A Consensus Based Method for Multi-criteria Group Decision Making Under Uncertain Linguistic Setting

A two-stage (a consensus process and a selection process) approach is proposed to solve multi-criteria group decision making problems under an uncertain linguistic environment. Since achieving general consensus is a desirable goal in group decision making, the proposed method first develops a consensus reaching process in order to reach a satisfactory consensus. Based on the partial order of uncertain linguistic variables, the superiority index of one alternative over another for a given criterion and the overall superiority index of one alternative are defined. Then a procedure based on the superiority indices is described to select the best alternative(s). Given the decision makers’ desire for a consensus solution, a common framework based on the previous consensus model and the selection process is presented. Finally, a practical application is demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A proposed Procedure for Facilitating the Analysis of Lease-Purchase Decisions by Consumers

Advertising extolling the advantages of leasing an automobile is increasing, leading many consumers to ask whether leasing makes sense as an alternative to ownership. This paper sets forth a simple procedure which professional financial advisors and educators can use to help consumers make this decision. The procedure can be applied to any buy-lease decision. In what follows, key variables in the buy-lease decision are identified, and an example using actual data is presented to illustrate the procedure.     

Non-numeric multi-criteria multi-person decision making

We describe a decision making technique, ME-MCDM, for the evaluation and selection of alternatives using a non-numeric scale. Using this procedure each alternative is evaluated by an expert for satisfaction to a multi-criteria selection function. Each criterion can have a different degree of importance. The individual expert evaluations can then be aggregated to obtain an overall evaluation function. We apply this technique to the problem of proposal selection in the funding environment. In this environment the technique is augmented by some textual information which can also be used to help in the decision process.     

Supplier Portfolio Management for IT Services Considering Diversification Effects

By means of service-oriented architectures the IT support of processes can be designed as a portfolio of individual IT services provided by different suppliers. The processes are designed based on selection decisions between IT services that potentially have to be included. Many companies formulate a multitude of requirements for investments in IT services at ever shorter intervals. However, the scope of the desired investments usually exceeds the available budget. Thus, companies face the challenge of allocating the limited budget to investments in the most promising combination of IT services. This is hardly possible without methodical support. In addition, the allocation is often done intuitively and subject to the decision-makers’ affinity with IT. Therefore, this paper develops a quantitative, multi-period procedure model for the purpose of maximizing the enterprise value in accordance with value based management, which considers the dependencies of the periodical selection decisions. In the following, a decision logic for the heuristic solution to the selection problem is presented and its application is demonstrated by means of an illustrative case example.     

Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated marketing communications approach

This article provides an organized approach for managers to develop social marketing strategies that target upstream decision and policy makers. A conceptual application model and five-stage process is presented for an upstream social marketing strategy based on integrated marketing communications (IMC). IMC concepts are described in the context of social marketing, as well as specific stages for creating an IMC social marketing strategy; these include target audience research and determination, channel selection and integration, strategic message creation, and measurement and control. A central and novel feature of the IMC social marketing strategy model is the simultaneous targeting of an upstream decision maker and influential peripheral (upstream) audiences in order to triangulate and increase campaign effectiveness. An IMC approach to upstream social marketing ensures consistent, persuasive messages specifically crafted for the selected target audiences and coordinated through precise channels to maximize impact. This multi-channel, multi-audience approach to message creation and channel selection produces synergies that increase the potential to influence an upstream decision/policy maker.     

