Sellers' Objectives in E-procurement Auction and Negotiation Experiments

Participants of economic transactions are assumed to make decisions based on objective directly related to the transactions. This paper shows that, aside from biases and cognitive limitations, they may have also other objectives. Using results of online experiments with reverse auctions and multi-bilateral negotiations we confirm results reported earlier for the case of bilateral negotiations, namely that three and four types of objectives can be identified. Based on the objectives' importance distinct groups of participants have been identified; they differ in their behavior and the outcomes they achieve. The results indicate that some bidders and negotiators want to achieve other than substantive objectives and are willing to trade off substantive for relational objectives.