Performance Evaluation of Construction Companies in Malaysia with Entropy-VIKOR Model

Construction industry is an important industry that has an enormous impact on the country’s economic development. Nowadays, the government strives to encourage the construction industry to develop the advanced and modern infrastructure that related to health, transport, education, and housing. As a result, the Malaysian construction sector companies’ financial performance is studied in this paper based on the crucial financial ratios. This paper aims to assess and compare the Malaysian construction sector companies’ financial performance based on Entropy-VIKOR model. In this paper, the listed construction companies in Malaysia are investigated. The findings of this paper demonstrate that ZECON, DKLS, GADANG, TRIPLC, and MELATI are ranked as the top five construction companies based on the proposed model. The importance of this paper is to assess the construction companies’ financial performance as well as identify the weights of the financial ratios in assessing the Malaysian construction sector companies’ financial performance with the proposed Entropy-VIKOR model

Risk of Cyber Attacks in the Network Systems of a State University in Eastern Visayas, Philippines: A Case Study

Computer network security plays a vital role in the information and communication technology (ICT) environment. This study investigates the status of the existing network security, potential risks, and the possible solutions to the existing network problems. The descriptive research design was used using a survey questionnaire as its main instrument in the conduct of the study. Findings reveal that the current status of the network security of the State University needs improvement as it handles complex information and is important in the university's day-to-day transactions. The university needs to undergo intensive evaluation and system analyses to ensure that their operation will not be hampered by Malicious software or cyber hackers

An Analysis of and Perspective on the Information Security Maturity Model: a case study of a Public and a Private Sector Company

Information Security (IS) is a concept that is related to protecting a set of data in order to preserve the value it has for an individual or an organization. A review of the literature shows there are four main aspects related to IS: confidentiality, integrity, availability and non-repudiation. Based on these four aspects, a new framework is put forward for analyzing the information security maturity model (ISMM) in an organization, assuming that each organization has a minimum level of information security policies in each aspect, taking into consideration the percentage of policies that this organization has from all those cited in our model. At the end, a case study was conducted in order to analyze the ISMM of a public and private sector company

Experimental Study of WEDM Process Parameters during the Machining of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite (AMMC)

In the present work an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) process parameters on the multiple performance characteristics while machining of Aluminium metal matrix composite (AMMC). A series of experiments were done as per the standard Taguchi’s L27 orthogonal array by considering pulse-on-time (Pon), pulse-off-time (Poff) and peak current (Ip) as the controlled process parameters at three levels. The multiple responses of material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra) are optimized concurrently using a multi-criteria decision making process called preference selection index (PSI) method. ANOVA is employed to study the contribution of process parameters on the multiple responses

The effects of online commentary on users\u27 information processing in the context of online discussion forums

The airline industry employs advanced e-commerce technologies to retain frequent customers and attract new passengers, but it is likely that not all airlines have clear knowledge about how many gaps should be filled between the status quo and an ideal website. This study proposes an integrated model for evaluating airlines’ websites in terms of the perspectives of “marketing mix 4Ps” and “website quality”. In order to verify the practicality and usefulness of this model, an empirical study of the Taiwanese airline industry is offered to illustrate the application of the proposed model. The model first applies the DEMATEL method to cope with the interdependencies between criteria. It then converts the criteria’s cause and effect relations into a visual structural map where the ANP method can help compute the weight of criteria. Finally, it uses the modified VIKOR method to rank e-commerce websites of the five Taiwanese airlines. Overall, the results show that the Taiwanese airlines still have a great deal of room to improve their websites. This proposed model not only provides helpful information for airlines to understand their websites’ quality level, but also contributes to industrial applications in terms of providing some worthwhile recommendations for building an ideal website

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOME PROMINENT MCDM METHODS: A CASE OF RANKING SERBIAN BANKS

In the literature, many multiple criteria decision making methods have been proposed. There are also a number of papers, which are devoted to comparison of their characteristics and performances. However, a definitive answer to questions: which method is most suitable and which method is most effective is still actual. Therefore, in this paper, the use of some prominent multiple criteria decision making methods is considered on the example of ranking Serbian banks. The objective of this paper is not to determine which method is most appropriate for ranking banks. The objective of this paper is to emphasize that the use of various multiple criteria decision making methods sometimes can produce different ranking orders of alternatives, highlighted some reasons which lead to different results, and indicate that different results obtained by different MCDM methods are not just a random event, but rather reality

