Remarks on Designing Iterative Multicriteria Procurement Auctions

In this paper some mechanisms of the multicriteria procurement auctions are discussed, including the elements of the decision support to the auction organizer, as well as to the bidders. The auction mechanisms are considered in the context of attaining incentive compatible decisions. Using domination relations formulated in the criteria space, different rules for the improvement of offers in successive rounds of the auction process are analyzed. The general discussion is illustrated by an example of an iterative multicriteria closed-bidding auction conducted with the use of a multi-agent computer-based system. The system supports submission of offers, multicriteria analysis performed by the auction organizer, simulation, and analysis of the competing bidders' behavior. Experimental results of sessions conducted with the use of the system are analyzed.