Learning in Multi-Agent Information Systems - A Survey from IS Perspective

Multiagent systems (MAS), long studied in artificial intelligence, have recently become popular in mainstream IS research. This resurgence in MAS research can be attributed to two phenomena: the spread of concurrent and distributed computing with the advent of the web; and a deeper integration of computing into organizations and the lives of people, which has led to increasing collaborations among large collections of interacting people and large groups of interacting machines. However, it is next to impossible to correctly and completely specify these systems a priori, especially in complex environments. The only feasible way of coping with this problem is to endow the agents with learning, i.e., an ability to improve their individual and/or system performance with time. Learning in MAS has therefore become one of the important areas of research within MAS. In this paper we present a survey of important contributions made by IS researchers to the field of learning in MAS, and present directions for future research in this area

Bidder Migration and Its Price Effects on Auctions

Auctions are often not independent from each other, and the movement of bidders across different auctions is one of the key linkages. We propose different measures of bidder movements (which we call bidder migration in this paper) and how such migration affects the price outcome of later auctions. Moreover, we identify two potentially confounding effects: the learning effect where bidders learn to become more sophisticated bidders, hence driving down the price of later auctions; and the desperation effect where bidders, in a hope to obtain the product that they previous couldn’t win, tend to increase the prices. We empirically investigated these effects using bidding history data from eBay and Generalized Linear Model specifications. We further discussed potential applications of bidder migration for online auction platforms, such as bidder segmentation, dynamic promotions, and shill bidder detection. These bidder migration measures can be provided to internet auction sellers as a value-added service

Understanding Trade-offs in the Supplier Selection Process: The Role of Flexibility, Delivery, and Value-added Services/Support

In this study, we present, based on econometric choice modeling framework, how manufacturing managers/executives trade-off between cost, delivery, flexibility, and service features in the supplier selection process for commodity raw materials, given acceptable quality. Empirical data for this study was collected from manufacturing organizations in Europe (Germany, France, Italy, and UK) using a computer-based supplier selection discrete choice survey. Each survey instrument contained 16 supplier selection choice sets, which compared 23 attributes of the current suppliers with a ‘‘new’’ potential supplier. The attributes of new suppliers were varied across two to four levels using established factorial experimental design procedures. The resultant multinomial logit models show the relative impact of cost, flexibility, delivery and service features on supplier selection

Los agentes de la compañía fractal aprenden a seleccionar los socios con quienes establecer relaciones cliente-servidor

El actual entorno de negocios enfrenta a las empresas a profundos cambios y para sobrellevarlo forman alianzas estratégicas entre ellas proponen un modelo de la compañía fractal basada en proyectos para la integración virtual y temporal entre diferentes empresas en el logro de objetivos de negocios. El éxito de la aplicación del modelo radica en el establecimiento de relaciones cliente-servidor entre los gestores de los proyectos. Este trabajo analiza la incorporación de aprendizaje en los agentes de gestión, cuando seleccionan socios con quienes establecer relaciones cliente-servidor más beneficiosas. Para ello propone la aplicación del aprendizaje por refuerzo.Presentado en el XII Workshop Agentes y Sistemas Inteligentes (WASI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Advanced supplier selection: A hybrid multi-agent negotiation protocol supporting supply chain dyadic collaboration

This paper proposes a novel form of supplier selection involving the supply chain dyad as the buyer and the suppliers as sellers. The main proposed contribution is a multi-attribute decision hybrid protocol for supplier selection based on collaboration and negotiation, adapted to dyadic collaboration in a supply chain context. Suppliers and the purchasing dyad can reach an agreement on the details of the products simultaneously and exploit the preferences of the customer dyadic partner to enlarge the criteria choices of the products. For this, the proposed protocol combines a one-to-one bilateral dyadic collaboration protocol inside the purchasing dyad along with a one-to-many multi-bilateral bargaining protocol between the purchasing dyad and suppliers. Illustrative multi-agent simulation experiments were carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed protocol. The protocol implementation shows better negotiation results than the classic supplier selection process, along with expected higher customer partner satisfaction and a more embedded dyadic relationship

