Negotiation for transportation tasks with stochastic payoffs

In this paper, we describe a bargain model to distribute tasks with stochas tic payoff among transportation companies. The tasks are generated from a p rocurement problem where a set of products needs to be selected for transpo rtation from a set of prospective suppliers to a set of prospective manufac turers. The bargain process based on this model uses a time varying payoff distribution. We explain the design of the payoff model, and describe the s imulation study used to determine the design criteria of the payoff model t o generate a desirable task distribution. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.