E - Business and Agency : Some Research Issues 1

In digital marketplaces, companies are present in the form of their software, which engages in business interactions with other companies. Each organisation that is active in the marketplace is trying to reach its own business goals, which may be in conflict with the goals of other organisations. The software by which an organisation is present in a digital marketplace must act on behalf of this organisation to reach these goals. Thus, there is a relation of agency between the software and the organisation that the software represents. This relation gives rise to a number of agency requirements on the software, which are identified and compared with functional requirements in this report. Results in the area of Multi-Agent Systems may be applicable in the design of information systems for which agency requirements hold. A number of such results are discussed, and further research issues are identified.