Abstract
The objective of this paper is to introduce a flexible approach to the structuring of negotiations. The process of negotiations with its intricacies is discussed, and drawbacks of quantitative methods are analyzed. The decomposition of the negotiation process into a certain hierarchical structure is presented. This structure is represented with ‘and/or’ trees used for knowledge representation in artificial intelligence. The definitions of flexibility and reactions to the opponent's moves are introduced with the help of a rule-based formalism. The implications of these definitions for the analysis of the negotiation process are presented. The approach is illustrated with a set of hypothetical examples.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fishburn, P. C. and I. H. LaValle: 1985, ‘A Nonlinear, Nontransitive and Additive Probability Model for Decisions under Uncertainty’, AT & T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ.
Fraser, N. M. and K. W. Hipel: 1984, Conflict Analysis. Models and Resolutions, New York: North-Holland.
Fogelman-Soulie, F., D. Munier, and M. F. Shakun: 1983, ‘Bivariate Negotiations as a Problem of Stochastic Terminal Control’, Management Science 29, 840–855.
Jackson, P.: 1986, Introduction to Expert Systems, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Jarke, M., M. T. Jelassi and M. F. Shakun: 1987, ‘MEDIATOR: Towards a Negotiation Support System’, European Journal of Operational Research 31, 314–334.
Kersten, G. E.: 1985, ‘NEGO - Group Decision Support System’, Information and Management 8, 237–246.
Kersten, G. E., W. Michalowski, S. Matwin, and S. Szpakowicz: 1986, ‘Rule-based Modelling of Negotiation Strategies’, Working Paper TR-86-20, Computer Science, University of Ottawa.
Kersten, G. E. and T. Szapiro: 1986, ‘Generalized Approach to Modelling Negotiations’, European Journal of Operational Research 26, 142–149.
Lewicki, R. J. and J. A. Litterer: 1985, Negotiation, Homewood: Irwin.
Matwin, S., Szpakowicz, S., Kersten, G.E., and Michalowski, W.: 1987, ‘Logic-based Tools for Negotiation Support’, Proceedings of the 1987 Symposium on Logic Programming, IEEE Computer Society, 499–506.
Pruit, D. G.:1981, Negotiation Behavior, New York: Academic Press.
Raiffa, H.:1982, The Art and Science of Negotiation, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.
Ravidran, A., D. T. Philips and J. J. Solberg: 1987, Operations Research. Principles and Practice, New York: Wiley.
Shakun, M. F.: 1988, Evolutionary Systems Design: Policy Making Under Complexity and Group Decision Support Systems. Oakland: Holden Day.
Szpakowicz, S., S. Matwin, G. E. Kersten and W. Michalowski: 1987, ‘RUNE: An Expert System Shell for Negotiation Support’, Expert Systems and their Applications. Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop, Avignon, 711–726.
Winston, P. H.: 1984, Artificial Intelligence, Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Yu, P. L.: 1985, Multiple-Criteria Decision Making. Concepts, Techniques, and Extensions, New York: Plenum Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kersten, G.E., Michalowski, W., Matwin, S. et al. Representing the negotiation process with a rule-based formalism. Theor Decis 25, 225–257 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133164
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00133164