Evaluating disintermediation in regional food systems using agent-based modeling

Consumers are increasingly seeking fresh and healthy food that has been sustainably produced by regional food producers. However, most consumers also value convenience and efficiency and prefer to purchase food from retailers and restaurants, rather than from producers directly or farmers’ markets. Regional food hubs provide aggregation, warehousing, transportation, and marketing services for these regional food producers, allowing them to focus on food production rather than logistics and marketing. Additionally, food hubs give small and mid-sized producers the ability to reach larger markets and customers than they could reach on their own. These services can help producers tremendously in their efforts to grow their businesses. However, once food hub managers have helped to establish connections between producers and new customers, they often find themselves cut out of the regional food supply chain when the producers decide to sell their products directly to the customers, thereby avoiding the food hub’s service fees. While this can have short-term financial benefits for the producers, widespread disintermediation can eventually lead to food hub failure, which can disrupt the entire regional food system. To avoid this, food hub managers must develop and implement policies that will support long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with their producers and customers. This thesis describes an agent-based modeling methodology to study disintermediation in an intermediated regional food supply network in Iowa. The model is designed to serve as a decision support tool for food hub managers, allowing them to simulate the effects of various supply chain management strategies on producer decision making and long-term organizational and system success. The methodology is tested by conducting three experiments. Further, this thesis develops an empirical study to validate the computational model and conducts a pilot test of the study. Based on the results of the experiments and pilot study, the computational model proves useful for studying the problem of disintermediation

A hybrid decision support system for managing humanitarian relief chains

Decisions regarding location, allocation and distribution of relief items are among the main concerns of the Humanitarian Relief Chain (HRC) managers in response to no-notice large-scale disasters such as earthquakes. In this paper, a Hybrid Decision Support System (HDSS) consisting of a simulator, a rule-based inference engine, and a knowledge-based system (KBS) is developed to configure a three level HRC. Three main performance measures including the coverage, total cost, and response time are considered to make an explicit trade-off analysis between cost efficiency and responsiveness of the designed HRC. In the first step, the simulator calculates the performance measures of the different configurations of the HRC under generated number of disaster scenarios. Then, the rule-based inference engine attempts to build the best configuration of the HRC including facilities’ locations, relief items’ allocation and distribution plan of the scenario under investigation based on calculated performance measures. Finally, the best configuration for each scenario is stored in the KBS as the extracted knowledge from the above analyses. In this way, the HRC managers can retrieve the most appropriate HRC configuration in accordance with the realized post-disaster scenario in an effective and timely manner. The results of a real case study in Tehran demonstrate that the developed HDSS is an effective tool for fast configuration of HRCs using stochastic data

Suppliers Evaluation and Selection: A Comprehensive Model to Minimize the Risk Associated with Quality and Delivery

This research focuses on one of the main steps in outsourcing, supplierevaluation and selection. The main contributions of this research were twofold.First, best practices in the supplier’s value stream were identified that directly orindirectly impact a supplier’s quality and delivery. Second, a comprehensivesupplier evaluation and selection model was developed based on the valuestream concept to minimize the risk associated with two very critical supplierselection factors, quality and on-time delivery.A survey was conducted to identify best practices. The outcome of the surveywas used to develop a computer based supplier evaluation model, which couldbe used in conjunction with other existing supplier selection factors, such as price and others, to select suppliers

Hyvien hankintatoimen käytänteiden tunnistaminen ja niiden hyödyntäminen kunnissa : Systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus kansainvälisistä tutkimustuloksista

