Design of a trading mechanism in electronic marketplaces: Online multidimensional auction mechanism with enhanced negotiation support

Electronic marketplaces are one of the fastest growing areas in electronic commerce (EC). However, current electronic marketplaces support only limited negotiation functions using a one-dimensional variable of price, leaving complex business negotiations to be done in traditional ways.; To provide automated negotiation services in EC, this dissertation introduces an innovative trading mechanism for electronic marketplaces and presents a formal methodology to evaluate it. It presents an evaluation framework to analyze the current status of electronic marketplaces. In addition, it introduces an online Multidimensional Auction Mechanism with Enhanced Negotiation Support (MAMENS) that provides automated one-to-many negotiation support in EC. The MAMENS system is designed with two innovative features to improve negotiation support: the use of sellers' feedback and a post-utility scoring method.; To test the efficacy of the proposed mechanism, a computational platform for computer simulation was developed. The computer simulation results demonstrate that two main features of the MAMENS system lead to a better bargaining outcome than without them. The simulation also shows that buyers can achieve faster convergence as well as higher utility with the use of sellers' feedback. The findings of this dissertation will facilitate an understanding of the effectiveness of online multidimensional auction systems among practitioners and academics.