A method and a computer program product for promoting collaborative, consensus-driven decisions from a plurality of decision-making entities using electronic communications in a real-time forum. The inventive instant messaging application can be used for registering participants, developing forum pages, communicating queries, receiving messages and tallying responses that can enable implementation of online trading transactions. The application module and support databases are maintained by one or more central coordinators that reside as software objects on a server. Setpoint values are used for measuring the extent to which the participants' cumulative response satisfies one or more decision parameters. Arbitration and intra-group caucusing can also be initiated as a means to promote consensus and arrive at a collective decision. The collective decision can be used to initiate a specific course of action that may involve further communications with one or more remote trading networks.
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