Distributed Linguistic Representations in Decision Making: Taxonomy, Key Elements and Applications, and Challenges in Data Science and Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Distributed linguistic representations are powerful tools for modelling the uncertainty and complexity of preference information in linguistic decision making. To provide a comprehensive perspective on the development of distributed linguistic representations in decision making, we present the taxonomy of existing distributed linguistic representations. Then, we review the key elements and applications of distributed linguistic information processing in decision making, including the distance measurement, aggregation methods, distributed linguistic preference relations, and distributed linguistic multiple attribute decision making models. Next, we provide a discussion on ongoing challenges and future research directions from the perspective of data science and explainable artificial intelligence.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71971039 71421001,71910107002,71771037,71874023 71871149Sichuan University sksyl201705 2018hhs-5

Onsite/offsite social commerce adoption for SMEs using fuzzy linguistic decision making in complex framework

There has been a growing social commerce adoption trend among SMEs for few years. However, it is often a challenging strategic task for SMEs to choose the right type of social commerce. SMEs usually have a limited budget, technical skills and resources and want to maximise productivity with those limited resources. There is much literature that discusses the social commerce adoption strategy for SMEs. However, there is no work to enable SMEs to choose social commerce—onsite/offsite or hybrid strategy. Moreover, very few studies allow the decision-makers to handle uncertain, complex nonlinear relationships of social commerce adoption factors. The paper proposes a fuzzy linguistic multi-criteria group decision-making in a complex framework for onsite, offsite social commerce adoption to address the problem. The proposed approach uses a novel hybrid approach by combining FAHP, FOWA and selection criteria of the technological–organisation–environment (TOE) framework. Unlike previous methods, the proposed approach uses the decision maker's attitudinal characteristics and recommends intelligently using the OWA operator. The approach further demonstrates the decision behaviour of the decision-makers with Fuzzy Minimum (FMin), Fuzzy Maximum (FMax), Laplace criteria, Hurwicz criteria, FWA, FOWA and FPOWA. The framework enables the SMEs to choose the right type of social commerce considering TOE factors that help them build a stronger relationship with current and potential customers. The approach's applicability is demonstrated using a case study of three SMEs seeking to adopt a social commerce type. The analysis results indicate the proposed approach's effectiveness in handling uncertain, complex nonlinear decisions in social commerce adoption

Green supplier selection based on CODAS method in probabilistic uncertain linguistic environment

Probabilistic uncertain linguistic sets (PULTSs) have widely been used in MADM or MAGDM. The CODAS method, which is a novel MADM or MAGDM tool, aims to acquire the optimal choice which have the largest Euclidean & Hamming distances from the NIS. This paper designs the probabilistic uncertain linguistic CODAS (PUL-CODAS) method with sine entropy weight. Finally, a numerical example for green supplier selection is given and the obtained results are compared with some existing models. First published online 05 February 202

INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS IN WEB SERVICE QUALITY

Context/Background: Use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is crucial to provide the value added services to consumers to achieve their requirements successfully. SLAs also ensure the expected Quality of Service to consumers. Aim: This study investigates how efficient structural representation and management of SLAs can help to ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) in Web services during Web service composition. Method: Existing specifications and structures for SLAs for Web services do not fully formalize and provide support for different automatic and dynamic behavioral aspects needed for QoS calculation. This study addresses the issues on how to formalize and document the structures of SLAs for better service utilization and improved QoS results. The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is extended in this study with addition of an SLAAgent, which helps to automate the QoS calculation using Fuzzy Inference Systems, service discovery, service selection, SLA monitoring and management during service composition with the help of structured SLA documents. Results: The proposed framework improves the ways of how to structure, manage and monitor SLAs during Web service composition to achieve the better Quality of Service effectively and efficiently. Conclusions: To deal with different types of computational requirements the automation of SLAs is a challenge during Web service composition. This study shows the significance of the SLAs for better QoS during composition of services in SOA

Developing and evaluating cybersecurity competencies for students in computing programs

