4.3. Results
4.3.1. Number of negotiation rounds
Although we measured the number of negotiation rounds in each experiment, we found that a general pattern was found
in almost every experiment. Thus, instead of commenting the results for the number of negotiation rounds in each
experimental section, we decided to present the performance of the four intra-team strategies according to the number
of negotiation rounds just once. As a sample for this behavior, we can observe the number of negotiation rounds spent by
each intra-team strategy when team and opponent have a long deadline (Top = L and TA = L), the number of team jAj members
is set to 4, and the opponent uses different concessions speeds bop in Table 2.
As long as the concession speed of the four intra-team strategies can be categorized as the same type, RE is usually the
fastest intra-team strategy in number of negotiation rounds, followed by SSV, then SBV, and finally FUM. Since less unanimity
is guaranteed among team members, it is logical that there may be less conflict with the opponent and, thus, agreements
are found faster with low unanimity strategies like RE and SSV. The main exception for this rule is when team members
are very similar and the opponent uses either boulware or very boulware concession speeds. In those cases, FUM is able to finalize negotiations successfully in fewer rounds than SBV (and sometimes SSV). The learning heuristic employed by FUM
benefits from the fact that the opponent usually concedes more in those attributes that are less important and, thus, it is able
to infer a proper agenda and propose better offers to the opponent (ending the negotiation faster). This pattern did not exist
when team members are very dissimilar, since in that case, FUM also has to deal with more intra-team conflict. This results
in more demanding offers to guarantee unanimity.
Additionally, as expected, as the concession strategy of team members becomes more conceder, the number of negotiation
rounds spent is lower. Thus, RE using bA = VB is slower than RE using bA = B, which is slower than RE using bA = C, which is
slower than RE using bA = VC.
The number of negotiation rounds spent by each intra-team strategy is especially interesting to select intra-team
strategies when they perform equally in utility terms (minimum or average utility). For instance, if SBV and FUM tie
in utility terms, a team is suggested to select SBV most of the times due to the fact that it usually requires less negotiation
rounds, if SSV and SBV tie in utility terms, the team should select SSV since it usually requires less rounds than
SBV, and so forth.