Negotiation support systems: an overview of design issues and existing software

摘要

Negotiation Support Systems (NSS) are a special class of Group Decision Support Systems which emphasize computerized assistance for situations in which there is strong disagreement on factual or value judgements among group members. This paper first discusses negotiation structuring issues that should be taken into account when designing NSS. These issues include behavioral characteristics and cognitive perspectives of negotiators, communication needs of different bargaining settings, determination of each party's real interest(s), generation of options for mutual gain, and data accuracy and consistency. The paper then reviews negotiation theories used as the basis for designing NSS and provides a comprehensive survey of existing software in the area of computer-supported negotiation.