Negotiation Games: Acquiring Skills by Playing

This paper shows the research done at the School of Industrial Engineers (ETSII) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), in two consecutive academic courses. In this negotiation game each team is formed by three students playing different roles, with a different degree of complexity. The game is played three different times changing the conditions and doing the Zones of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) smaller so the negotiation is going “harder” and it was more difficult for the team to achieve an agreement. Roles were distributed according to the student’s experience, since it was understood that difficulty of the roles was different, especially when there was set a time limit for negotiation. The combination of playing and training has shown that students without particularly good negotiating skills at the beginning of the experiment attained better final results than those who have natural negotiating skills, but no benefit of training

Prediction Strategy for E-Commerce Price Negotiation

Automated negotiation plays an important role in dynamic trading online, especially in B2C e-commerce, as it is crucially useful for the online merchants to achieve better trading outcomes and save vast trading cost. To address the critical issue, this paper develops a prediction strategy that using linear regression to predict the opponent’s future offer trend, the theoretical model and the algorithm are proposed. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this model, we develop a prototype and conduct computer-computer automated negotiation to make comparison with the previous negotiation strategy model. The experimental result shows that the agent with our newly designed strategy model can significantly increase the agreement rate and joint outcome of the both sides

Coordinating negotiations in data-intensive collaborative working environments using an agent-based model-driven platform

This paper tackles the interoperability problems of enterprise information systems by presenting a distributive model-driven platform for parallel coordination of multiple negotiations in data-intensive collaborative working environments. The proposed model was validated and verified by an industrial application scenario within the European research project H2020 C2NET (Cloud Collaborative Manufacturing Networks). This real scenario developed data-intensive collaborative and cloud-enabled tools that allow the optimisation of the supply network of manufacturing SMEs, proposing a negotiation solution based on a model-driven interoperable decentralised architecture.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation of Product Development Teams

The success of product development highly depends on the quality of cooperation among members of a team involved in the process. Thus, a tool capable of simulating product development team may be beneficial for researchers interested in teamwork, as well as useful for managers struggling with team formation during process planning phase. This work aims at providing a detailed overview of agent-based simulators of product development teams. Specifically, the scientific databases Web of Science, Scopus, ACM DL, and IEEE were searched to extract relevant agent-based models of teamwork in mechanical engineering and aerospace context and obtained models were reviewed to identify their key advantages and limitations

Internationalisation strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises: a study of UK and German joint ventures in the people’s republic of China

This thesis studies internationalisation strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For most SMEs internationalisation means, predominantly, exporting. Only a few SMEs are involved in foreign direct investment. However, growing pressure from globalisation increasingly means that SMEs must extend their business activities beyond sole export strategies. Internationalisation imposes an above-the-average financial and managerial resource burden upon SMEs. This is particularly true in the case of foreign direct investment which requires the highest resource commitment of all market entry strategies. Frequently, thus, SMEs cannot commit the resources necessary for success in international markets. Not without reason internationalisation, in the form of foreign direct investment, is often considered the domain of large multinational enterprises. This thesis regards the joint venture strategy as a means to overcome the resource scarcity of SMEs and so make foreign market entry in the form of a direct investment commitment feasible for these firms. Joint ventures can open doors to markets that otherwise would not be open to SMEs. The joint venture strategy can be a vehicle for SMEs to penetrate a foreign market with only a reduced financial and managerial resource commitment. The results of this investigation suggest that joint ventures are a feasible strategy for UK and German SMEs to enter the vast market of the People's Republic of China. The joint venture strategy permits SMEs to establish a market presence in the Chinese market and so better reap the benefits of the impressive economic development of the country. The UK and German joint venture entrepreneurs studied expressed overall satisfaction with their joint investment projects in China. However, the study has also detected various size-related resource scarcities which restrict the SMEs in their joint venturing efforts. Short cut planning procedures and partner selection processes are resultant from that, as well as a weak bargaining position in negotiations and less influence in the control and management ofthe investment project

Configurations of inter-organizational relationships : a comparison between US and Japanese automakers

Originally published in the Working paper series of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program.Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-37).M. Bensaou and N. Venkatraman

<i>'You've got to keep your head on'</i>: A study of the stories young male service users tell about the transition to fatherhood

