How the 'Auction Cube' Supports the Selection of Auction Designs in Industrial Procurement

Abstract

It is well known that rightly applied reverse auctions offer big commercial potential to procurement departments. However, the sheer number of auction types often overwhelms users in practice. And since the implications of a wrongly chosen auction type are equally well known, the overall usage of reverse auctions lacks its potential significantly. In this paper, a novel method is being proposed that guides the user in selecting the right combination of basic auction forms for single lot events, considering both market-, as well as supplier-related, bijective criteria.