Changes due to technological development in the workplace are putting pressure on academia to keep pace with the changing nature of work. Due to the growing need for cybersecurity professionals, universities improve their cybersecurity programs to develop qualified cybersecurity competencies. The purpose of this study is to validate the cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) competencies of cybersecurity degree programs using a fuzzy linguistic group decision-making method. This study shows that cybersecurity knowledge is essential, along with technical skills and human abilities for cybersecurity professionals.</jats:p

Cloud Technology Selection: A structured framework for decision making

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThis study aims to get organizations to improve their decision making during the selection of cloud technology process. As the technology evolves alongside an ever-increasing abundance in market offer, it may be challenging to choose the desirable service that encompasses several business approaches. For the purpose of this study to be attained, the reader must first comprehend the definition of Cloud Technology: it is the delivery of IT resources over the Internet, being applications, software, storage, among other services. Furthermore, understanding the current main technologies/architectures and their capabilities/limitations will play an important role in designing and developing the prospected solution. A thoroughly research will be produced to better define the criteria used in the process. Despite the fact that technology is able to be tailored up to a certain level for the organization needs, a higher level of participation will encourage vendors and architecture designers to develop a better knowledge on the companies’ desires, thus delivering more appropriate features to their unique needs

Digital transformation in the defense industry: A maturity model combining SF-AHP and SF-TODIM approaches

As an inevitable process, digitalization has become a priority for many companies. The measurement of digital maturity is the first step toward adequately executing this. Although digital maturity models (DMM) have been developed for different sectors in the literature, such studies in the defense industry are lacking due to sector-specific dynamics. This study aims to close this gap and proposes a digital maturity model specific to the defense industry. In this study, a novel model was developed that combines the SF-AHP and SF-TODIM methods due to the uncertainty and hesitancy contained in the evaluation. The validity of the presented novel model has been demonstrated in a prominent defense company in Turkey. According to the results, the most notable digital maturity dimensions are the evaluation of opportunities and alignment with stakeholders. In addition, the model indicates that the company owns the required soft skills, such as leadership, organizational culture, and strategic determination for digital transformation (DT). On the other hand, essential hard skills such as technology and operational competencies are yet to be improved. Lastly, sensitivity and comparison analyses are conducted to validate and verify the obtained results’ stability and robustness

Computational intelligence based complex adaptive system-of-systems architecture evolution strategy

The dynamic planning for a system-of-systems (SoS) is a challenging endeavor. Large scale organizations and operations constantly face challenges to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems over a period of time under threats, constrained budget and uncertainty. It is therefore necessary for the program managers to be able to look at the future scenarios and critically assess the impact of technology and stakeholder changes. Managers and engineers are always looking for options that signify affordable acquisition selections and lessen the cycle time for early acquisition and new technology addition. This research helps in analyzing sequential decisions in an evolving SoS architecture based on the wave model through three key features namely; meta-architecture generation, architecture assessment and architecture implementation. Meta-architectures are generated using evolutionary algorithms and assessed using type II fuzzy nets. The approach can accommodate diverse stakeholder views and convert them to key performance parameters (KPP) and use them for architecture assessment. On the other hand, it is not possible to implement such architecture without persuading the systems to participate into the meta-architecture. To address this issue a negotiation model is proposed which helps the SoS manger to adapt his strategy based on system owners behavior. This work helps in capturing the varied differences in the resources required by systems to prepare for participation. The viewpoints of multiple stakeholders are aggregated to assess the overall mission effectiveness of the overarching objective. An SAR SoS example problem illustrates application of the method. Also a dynamic programing approach can be used for generating meta-architectures based on the wave model. --Abstract, page iii

