Configurable e-negotiation systems for large scale and transparent decision making

Participatory democracy is one of several conceptions of democracy which strives to create opportunities for all members of a group to contribute to the decision making process. Recent developments in information technologies in general and Internet technologies in particular are affecting the existing democratic mechanisms, hence enabling citizens and organizations to participate widely, efficiently and transparently in the decision making process and, most importantly, to arrive at better decisions faster, through negotiation. E-negotiation systems rely on such technologies to implement protocols ranging from motion raising and voting to auctions, and to make them available on the web for general use. E-negotiation systems can be used for political and societal decision making as well as business dealings within e-government and B2B settings. In order for these systems to fulfill their promise of bringing decision making opportunities to all, we need a structured approach and a configurable framework for designing, implementing and deploying them. The resulting systems should be web-based, easy to use, affordable, traceable, reliable, secure, flexible, efficient, and open for integration with other systems. This paper starts by examining leading research initiatives to devise such a framework and discussing the motivations behind them. We then introduce several design requirements derived from the expectations of e-negotiation systems providers and users. We argue that meeting these requirements fosters a more democratic and efficient decision making process. We also present our approach and vision of a configurable framework for designing, implementing and deploying e-negotiation systems.     

Do idiosyncratic jumps matter?

We show that idiosyncratic jumps are a key determinant of mean stock returns from both an ex post and ex ante perspective. Ex post, the entire annual average return of a typical stock accrues on the four days on which its price jumps. Ex ante, idiosyncratic jump risk earns a premium: a value-weighted weekly long-short portfolio that buys (sells) stocks with high (low) predicted jump probabilities earns annualized mean returns of 9.4% and four-factor alphas of 8.1%. This strategy’s returns are larger when there are greater limits to arbitrage. These results are consistent with investor aversion to idiosyncratic jump risk.     

Modeling e-Negotiation Processes for a Service Oriented Architecture

Most of today's e-marketplaces support a single negotiation protocol. The protocol is usually built into the e-marketplace infrastructure, therefore if a new one is introduced then a time consuming and complex process of implementing it takes place. Moreover, participants in the e-marketplace need to adapt their interfaces to the new protocol, especially if they use automated tools to interact with the e-marketplace. This paper reports on a model-driven approach and a framework for rapid and user-friendly development of configurable service oriented e-negotiation systems. We believe that a formal specification of negotiation protocols and their separation from the market infrastructure that implements them is a step towards configurable e-negotiation systems. The protocols are graphically designed for the e-marketplace then mapped into web service orchestrations. Participants use automated negotiation systems to interact with the e-marketplace. These systems are generated based on the negotiation protocol implemented on the e-marketplace. A declarative language is used to specify negotiation strategies and tactics. We propose an algorithm to map Statechart models of negotiation protocols into web service orchestrations and we report on the current implementation of our framework.     

Design for the environment: An ontology-based knowledge management model for green product development

Through appropriate operations and policies, such as green processes and product development process (PDP), companies can respond to environmental sustainability. To remain competitive, one such approach, Design for X (DFX), involves considering different environment and sustainable strategies through different factors Xs. With regard to the availability of different DFX techniques that consider environmental issues, the decision as to which approach needs to be adopted remains absent. This paper aims at presenting an overview from 1980 to 2020 of the developed research, applications, and DFX techniques for assessing green issues. Selected DFX techniques are linked with strategies used in organizations. Following a literature analysis, a collaborative knowledge-based framework that addresses the design concepts needed to assess environmental, safety, and health concerns in the development of green products is proposed. Furthermore, as a pillar for considering the Semantic Web and an evolving approach linked with natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI), an ontology-based knowledge management model for green assessment is developed for the representation, acquisition, organization, and capitalization of knowledge in a computer interpretable manner. The findings are useful for both managers and practitioners as they provide a coherent domain ontology that can help them manage knowledge, improve teamwork, and make decisions in a collaborative green PDP. Besides, an understanding of the essential design considerations that are required to implement environmental, safety, and health issues, as well as competencies used in the PDP is presented. Key barriers, managerial and strategic implications, and mitigation actions are also identified in this paper.