SAM - Simulation of computer-mediated negotiations

A lot of research has been done on negotiations in face-to-face groups. With the penetration of e-mail in companies and daily life negotiations via e-mail are becoming more important. Negotiations via e-mail are different form face-to-face negotiations because they are asynchronous and computer-mediated. As a step towards a better understanding of asynchronous, computer-mediated negotiations in working groups we constructed the SAM model. The multi-agent system, SAM, incorporates many theories and findings from the social sciences. Herrmann's negotiation principle is used to structure the negotiation process. A separation into two search processes is useful for analysing the negotiation process. The opinion search is driven by commenting on reaching an idea of the 'right' solution at group level. Proposing and voting drives the majority search. Here the group seeks a suitable majority for a proposal. The best case is if both searches have the same result. The present work investigates which parameter influences which search.