzzy based approaches. It has been immensely utilized to develop various intelligent systems such as Decision Support Systems (DSS), Negotiation Support Systems (NSS), Multi Agent Systems (MAS), Shopbots, and proxy bidding systems. Well known that the utilitarian model has been developed based on the hypothesis of rationality and maximization which embodied some secular norms. Islam in the other hand has been derived from diverse set of provisions in which highly upholds tender values and pays significance to moral issues. As a consequence, this paper conducts a brief comparison and deduced two commons bases and four discrepancies. In the time Islam accepts utilitarian conception and do not mind the acquisitive behaves which considered essential in life success but satirically criticizes egoistic encouragement, non-satiation, and un-prioritized preferences. The Islamic objections on the utilitarian decision not necessarily meant the solid inapplicability but a reasonable treatment out to take place in order to be Islamic legitimated. Introducing the altruistic utility supposedly drops the egoistic objection and then a satiated lexicographic utility hoped to cancel the rest of contradictions. The adoption of those treatments ought to assist in developing intelligent systems that rely on Islamic legitimated decision method which upholds the Islamic moral injunctions. It is hoped that this research will provide the impetus for researchers to propose systems that rely on Islamic legitimate decision making.

Improving negotiations with bar charts: The advantages of priority awareness

Negotiations seldom lead to optimal results for the negotiators. The missing knowledge about the priorities of the negotiating parties is one known reason for this. This experimental study examines the effects of priority awareness on different measures of negotiation outcomes. Priority awareness is the awareness of one negotiator about the priorities of the other negotiator. One hundred thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to negotiation pairs in an experimental condition with priority awareness – created implicitly through the usage of an ordinary bar chart – or a control condition without priority awareness. They took over the roles of a car seller or buyer and negotiated within an experimental negotiation support system. They were neither explicitly instructed to use the bar chart in the negotiation or about its benefits, nor were they restricted in sharing any kind of information. The experimental condition showed not only a significantly higher negotiation performance in the form of joint outcome and pareto efficiency than the control condition, but also a higher impasse rate. Creating awareness about each other's priorities in a negotiation has a positive effect on the negotiation performance without noticeable negative effects on satisfaction with, or fairness and duration of, the negotiation.

Why can’t we settle again? Analysis of factors that influence agreement prospects in the post-settlement phase

Negotiators often settle for inefficient agreements and therefore potentially leave substantial value at the bargaining table. Scholars recommend the use of a post-settlement negotiation and its support to give negotiators the opportunity to engage in Pareto-improvement steps. While negotiators can only benefit from reaching a post-settlement agreement, prior research reports low agreement-rates in post-settlement negotiations. This study identifies factors that potentially influence the likelihood of reaching a post-settlement agreement. Based on a laboratory experiment, we show that the prospects of reaching a post-settlement agreement depend on the gender of the negotiators, their mutual understanding in terms of language proficiency, their engagement in the post-settlement phase and the ‘integrativeness’ of the initial agreement. Furthermore, our results show that during post-settlement activities, negotiators seem to focus rather on an extension than on a reallocation of welfare gains. The results of this study provide a better understanding of negotiation behavior, theoretical and practical implications and assistance to designers of negotiation support systems for improving the fit between users’ requirements and available support functionalities.