Evaluation of an Online Multidimensional Auction System: A Computer Simulation Investigation

Through computer simulations, this paper evaluates the performance of an online multidimensional auction system with negotiation support and especially focuses on investigating the efficacy of two design features of online multidimensional auction system on its performance: sellers’ feedback and post-utility scoring method. The performance of the auction system is measured by joint gain and speed of convergence. The simulation results demonstrate that the use of sellers’ feedback and post-utility scoring method lead to better bargaining outcomes as measured by the buyer’s total utility and the number of auction rounds. The research results provide important theoretical implications about the role of information feedback in auction design.