Intelligent Techniques in E-Commerce: A Case Based Reasoning Perspective (Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing)

Hardcover, xviii + 305 pages. Printed in Germany (not an economy / Indian edition). A couple of foreign stamps on the title page; stamped labels inside the rear board; stamped upper outer page edges. Pages are clean and bright throughout with unmarked text, firmly bound. Boards show gentle handling wear, faint remnants of a removed sticker across the lower spine. Published without a dust jacket. -- E-commerce has passed through a number of stages in the minds of most readers of the daily press. Initially it was the province of the specialist and considered almost irrelevant to the needs and activities of everyday life - companies looking for venture capital in this area had little if any chance of obtaining sufficient funds from the rather conservative investors who provided the only source of start-up capital. Then came the dotcom boom - and suddenly e-commerce was the most exciting topic possible! Venture capital was available from every possible source and almost any company with a .com in its name could be assured of instant funding on request. This boom was, inevitably, followed by the dotcom bust and the press warned that the days of e-commerce were gone, perhaps never to return. This apparently confusing 'stages of growth' model is in reality nothing of the sort. E-commerce is simply the logical outcome of combining computers with telecommunications networks. The astonishing changes which a global economy has brought with it are reflected in the changes to the way we do business which are increasingly synonymous with e-commerce. Indeed, the term e-commerce itself is coming to mean only the transaction-based component of e-business - 'any process that a business organisation conducts over a computer-mediated network' as Thomas Mesenbourg of the U.S. Census Bureau said in 1999. -- Contents: Part 1 Fundamentals: -- Case-based Reasoning [Knowledge & Experience; From Expert Systems to CBR Systems; Process Models of Case Based Reasoning; Case-based Reasoning: A Process Reasoning; Case Representation; Case Indexing & Case Retrieval; Case Adaptation & Case Evaluation; Experience-Based Reasoning]; E-Commerce [Traditional Commerce vs E-Commerce; E-Market & its Characteristics; Three Chains for E-Commerce; Transaction-based E-Commerce; Information Overload & Search; Information Brokerage]; Intelligent Agents and Multiagent Systems [Intelligent Agents; Mobile Agents; Intelligent Brokers; Multiagent Systems; ES = MAS?; Architecture of Multiagent Systems]; A General Theory of Case Based Reasoning [Similarity & Metrics in Case-based Reasoning; Case Base Building with Similarity Relations; R5 Model for Case-based Reasoning; Abductive Case-based Reasoning; Rule-based Models for Case Retrieval; Fuzzy Rule-based Case Retrieval]; Part 2 Interrelations: -- CBR in E-Commerce [General Architecture of Web-Based CBR Systems; Unified Logical Model of CBR-Based E-Commerce Systems; Intelligent Sales Support with CBR; Product Recommendation; Product Configuration with CBR; Negotiation Using CBR]; Case Based Reasoning in Multiagent Systems [Knowledge-based Model of Multiagent CBR Systems; Distributed Case Base & Retrieval; CBR for Agent Team Coordination; Case-based BDI Agents; Cooperative CBR Agents in MAS; Applying CBR to Multiagent Negotiation]; Multiagent E-Commerce [Agent-based E-commerce; Multiagent Negotiation; Auction-based E-Commerce; Mediation-based E-Commerce; Brokerage-based E-Commerce; Architecture of Multiagent Brokerage]; Part 3 Integration: -- Integration of CBR and MAS in E-Commerce [Parsimony of Intelligence in Multiagent Systems; CBR for Multiagent E-Commerce; CMB: Integration of CBR & Multiagent Brokerage; Analysis & Design of CMB; Implementing CMB]; Concluding Remarks [Case-based Reasoning; Knowledge Management & Experience Management; E-commerce & E-business; Web Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Multiagent Systems; Information Systems; Boolean Algebra; Future Work; End without End]; Bibliography.