Autonomous Agents in Bargaining Games: An Evolutionary Investigation of Fundamentals, Strategies, and Business Applications

This book investigates fundamental aspects of automated bargaining using software agents, as well as business-related applications. Software agents are programs which are capable of autonomously and intelligently realise a given task. By means of such agents, the bargaining process can be automated, allowing products and services to be flexible and tuned to the individual preferences of the people concerned. The fundamental part investigates bargaining within a stylised world, and studies the factors that influence bargaining outcomes in such a setting. This can provide insights for the production of software agents, strategies, and setting up bargaining rules for practical situations. This is achieved using computational simulations, as well as game theory. A framework is then introduced where negotiation is used for recommending shops to customers, for example on a web page of an electronic shopping mall. Furthermore, a system is presented for selling and personalising so-called information goods, such as news articles, software, and music. The system is capable of taking into account important business-related conditions such as the fairness of the negotiation.