ONLINE INTERMEDIARY BASED KNOWLEDGE SHARINGIN ELECTRONIC NEGOTIATION: A THEORETICALFRAMEWORK

摘要

Following the emergence of the Internet, electronic negotiation has become a new alternative for face-to-facernbusiness negotiations. This enhances the Negotiation Support Systems (NSS) capability. Nonetheless, therncurrent form of NSS offers very little support for historical data that is the information or knowledge acquiredrnfrom prior negotiations. In order to address this issue, the idea of a memory support in negotiations has beenrnproposed in the recent years. The question is where the negotiation memory should be located. The growthrnof online intermediary and its importance in electronic negotiations suggest its potential as an effectivernalternative location for this memory support. This study explores the possibility of the implementation of thernnegotiation memory at the online intermediary. The comparison between the memory at the intermediary'srnlocation and that at the individual negotiator's own location is presented. The memory support located at thernintermediary is hypothesized to increase the confidence in negotiation, reduce overall negotiation time andrnstrengthen trust between negotiators.