Research on disadvantaged young fathers has been minimally addressed in the literature, particularly in the UK and especially with young men who are service users. This thesis, drawing on discourse theory, explores the descriptions of 16 white, socially excluded young men, aged 15-24, on the transition to fatherhood. The findings from the study, which uses a narrative methodological approach, indicate common themes from the stories of the young fathers, especially with regard to the high levels of disadvantage and social exclusion they had been exposed to, and the anti-social behaviour they described engaging in, prior to the birth of their child/ren. A significant proportion of young men, however, reported how important fatherhood had been in transforming their attitudes and behaviour and how they took their responsibilities as fathers seriously. In addition, the data details the social support systems which are described as being important to them (including some professional support) and the types of activities they describe engaging in as fathers. The study also argues for transparency in research processes with hard to reach young people and the importance of using a reflexive approach, particularly regarding the biographical and professional influences the researcher brings to the study

An empirical study of canadian companies to determine the client's perspective on their preferred relational approach with their financial auditor

L'objectif principal de cette recherche est de déterminer l'approche relationnelle que le client préfère utiliser dans sa relation avec son auditeur financier. De connaître cette préférence relationnelle est important puisque l'auditeur requiert la coopération de son client afin de combler l'asymétrie d'information existant entre les deux parties. De plus, de mieux connaître la préférence relationnelle de son client permettrait à l'auditeur d'aligner son approche marketing sur celle de son client, lui permettant d'être plus efficient quant à ses ressources et de mieux satisfaire les besoins de ce client. L'objectif secondaire est de déterminer l'influence de certaines caractéristiques personnelles du client sur sa préférence relationnelle avec son auditeur. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous avons développé une théorie sur la base de modèles existant dans la littérature en marketing, mais adaptée au contexte particulier qui est celui de l'audit. Conséquemment, nous avons défini les variables permettant de mesurer les relations entre les clients (acheteurs) et leurs auditeurs (vendeurs) suivant celles qui, dans la littérature en marketing, ont été théoriquement définies et empiriquement validées (Fink et al., 2007; Kaufmann and Dant, 1992; Macneil, 1980; Paulin et al., 1997; Rokkan et al., 2003). En effet, les approches relationnelles sont définies par deux construits: l'approche relationnelle (RA) et l'approche transactionnelle (TA). RA est une approche où l'objectif du vendeur est d'établir et maintenir des relations, tandis que TA est une approche économique à court terme où l'objectif du vendeur est de gagner des clients et d'augmenter sa part du marché (Gronroos, 1994; 2000; Gummesson, 2002; Paulin et al., 1997). L'hypothèse principale de notre étude spécifie que le client préférera davantage une approche relationnelle qu'une approche transactionnelle avec son auditeur financier. Trois hypothèses secondaires vérifient l'influence de l'aversion au risque, de l'éthique de l'attention et du locus de contrôle du client sur sa préférence relationnelle. Pour tester les hypothèses nous avons effectué un sondage par questionnaire auprès de 1090 participants travaillant pour des sociétés privées canadiennes. 306 questionnaires ont été complétés et retournés. L'analyse des données indique que l'hypothèse principale, à savoir que le client préfère davantage une approche relationnelle (RA) avec leur auditeur qu'une approche transactionnelle (TA), est supportée. Les résultats portant sur les facteurs individuels des mesures des approches relationnelles confirment que le client préfère la coopération et le partage d'information avec son auditeur, de même qu'un haut niveau de confiance vis-à-vis de celui-ci, tous des facteurs relatifs à l'approche relationnelle (RA). Cependant, nonobstant la préférence du client pour une approche relationnelle avec son auditeur, le client préfère également demeurer à une certaine distance de celui-ci (Arm 's length). Ce facteur est pourtant relatif à une relation transactionnelle (TA) plutôt que relationnelle (RA). Les hypothèses secondaires, quant à elles, ne sont pas supportées. Sur la base des résultats, un nouveau modèle conceptuel des relations entre le client et l'auditeur est présenté, modèle qui diffère sensiblement de ceux qui existent dans la littérature en marketing. Notre étude présente des contributions significatives tant théoriques que pratiques. Cette étude permet de mieux comprendre la relation entre le client et son auditeur, selon la perspective du client. De fait, un nouveau modèle est présenté afin de mieux comprendre la relation entre le client et son auditeur, modèle pouvant servir de base à des recherches futures. De plus, d'un point de vue pratique, si l'auditeur peut mieux connaître et comprendre les préférences relationnelles de ses clients, il pourrait être à même de mieux définir ses stratégies de marketing. \ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : approche relationnelle (RA), approche transactionnelle (TA), auditeurs, vérificateurs, clients, acheteurs, vendeurs