Kunnilla on kasvavia paineita tehostaa toimintaa sekä tehdä taloudellisesti kestäviä ratkaisuja. Julkiset hankinnat tunnistetaankin yhä useammin kuntien strategiseksi toiminnaksi, koska niiden arvo muodostaa merkittävän osan kuntien taloudesta. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on vahvistaa kuntien ymmärrystä siitä, että hankintatoimi on kunnan strategista toimintaa, jolla voidaan vastata kuntiin kohdistuviin paineisiin. Tutkimuksessa nostetaan esiin kansainvälisistä tutkimustuloksista hyviä hankintakäytänteitä, joita Suomen kunnat voivat hyödyntää kehittäessään hankintatoimeaan strategisempaan suuntaan. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan tutkimuskohdetta hankintatoimen hyvien käytänteiden, ulkoistamisen, markkinoiden sekä kilpailuttamisen ja toimittajavalinnan viitekehyksessä sekä sivutaan henkilöstön osaamisvaateita. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys on näennäismarkkinateoria, agenttiteoria ja transaktiokustannusteoria. Tutkimus on systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus kansainvälisistä tutkimustuloksista. Tutkimusaineisto on haettu kansainvälisistä tietokannoista. Aineistoksi valikoitui 12 Eurooppaan sijoittuvaa artikkelia. Koska hankintatoimen kehitys on ollut muutamien viime vuosien aikana ollut nopeaa varsinkin julkisella sektorilla, pyrittiin aineistoon saamaan uusimpia artikkeleita. Artikkeleille tehtiin kriittinen tarkastelu, jonka jälkeen tutkimustulokset, tulosten arviointi teoreettisesta viitekehyksestä ja johtopäätökset kirjattiin tutkimukseen. Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan hyvät hankintatoimen käytänteet liittyvät hankintojen suunnitteluun ja valmisteluun, yhteistyö- ja kumppanuusmalleihin, toimittajien ja sopimusten hallintaan, markkinoiden ohjaamiseen ja henkilöstön osaamiseen. Tutkimuksen tuloksista ilmeni muun muassa käytänteitä, joilla kunnat voivat ohjata markkinoita, pienentää kunnan ja toimittajan välinen tiedon epäsymmetria ja hallita sopimuskauden riskejä sekä kuinka transaktiokustannuksia voidaan pyrkiä hallitsemaan

A Complexity-Based Approach to Intra-Organizational Team Selection

Early studies recognized the significance of team's work capacity and suggested the selection of team members based on individual skills and performance in alignment with task characteristics. The equitable team selection method, for example, assigns people to different tasks with even skill distributions for the best overall performance. Recent advancement in organization science also identifies the importance of contextual skills. However, work teams are complex adaptive systems with interdependence between workers and social environment, and exhibit surprising, nonlinear behavior. Optimizing individual stages without taking organizational complexity into account is unlikely to yield a high performing new combination of teams. The objectives of this study can be stated as: a) Utilizing complex system theory to better understand the processes of team selection including forming teams with considering worker's interdependence and replacing the unsuitable members through a time frame; b) Comparing different team selection methods, including random selection, equity method, using knowledge of interdependence in different economic conditions through simulation; c) Comparing different policies of replacing members of teams. This study utilizes a computational model to understand the complexity of project team selection and to examine how diversity of capability and interdependence between workers to effect team performance in different economic conditions. The NK model, a widely used theory for complex systems is utilized here to illustrate the worker's interdependence and fed into an Agent-Based Model. This study uses a small design firm as a case implementation to examine the performance of a variety of team selection approaches and replacement policies. Project data, task assignment, and individual and team performance information were collected for the period of 2009-2011. The simulation results show that while the equity selection method can increase the diversity of capabilities of teams, the net performance is often worse than optimizing worker interdependencies. This study suggests that managers should protect their higher-performing workers with minimal interdependence disruption when they considered team selection. Thus taking the advantages and disadvantages of all three policies into account, transferring low contributors or least supported members are recommended to be enacted before hiring new workers to avoid this last policy's especially large additional costs