Gestão de Recursos Finitos em Empresas

The present work has as goal aiding decision makers, researchers, enterprises and practitioners by developing a proper literature review as a base for comparison among multiple-criteria decision making methods in finite resources management according to each of the most important areas of a business environment. Efficient resource management decision making in companies impacts its value creation capability and, therefore, its competitiveness and ultimate success. The methodology for paper research follows the PRISMA flow diagram, for correct paper filtrations according to the set of criteria stablished in alignment with the thesis goal. The papers included in the study are any that employ multiple-criteria decision making methods in their pure forms, in combination with each other forming hybrids, or in combination with other mathematical techniques for solving decision making problems across five major areas of a company’s body. The five major areas are: (1) Supply Chain Management and Logistics; (2) Environmental Management; (3) Business and Marketing Management; (4) Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Systems; and (5) Human Resources Management. The 204 final papers are presented separated by their corresponding application areas, ordered by number of citations, which is used as a measure of their scientific community relevance. They are also classified by, author, nationality, journal, year, type of research and methods used. All collected data is used for quantitative statistical analysis, with which is possible to collect more in-depth information on the literature research. Focused comments on the main methods are also present in this work, with observations made on the many applications and variations each of them had throughout the articles in the research. The AHP and TOPSIS approaches, either with their fuzzy set variations are by far the most popular methods in the referred applications. However, besides them other 51 MCDM or other mathematical techniques are employed in many different combinations and approaches, bringing a very interesting diversity to the study that is very useful for it to be used as a base for comparison among methods. A total number of 111 journals and authors and co-authors of 41 nationalities are involved in the publications between 2012 and 2018, with more than half of papers coming from either India, Turkey or Iran. Many other results are obtained, bringing the readers different perspectives on the subject. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge with a great and insightful overview on MCDM methods application in aiding in challenges part of a business environment, so that companies can better manage their resources and be more prosperous. It is a vast database that allows many comparisons and evaluations, offering more analysis than the standard literature review articles.O presente trabalho tem como objetivo auxiliar os tomadores de decisão, pesquisadores e profissionais, ao desenvolver uma revisão bibliográfica adequada como base para comparação entre os métodos de decisão multicritério na gestão de recursos finitos de acordo com cada uma das áreas mais importantes de um ambiente de negócios. A tomada eficiente de decisões de gestão de recursos nas empresas afeta sua capacidade de criação de valor e, portanto, sua competitividade e sucesso finais. A metodologia da investigação baseou-se na metodologia PRISMA, para a correta filtração das publicações de acordo com o conjunto de critérios estabelecidos, em alinhamento com o objetivo da tese. Os artigos incluídos no estudo são aqueles que apresentam métodos de decisão com critérios múltiplos em suas formas puras, em combinação uns com os outros ao formar híbridos, ou com outras técnicas matemáticas para resolver problemas em cinco áreas principais das empresas. As cinco áreas são: (1) Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos e Logística; (2) Gestão Ambiental; (3) Gestão de Negócios e Marketing; (4) Sistemas de Projeto, Engenharia e Manufatura; e (5) Gestão de Recursos Humanos. Os 204 artigos finais são apresentados de acordo com as áreas de aplicação correspondentes, ordenadas por número de citações, que são usadas como uma medida de sua relevância na comunidade científica. Eles são, ainda, classificados por autor, nacionalidade, revista, ano, tipo de pesquisa e métodos utilizados. Todos os dados coletados são utilizados para análise estatística quantitativa, com a qual é possível recolher informações mais aprofundadas sobre a pesquisa bibliográfica. São realizados comentários sobre os principais métodos e as maneiras que foram apresentados ao longo do estudo de todos os artigos durante a pesquisa. As abordagens AHP e TOPSIS, com suas variações em conjuntos difusos ou fuzzy, são de longe os métodos mais populares nas aplicações referidas. No entanto, além destes, outros 51 MCDM e outras técnicas são utilizadas em muitas combinações e abordagens, trazendo uma diversidade muito interessante para o estudo, servindo de base para comparação dos métodos. Um total de 111 revistas e autores e coautores de 41 nacionalidades estão envolvidos nas publicações entre 2012 e 2018, com mais de metade dos artigos provenientes da Índia, Turquia ou Irão. Estes e outros resultados levam aos leitores diferentes perspectivas sobre o assunto. Este documento contribui para o estado da arte, com um conhecimento geral excelente e perspicaz sobre a aplicação de métodos MCDM para ajudar nos desafios de um ambiente de negócios, para que as empresas possam melhor gerenciar seus recursos e serem mais prósperas. É um vasto banco de dados que permite muitas comparações e avaliações, oferecendo mais análises do que os artigos de revisão de literatura padrão