A Framework for Dynamic eBusiness Negotiation Processes

The importance of personalized products and services is increasing in the dynamic customer-oriented business marketplace. Open environment of dynamic interoperable eBusiness processes is a key requirement for the emerging business models. Negotiation processes are at the core of dynamic eBusiness. While research on negotiation is not new, the vast majority of the studies to date have focused on auctions and bilateral negotiations. More complex negotiations are often required for dynamic formation of supply network and personalized fulfillment of the requests. In addition, it is very common that negotiation processes are “interleaved” with other business processes. In this paper, we propose a framework for negotiation processes that provides a consistent model for supporting a comprehensive range of negotiations in dynamic eBusiness environment. The new framework leverages the scope of existing research on the negotiations and extends it to the level of complexity necessary for next generation eBusiness applications. The framework provides the foundation for constructing dynamic negotiation processes by enabling the required functionality in five components: 1) negotiation requirements, 2) negotiation structure, 3) negotiation process, 4) negotiation protocol, and 5) negotiation strategy.