Distinguishing coefficient driven sensitivity analysis of GRA model for intelligent decisions: application in project management

The Distinguishing Coefficient (ξ) is an important parameter of Grey Relational Analysis (GRA), a flagship multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model of Grey System Theory, an intelligent and multifaceted field developed by Chinese scientists in 1980s. However, the scholars widely assume ξ = 0.5. The current study questions this practice. Also, some scholars have argued that the variation in ξ doesn’t influence the ranking of the factors through GRA. On contrary, the study demonstrates, the variation in ξ can influence the ranking. This has been shown through a case involving primary data concerning the perceived relative importance of Project Management Knowledge Areas (PMKAs). This study is significant for the analysts of uncertain systems, represented by grey or fuzzy systems, who intend to use GRA for intelligent multi-criteria decision making. It encourages ξ – driven sensitivity analysis of GRA model before interpreting the results. The study reveals, by tailoring the value of ξ a point can be achieved where the ranking obtained through GRA can be made most comparable to the other MCDM methods. For comparative analysis of the GRA based results the study deployed three other MCDM techniques; Analytic Hierarchy Process, Best Worst Method and Simple Additive Weighting

Green suppler selection by an integrated method with stochastic acceptability analysis and MULTIMOORA

In the process of supplier selection for green supply chain management, uncertain information may appear in alternatives’ performances or experts’ preferences. The stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) is a beneficial technique to tackling the uncertain information in such a problem and the MULTIMOORA is a robust technique to aggregate alternatives’ utilities. This study dedicates to proposing an SMAA-MULTIMOORA method by considering the advantages of both methods. The integrated method can accept uncertain information as inputs. The steps of the SMAA-MULTIMOORA are illustrated. A case study about the selection of green suppliers is given to show the validity and robustness of the SMAA-MULTIMOORA method

Single-valued neutrosophic TODIM method based on cumulative prospect theory for multi-attribute group decision making and its application to medical emergency management evaluation

In recent years, emergent public health events happen from time to time, which puts forward new requirements for the establishment of a perfect medical emergency system. It is a new direction to evaluate the effectiveness of medical emergency systems from the perspective of multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) issues. In such article, we tend to resolve the MAGDM issues under single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs) with TODIM method based on cumulative prospect theory (CPT). And the single-valued neutrosophic TODIM method based on CPT (CPT-SVNTODIM) for MAGDM issues are developed. This new method not only inherits advantages of classical TODIM method, but also has further improvement in some aspects. For example, we set up the entropy to calculate attribute weights for ensuring the more objective decision-making process. Furthermore, it is also an extension of MAGDM method to utilize single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs) to depict decision makers’ ideas. In addition, we introduce the application of CPT-SVN-TODIM method in the assessment of medical emergency management. And finally, the reliability of CPT-SVN-TODIM method is confirmed by comparing with some other methods

Algebraic Structures of Neutrosophic Triplets, Neutrosophic Duplets, or Neutrosophic Multisets

Neutrosophy (1995) is a new branch of philosophy that studies triads of the form (, , ), where is an entity {i.e. element, concept, idea, theory, logical proposition, etc.}, is the opposite of , while is the neutral (or indeterminate) between them, i.e., neither nor .Based on neutrosophy, the neutrosophic triplets were founded, which have a similar form (x, neut(x), anti(x)), that satisfy several axioms, for each element x in a given set.This collective book presents original research papers by many neutrosophic researchers from around the world, that report on the state-of-the-art and recent advancements of neutrosophic triplets, neutrosophic duplets, neutrosophic multisets and their algebraic structures – that have been defined recently in 2016 but have gained interest from world researchers. Connections between classical algebraic structures and neutrosophic triplet / duplet / multiset structures are also studied. And numerous neutrosophic applications in various fields, such as: multi-criteria decision making, image segmentation, medical diagnosis, fault diagnosis, clustering data, neutrosophic probability, human resource management, strategic planning, forecasting model, multi-granulation, supplier selection problems, typhoon disaster evaluation, skin lesson detection, mining algorithm for big data analysis, etc

Evaluation of group decision making based on group preferences under a multi-criteria environment

Arrow’s impossibility theorem stated that no single group decision making (GDM) method is perfect, in other words, different GDM methods can produce different or even conflicting rankings. So, 1) how to evaluate GDM methods and 2) how to reconcile different or even conflicting rankings are two important and difficult problems in GDM process, which have not been fully studied. This paper aims to develop and propose a group decision-making consensus recognition model, named GDMCRM, to address these two problems in the evaluation of GDM methods under a multi-criteria environment in order to identify and achieve optimal group consensus. In this model, the ordinal and cardinal GDM methods are both implemented and studied in the process of evaluating the GDM methods. What’s more, this proposed model can reconcile different or even conflicting rankings generated by the eight GDM methods, based on empirical research on two real-life datasets: financial data of 12 urban commercial banks and annual report data of seven listed oil companies. The results indicate the proposed model not only can largely satisfy the group preferences of multiple stakeholders, but can also identify the best compromise solution from the opinion of all the participants involved in the group decision process. First published online 20 October 202

Multi-Objective and Multi-Attribute Optimisation for Sustainable Development Decision Aiding

Optimization is considered as a decision-making process for getting the most out of available resources for the best attainable results. Many real-world problems are multi-objective or multi-attribute problems that naturally involve several competing objectives that need to be optimized simultaneously, while respecting some constraints or involving selection among feasible discrete alternatives. In this Reprint of the Special Issue, 19 research papers co-authored by 88 researchers from 14 different countries explore aspects of multi-objective or multi-attribute modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments by suggesting multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) and multi-objective decision-making (MODM) approaches. The papers elaborate upon the approaches of state-of-the-art case studies in selected areas of applications related to sustainable development decision aiding in engineering and management, including construction, transportation, infrastructure development, production, and organization management