基于改进多属性群决策的国有企业经营者选择研究

国有企业经营者选择机制与方法的转变是国有企业改革的重点之一,针对经营者选择的研究多集中在定性分析。在经营者能力信号传递研究基础上,引入针对企业自身特点的能力评价指标,通过权重模糊差异对能力评价指标权重进行修正,利用改进多属性群决策方法对候选经营者进行能力评估与选择,并通过一个实例演示该方法的决策过程。     

Financial projections in innovation selection: The role of scenario presentation,expertise, and risk

Innovation project selection is a decision of major relevance to firms. Errors in this decision may have serious consequences for firms, especially as many firms struggle with optimizing innovation project selection decisions. In their pitches to innovation decision-makers, project teams invariably present financial projections on their innovation projects, which often include best- and worst-case scenario presentation. Despite the potential influence the presentation of such financial projections has on firms’ innovation project selection decisions, this topic has not received sufficient attention in the literature. This study examines the role of scenario presentation on financial projections in innovation project selection by conducting two conjoint experiments among 2,425 managers and 11 follow-up interviews with senior executives. First, the findings of this study suggest that firms should help project teams present small- rather than large-range scenarios. This is important for at least the 57% of firms surveyed in this study where project teams are reported to present ‘too wide’ and ‘too extreme’ scenarios. Second, firms seeking to promote transformational innovation in their innovation pipeline should make the presentation of small-range scenarios required for an innovation proposal to be presented to a project selection committee. This is relevant for 79% of surveyed firms that would like to select more transformational than core innovation projects and especially for the half of which that currently do not require scenario presentation. Third, project teams with less expertise should develop scenarios analytically rather than intuitively and convey the project’s strategic merit to decision-makers to help increase innovation project selection likelihood.     

A logistic regression-based pairwise comparison method to aggregate preferences

In a group decision making process, several individuals or a committee have the responsibility to choose the best alternative from a set. The problem addressed in this paper is how to aggregate personal preferences to arrive at an optimal group decision. New technologies allow individuals that may seldom or never meet to make group decisions. This paper proposes a methodology to obtain the group preference ordering in two steps. Firstly, each individual studies the problem isolated, and then, in a possibly virtual meeting, the group must agree on the preferences on some pairs of alternatives. Then, the group criterion is achieved by using a logistic regression model within the pairwise comparison framework proposed here. Properties of the procedure are studied and two illustrative examples are presented.     

Teenager–peer interaction and its contribution to a family purchase decision: the mediating role of enduring product involvement

The influencing roles of teenager–peer interaction and enduring product involvement on a teen's contribution to a family purchase decision are examined using survey data from 1008 Tunisian teens. Results demonstrate that enduring product involvement mediates the relationship between teenager–peer interaction and the teenager's contribution. A structural equation model with supporting Bootstrap procedure is presented. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Deciding on the robotic process automation operating model: A checklist for RPA managers

Robotic process automation (RPA) has emerged as a technology promising various quick wins: fast deployment, immediate efficiency gains, and low investment requirements. While these promises have resulted in large-scale deployment of RPA in diverse industries, the choice of operating model remains tricky. This article identifies three key decisions for RPA managers: (1) the who decision, pertaining to selection of internal versus external resources for RPA development; (2) the how decision, on whether the organization will pursue RPA deployment on-premises or through the cloud; and (3) the what decision, on whether to employ proprietary RPA tools or an open-source solution. To shed light on how these decisions are made and to pinpoint their interdependencies, seven organizations’ choices connected with these three decisions are presented. The study’s main contribution is a decision checklist that can facilitate RPA managers’ navigation of the decision-making process, their gathering of relevant information, and their choice of the model best matching the organization’s needs.     

An Integrated Group Decision-Making Method Dealing with Fuzzy Preferences for Alternatives and Individual Judgments for Selection Criteria

Organizations often require decisions to be made by a group, and decision makers often have fuzzy preferences for alternatives and individual judgments when attempting to reach an optimal solution. In order to deal with the fuzziness of preference of decision makers, this paper proposes an integrated fuzzy group decision-making method. This method allows group members to express fuzzy preferences for alternatives and individual judgments for solution selection criteria. It also allowed for the weighting of group members. The method then aggregates these elements into a compromise group decision which is the most acceptable for the group as a whole. This method has been implemented and tested. An example is presented to illustrate the method.     

