Interface agents: caveat mercator in electronic commerce

Electronic commerce has opened new opportunities for buyers and sellers. Consumers can do things in an on-line environment that are simply not possible in face-to-face transactions. In this paper we push this observation by examining and using a new type of software agent to convert merchant interfaces into middleware thus enabling one to assess and optimize their interactions with all the computing support available in today’s DSS environments. Send proofs and reprints to: Gary Koehler Decision and Information Sciences Warrington College of Business, Stuzin 351 University of Florida P.O. Box 117169 Gainesville, FL 32611 Biographic sketches: Daniel G. Conway is assistant professor of Decision and Information Sciences in the Warrington School of Business at the University of Florida. He has published in Annals of Operations Research, IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied to Industry, and Computers and Operations Research. His current research interests involve e-commerce, telecommunications and related areas. Gary J. Koehler is the John B. Higdon Eminent Scholar and Professor of Decision and Information Sciences in the Warrington School of Business at the University of Florida. He was recently Professor and Area Head at the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University. He has published in Decision Support Systems, Operations Research, Management Science, ORSA Journal on Computing, Evolutionary Computations, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Annals of Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Decision Sciences, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Computers and Operations Research, Complex Systems, Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Managerial and Decision Economics, Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, Discrete Applied Mathematics, Journal of Finance and others. His current research interests are in ecommerce related areas.