A matchmaking component for the discovery of agreement and negotiation spaces in electronic markets

This paper presents the design of an extended matchmaking component for electronic markets, which is able to identify negotiable agreements and the issues that are subject to the negotiation, in the case where basic matchmaking fails to find agreements that satisfy the constraints of the seller and the buyer. The foundation for this functionality is the introduction of negotiable constraints within the offer specification process. The extended matchmaking component complements our SILKROAD design and implementation framework for electronic negotiations. This framework also features other negotiation service components such as a mediation service, which may use the feedback from the extended matchmaking operation on agreement candidates and negotiation spaces, to suggest fair agreements on the basis of the Adjusted Winner algorithm for dispute resolution.