Optimality of “Stubborn Strategy” in Bilateral Automatic Negotiation

Abstract

In this study, we deal with bilateral automatic negotiation and examine the fundamental properties of the optimal offer sequence under a new model. The space of offers and the value of utilities of both players are continuous and we consider a simplified situation in which both utility functions of the two players are affine. Then, we theoretically show that “stubborn negotiation strategy,” which is to stubbornly make a selfish proposal at the beginning of a negotiation process, and to make a compromise proposal toward the end of the negotiation, is reasonable in terms of optimality with respect to their utilities. We also quantify the stubbornness and discuss the relationship between the stubbornness and the parameters of the utility function.