Auction Based Mechanisms for Electronic Procurement

Abstract — Auction based mechanisms are extremely relevant in modern day electronic procurement systems since they enable a promising way of automating negotiations with suppliers and achieving the ideal goals of procurement efficiency and cost minimization. This article surveys recent research and current art in the area of auction based mechanisms for e-procurement. The survey delineates different representative scenarios in e-procurement where auctions can be deployed and describes the conceptual and mathematical aspects of different categories of procurement auctions. We discuss three broad categories: (1) single item auctions: auctions for procuring a single unit or multiple units of a single homogeneous type of item; (2) multiitem auctions: auctions for procuring a single unit or multiple units of multiple items; and (3) multi-attribute auctions where the procurement decisions are based not only on costs but als