Ntermediation , Contracts and Micropayments in Electronic Commerce

Software agents help automate a variety of tasks including those involved in buying and selling products over the Internet. This paper surveys several of these agentmediated electronic commerce systems by describing their roles in the context of a Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB) model. The CBB model we present augments traditional marketing models with concepts from Software Agents research to accommodate electronic markets. INTRODUCTION Software agents are programs to which one can delegate (aspects of) a task They differ from 'traditional" s o h a r e in that they are personalized, continuously running and semi-autonomous. These qualities make agents useful for a wide variety of information and process management tasks [I]. It should come as no s q r i s e that these same qualities are particularly useful for the information-rich and process-rich environment of electronic commerce. Elemonic commerce encompasses a broad range of issues including security, trust, reputation, law, payment mechanisms, advertising, ontologies, electronic product catalogs (EPCs), intermediaries, multimedia shopping experiences, and back-office management Agent technologies can be applied to any of these areas where a personalized, continuously running semi-autonomous behavior is desirable. However, certain characteristics will determine to what extent agent technologies are appropriate. For example, how much time or money could be saved if a certain process was partially automated (e.g., comparing products from multiple merchants)? How easy is it to express your preferences for the task (e.g., shopping for a gift)? What are the risks of an agent making a sub-optima1 transaction decision (e.g., making stock market buying and selling decisions or buying a car)? What are the consequences for missed opportunities (e.g., not being able to effectively monitor new job postings)? Generally, the more time and money that can be saved through automation, the easier it is to express preferences, the lesser the risks of making sub-optimal transaction decisions, and the greater the loss for missed opportunities, the more appropriate it is to employ agent technologies in electronic commerce. ROLES OF AGENTS AS MEDIATORS IN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE It is useful to explore the roles of agents as mediators in electronic commerce in the context of a common model. The model we present stems from traditional marketing Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB) research and comprises the actions and decisions involved in buying and using goods and services. However, we augment traditional CBB models with concepts from Software Agents research to accommodate electronic markets. Although CBB research covers many areas, it is important to recognize its limitations up-front For example, CBB research focuses primarily on retail markets (although many CBB concepts pertain to business-to-business and consumer-toconsumer markets as well) [2, 31. Even within retail, not all shopping behaviors are captured (e.g.. impulse purchasing). Also, as mentioned earlier, electronic commerce coven a broad range of issues, some of which are beyond the scope of a CBB model (e.g., back-office management and other merchant issues). Nevertheless, the CBB model is a powerful tool to help us understand the roles of agents as mediaton in electronic commerce. D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ G e r m a n N a t i o n a l L i c e n c e 2 0 0 7 ] A t : 1 2 : 3 5 1 1 M a r c h 2 0 1 0