A Calibrated Group Decision Process

In practice most organisational decisions are made by groups that bring into the problem multiple perspectives, both complementary and contradictory. When having a group of decision makers, usually individuals’ preferences are either led to consensus or are aggregated with the use of some function like the median, the arithmetic or geometric mean. We focus in the second case, where individual’s preferences need to be aggregated. Our approach is based on the fact that when two decision makers are asked to give their preference between a pair of criteria using a specific scale, it is possible that they will give slightly different answers, even when they actually have the same opinion. This difference will not affect the case of a single decision maker, as it will be consistent throughout the whole process. However, it can affect a group decision when the values will be used as an input for the aggregation function. A novel approach is presented that enhances group decision making through a group calibration process. The proposed process adjusts individuals’ preferences based on their answers on a set of standardized questions prior to the aggregation phase. The method focuses The whole concept is applied to the group analytical network process method and it is illustrated through a telecommunications project case. The decision under examination concerns the selection of the right place for deploying a new telecom service of a multinational-based telecommunications company where a group of geographically dispersed decision makers form an ad-hoc virtual team in order to select the location for a new technical support centre.     

Integrating Behavioral Decision Theory and Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Prioritizing Economic,Environmental, and Social Dimensions in Carrier Selection

Carrier selection is a specialized sourcing decision with sustainability impacts in every supply chain. This research tests the effects of a transportation carrier's economic, environmental, and social sustainability performance on a shipper's carrier selection decision. Underrepresented experimental methods are used to test an a priori hypothesis derived from behavioral decision theory logic. Results contradict commonly held win–win, trade‐off, and ecological perspectives of sustainable supply chain management by finding that the economic dimension of sustainability has the greatest effect on carrier selection. Our research highlights this managerial preference and offers a theoretically grounded explanation for selection behaviors. This is one of the first empirical studies to simultaneously consider all three dimensions of sustainability. It also moves beyond an internal focal firm focus to evaluate sustainability effects through the eyes of external supply chain members. Our unique approach and findings offer managerial opportunities for differentiation and resource allocation as well as policy implications for the broader transportation system.     

On Consensus of Group Decision Making with Interval Utility Values and Interval Preference Orderings

Uncertainty is a common phenomenon in our real world. Interval utility values and interval preference orderings are two of the simplest and most convenient tools to describe uncertain preferences in decision making. In this paper, we investigate consensus problems in group decision making with interval utility values and interval preference orderings. We first establish their transformation relations, and give a formula for calculating the association coefficients of individual uncertain preferences and group ones. We then develop a consensus procedure for group decision making with interval utility values and interval preference orderings, which takes interval utility values as the uniform preference representation. This procedure can be reduced to a series of processes for dealing with some special group decision making situations, such as: group decision making with utility values and preference orderings, group decision making with interval utility values, group decision making with interval preference orderings, etc. Finally, we illustrate the applications of the developed procedures with two practical examples.     

Consumer decision making and variety of offerings: The effect of attribute alignability

In recent years, many companies have considerably increased their number of offering varieties. The underlying rationale for such product strategies is substantiated by the belief that assortment proliferation would better satisfy customers' diverse preferences. However, empirical evidence exists suggesting that if there are too many varieties to choose from, customers sometimes either refrain from making a purchase at all, or else resort to simple selection heuristics. This article approaches the issue of assortment variety from a decision‐theoretical perspective, by positing circumstances under which expanding the number of varieties will positively or negatively affect consumer behavior. Herein, the concept of attribute alignability provides explanatory potential. Two experimental studies are presented which analyze the effect of the number of product varieties on customers' decision‐making behavior by means of manipulating the choice settings in a virtual car configurator. It can be shown that whether the product attributes in question are alignable or nonalignable is the decisive factor in explaining customer decision making under variety. Furthermore, “pseudo‐alignability”is achieved easily via the relabeling of product options. These findings yield concrete managerial insights for the customer‐oriented design of product lines consisting of a basic product and several varieties derived from it. ©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

International franchising decision-making: An application of stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory is used to provide a frame of reference to examine the decision-making process involved in international franchising agreements. An international hotel group was selected as a case. Previous studies focus on investigations of the franchising process after the decision to engage has been taken and contracts duly exchanged. The analysis presented here focuses on the pre-contracting level: on selection and recruitment. The findings emphasise the importance of managing business cultural incompatibility between potential partners and the franchisor and within the franchising company itself.     

