An Adaptive Procedure for Settling Multiple Issues in Bilateral Negotiation with Time Constraints

Abstract

The way in which negotiation issues are settled, called issue-settling procedure, is a crucial component in automated multi-issue negotiation models. In most models, the procedure is predefined before a negotiation and cannot be changed during the course of a negotiation. This lacks of flexibility and generosity, which causes difficulties for reaching efficient and effective outcomes, especially in open and dynamic environments. To this end, this paper proposes a procedure that can adaptively settle issues into small packages, in the light of new information, to balance trade-off and time costs. Moreover, we also develop a negotiation protocol that is equipped with our adaptive procedure. Finally, we conduct experiments to show that our adaptive procedure can significantly improve the expected utility and reduce the negotiation time.