On the Use of Fuzzy Logic in a Seller Bargaining Game

Information marketplaces are places where users search and retrieve information goods. Intelligent agents could represent the participating entities in such places, i.e, assume the role of buyers and sellers of information products. In this paper, we introduce a finite horizon bargaining model between buyers and sellers. We examine the seller´s side and define a method for the ´bargaining´ deadline calculation based on fuzzy-logic (FL). Such deadline indicates the time for which it is profitable for a seller to participate in the bargaining procedure, i.e., the time threshold for his offers. We represent the seller´s knowledge/policy adopting the fuzzy set theory and provide a fuzzy inference engine for reasoning about the bargaining deadline. The result of the reasoning process defines the degree of patience of the seller agent, thus, affecting the time for which that seller participates in the bargaining game.