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Research opportunities |
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The Internet has changed auctions forever. Today it is possible to auction an extraordinary range of goods and services offered by sellers all over the world.
Because the rules and formats governing electronic auctions are easily changed, new and sophisticated auction models are being developed to better meet the needs of both sides in the auction process.
Yet even though these auctions can be highly complex -- involving multiple items, players and bidding criteria -- they are still designed on an intuitive, or ad hoc basis, resulting in potentially inferior outcomes for buyers and sellers alike.
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Our approach |
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HP researchers are applying scientific rigor to auction design.
Auction design typically requires considering such variables as whether bids are open or sealed, lot size, the order in which items are auctioned, and the amount of information bidders receive.
Our research aims to better understand the interplay among these variables and how changes in one can impact the others. Using this information, we develop tools that can help organizations optimize their auction design.
Our approach is unique in aiming simultaneously to further the basic theoretical understanding of auctions and to aid people running real auctions in the field.
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Research focus |
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Our specific interest is in developing auctions to better manage common business tasks. Many businesses already use, or plan to use, auctions for direct and indirect procurement, excess inventory sales and awarding contracts.
To do this, we draw on various knowledge sources ranging from game theory to economics, econometrics, mathematical programming, statistics, and computational and experimental methods.
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Current work |
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We are creating a set of analytic tools to help decision makers better configure auctions. The tools consist of:
- a library of bidding models for various auction mechanisms and auction environments
- a computational workbench to simulate a variety of common auction processes
- techniques for making better sense and use of data coming from already completed auctions
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Technical contributions |
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Tools we developed are helping to solve such problems as:
- selecting the best auction format
- determining optimal reserve prices
- establishing the optimal number of bidders
- deciding on sequencing of multiple lot auctions
- choosing optimal lot sizes and composition for multiple item auctions
- determining winners in multi-item, multi-criteria auctions
The tools have been used to help HP streamline and rationalize its own decision rules for auction design. HP consultants use them in their work with internal business clients. In addition, some of these tools have been successfully deployed with a major enterprise customer as a proof of concept.
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Services |
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Printable version
