NegotiAuction: An experimental study

We investigated and compared economic performance of auction, negotiation and hybrid mechanisms of the NegotiAuction software. With the auction mechanism, bidders are required to submit bids consisting of quantity needed and other relevant non-price attributes, then they are returned with suggested prices to make them active. With the negotiation mechanism, the requested price button is turned off and the auction owner and the bidder are free to negotiate on one-on-one basis with other issues besides price and quantity. With the hybrid mechanism, characteristics of both negotiation and auction are combined. Twelve hypotheses involving economic performance measures were tested. On many measures, the hybrid mechanism was best for the auction owners.