An Acceptable Consistency-Based Framework for Group Decision Making with Intuitionistic Preference Relations

This article studies acceptable consistency of intuitionistic preference relations (IPRs) and examines how to aggregate individual IPRs into a collective judgment in a group decision making (GDM) context. A consistency index is first introduced to measure the consistency level, thereby defining acceptable consistency for IPRs. If a decision-maker is unwilling or unavailable to revise his/her judgment for an IPR with unacceptable consistency, an automated approach is developed to improve its consistency to an acceptable level. The acceptably consistent IPRs are subsequently aggregated into a group opinion by using an induced ordered weighted averaging operator. A procedure is then proposed to solve GDM problems with IPRs. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed approach.     

Source Country Characteristics and the Inflow of Foreign Direct Investment into Saudi Arabia

The paper examines the impact of source country characteristics on the inflow of FDI into Saudi Arabia using a gravity‐type model including economic, distance and socio‐political variables. A unique database listing all new investments involving foreign ownership is used to construct a panel of 33 countries in the period 1980–2005. To account for many country–year observations with zero FDI, the negative binomial regression, the Tobit regression and the Heckman selection procedure are used. The conclusions drawn from the analysis employing panel‐based techniques differ from the results obtained from pooled regression models. Also, the determinants of FDI differ depending on whether foreign investment is measured in terms of investment expenditure or the number of individual foreign projects. The Heckman selection results reveal that there are a large number of factors affecting the decision to invest in Saudi Arabia, compared with relatively few determinants of the actual size of investment. Traditional size and distance characteristics hold to a great extent but the relationship between FDI and bilateral trade is unclear and there is some evidence that the countries that export to Saudi Arabia do not invest there. In terms of scope for possible spillovers, there is mixed evidence on whether the investment comes from more technologically advanced economies but volume‐wise important investments originate from countries characterised by high income per capita.     

Multi-criteria Remote Asynchronous Group Decision Screening: An Experimental Study

A new visualization-based multi-criteria procedure for group decision screening is presented. The procedure supports a group in selecting a small number of alternatives from an initial list described by a collection of attributes which are used as screening criteria. We propose and experimentally study the Group Remote Asynchronous Screening Support (GRASS) procedure that can be used by a large number of participants who are not able to meet face to face. GRASS does not use any interaction between the participants and the group screening is based on the individual preferences expressed by them independently from each other. GRASS uses the concepts of Borda count, by applying the visualization of information to simplify the analysis of large lists of multi-criteria alternatives. Visualization is used to support the individual analysis of the variety of alternatives and the individual selecting of a small number of alternatives from the list for the subsequent scoring through Borda count. Visualization is carried via the Interactive Decision Maps / Reasonable Goals Method (IDM/RGM) technique. We first check a speculative supposition that participants are able to find a single best alternative by using the GRASS procedure. As it is not the case, we re-formulate our hypothesis and check whether the most preferred alternative is part of a short list of alternatives returned through GRASS. The experiment was carried out with senior applied mathematics students who managed to apply GRASS without any problem.     

消费者渠道选择的决策过程演变研究

消费者面临着多样化的渠道选择,企业要有效的管理销售渠道,必须了解消费者渠道选择的决策过程,然而,这是一项具有挑战性的任务,因为消费者的渠道选择随时都可能变化。文章首先基于学习理论解释了消费者渠道选择的决策过程是演变的,然后分析了消费者渠道选择决策过程演变的三个影响因素即:渠道偏好、个人习惯和营销策略,在此基础上构建了消费者渠道选择的决策过程演变理论模型,并进行修正,最后提出了在管理上的三点启示。