Generalized DEMATEL technique with centrality measurements

DEMATEL technique is a useful tool for understanding the influential relationship be­tween criteria of a systematic problematique in structural modeling, and has received much atten­tion in the field of decision analysis recently. However, the past papers focused on the applications of DEMATEL technique and ignored the convergence problem of the approach. In addition, two simple indicators, i.e., in-degree and out-degree centralities, used in DEMATEL technique cannot fully represent the insight of the network relationship. In this paper, we propose a general DE­MATEL technique which incorporated the concept based on interaction diminishing effect. The traditional DEMATEL technique can be considered as a special case of the proposed method when we ignore the effect. Later, we give six important indicators which can be used in DEMATEL tech­nique to conclude the relative importance of criteria. In addition, a numerical example is used to demonstrate the proposed method and the applications of the indicators. First published online: 08 May 201

Flexible multi-criteria integrated performance-based decision model for contractor selection

Contractors are one of the important team members in a construction project, they translate design and specifications into reality. Involvement of contractors in a project begins after they successfully make it through the preliminary screening process and win the bid for the project tender. Statistics released by construction industry agencies showed that the overall level of contractor performance are low. Researchers and professionals within the construction industry often relate the contractor performance with weaknesses within the current contractor selection system. The current contractor selection system is usually based on the lowest bid price, subjective assessment, neglecting performance criteria and does not act as a flexible decision making tool. Hence, this study aims to develop an integrated multi criteria decision making model based on performance for contractor selection. Mixed mode research methodology was used in identifying performance criteria and ensuring accuracy of the model developed. Interviews with six experts were conducted to identify weaknesses of the current system, the assessment method for performance criteria and integration of the model into the current assessment system. Whereas online questionnaires responded by 40 experienced quantity surveyors were used to determine the weighting factor for the determined performance criteria. Content analysis was used to interpret interview data and descriptive statistics method was used to determine relative importance of performance criteria. This research identified 22 contractor performance criteria divided into two groups; those of past performance (11 criteria) and potential performance (11 criteria). Quality of work in past projects and rate of failure to complete past contracts satisfactorily or failure to complete projects within the pre-determined time frame are the main past performance criteria. Whereas the main potential performance criteria are depth of experience in similar projects and labour resources. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to develop a multi criteria contractor selection system to assist in decision making when faced with multiple subjective criteria which are often contradictory. A web based prototype of the flexible multi criteria contractor selection model based on performance has been developed in conjunction with the objective of this research. The developed prototype is integrated into the current contractor selection system to be tested and validated by quantity surveyors in the public sector. Test results showed significantly similar opinions among all experts, towards the use of the proposed flexible multi criteria contractor selection model based on performance. The resulting model in this research succeeded in choosing the most capable contractor and produced consistent results. Feedback from contractors also validated that the resulting model is practical enough to be applied in the construction industry

Comments on “Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in economics: an overview”

This paper offers comments on a previously published paper, titled “Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in economics: an overview,” by Zavadskas and Turskis (2011). The paper's authors made great efforts to summarize MCDM methods but may have failed to consider several important new concepts and trends in the MCDM field for solving actual problems. First, the traditional model assumes the criteria are independently and hierarchically structured; however, in reality, problems are often characterized by interdependent criteria and dimensions and may even exhibit feedback-like effects. Second, relatively good solutions from the existing alternatives are replaced by aspiration levels to fit today's competitive markets. Third, the emphasis in the field has shifted from ranking and selection when determining the most preferable approaches to performance improvement of existing methods. Fourth, information fusion techniques, including the fuzzy integral method, have been developed to aggregate the performances. Finally, the original fixed resources in multi-objective programming are divided such that both decision and objective spaces are changeable. In this paper, we add new concepts and provide comments that could be thought of as an attempt to complete the original paper