This volume provides software designers and developers with a single point of entry where they can find knowledge about negotiators and negotiations coming from human and social sciences. Several chapters are devoted to behavioral issues with an effort to present this knowledge in a structured and organized manner. To this end a common terminology is proposed, representations providing high-level perspectives are formulated, and the leading theories and models are categorized.

The book also presents formal models and procedures for software-based negotiation tools. Many of them have already found their ways into production software; others may do so in the near future. They are a springboard for the design of new models and procedures. They also offer a bridge between behavioral research and engineering by providing insights into standard types of behaviors and understanding of the opportunities for activities undertaken by software.

The software, its use in and for negotiations, and its potential are discussed in detail. The purpose is to provide human and social scientists with a single point of entry to the current situation in the use and development of e-negotiation systems and tools. Inasmuch engineers and computer scientists need to gain a deeper understanding of the human and social perspectives and ways they may impact these perspectives, behavioral researchers need to better understand the power of software in automating tedious and mundane, but cognitively complex tasks and activities currently performed by humans.

The aim of this book is to aid researchers, designers and developers in their work and toprovide students with a source which they can use to better understand the many aspects of negotiations. This book, with its pragmatic orientation, also provides prescriptive advices regarding the negotiation preparation and conduct, formulation of strategies and tactics, and understanding and influencing the relationships between the negotiators, problems, processes and stakeholders.