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International Workshop on Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce

AMEC 2003: Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce V. Designing Mechanisms and Systems pp 56–72Cite as

A Decommitment Strategy in a Competitive Multi-agent Transportation Setting

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3048))

Abstract

Decommitment is the action of foregoing of a contract for another (superior) offer. It has been shown that, using decommitment, agents can reach higher utility levels in case of negotiations with uncertainty about future prospects. In this paper, we study the decommitment concept for the novel setting of a large-scale logistics setting with multiple, competing companies. Orders for transportation of loads are acquired by agents of the (competing) companies by bidding in online auctions. We find significant increases in profit when the agents can decommit and postpone the transportation of a load to a more suitable time. Furthermore, we analyze the circumstances for which decommitment has a positive impact if agents are capable of handling multiple contracts simultaneously.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), P.O. Box 94079, 1090 GB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    P. J. ’t Hoen

  2. TU Eindhoven, De Lismortel 2, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    J. A. La Poutré

Authors
  1. P. J. ’t Hoen
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  2. J. A. La Poutré
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Avenue, 02139, Cambridge, USA

    Peyman Faratin

  2. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 02138, Cambridge, MA

    David C. Parkes

  3. IIIA, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute CSIC, Spanish Research Council, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Juan A. Rodríguez-Aguilar

  4. IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, 19 Skyline Dr., NY 10532, Hawthorne, USA

    William E. Walsh

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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’t Hoen, P.J., La Poutré, J.A. (2004). A Decommitment Strategy in a Competitive Multi-agent Transportation Setting. In: Faratin, P., Parkes, D.C., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J.A., Walsh, W.E. (eds) Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce V. Designing Mechanisms and Systems. AMEC 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3048. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25947-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25947-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22674-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-25947-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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