Optimization for Decision Making II

In the current context of the electronic governance of society, both administrations and citizens are demanding the greater participation of all the actors involved in the decision-making process relative to the governance of society. This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled “Optimization for Decision Making II”. These works give an appropriate response to the new challenges raised, the decision-making process can be done by applying different methods and tools, as well as using different objectives. In real-life problems, the formulation of decision-making problems and the application of optimization techniques to support decisions are particularly complex and a wide range of optimization techniques and methodologies are used to minimize risks, improve quality in making decisions or, in general, to solve problems. In addition, a sensitivity or robustness analysis should be done to validate/analyze the influence of uncertainty regarding decision-making. This book brings together a collection of inter-/multi-disciplinary works applied to the optimization of decision making in a coherent manner

Fuzzy Techniques for Decision Making 2018

Zadeh's fuzzy set theory incorporates the impreciseness of data and evaluations, by imputting the degrees by which each object belongs to a set. Its success fostered theories that codify the subjectivity, uncertainty, imprecision, or roughness of the evaluations. Their rationale is to produce new flexible methodologies in order to model a variety of concrete decision problems more realistically. This Special Issue garners contributions addressing novel tools, techniques and methodologies for decision making (inclusive of both individual and group, single- or multi-criteria decision making) in the context of these theories. It contains 38 research articles that contribute to a variety of setups that combine fuzziness, hesitancy, roughness, covering sets, and linguistic approaches. Their ranges vary from fundamental or technical to applied approaches

Three Essays on Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Despite the saliency of immigrant entrepreneurship, our understanding of the unique challenges of start-up processes confronting immigrant entrepreneurs is quite limited. While entrepreneurship as a field of study is growing rapidly, it is criticized for the lack of commonly accepted and well developed research paradigms. To address this theoretical gap in the entrepreneurship literature in general and in the immigrant entrepreneurship research in particular this dissertation addresses the following overarching question in a three essay format: What are the start-up processes and outcomes associated with immigrant entrepreneurship? The first essay suggests a theoretical framework which exhibits how the social embeddedness of transnational entrepreneurs (TEs) affects their firm performance through the mediating effect of TEs\u27 dynamic capabilities and the moderating effect of institutional distance between countries of origin and residence. The second essay qualitatively explores similarities and differences of entrepreneurial start-up processes between immigrant and indigenous entrepreneurs. Using data from the Kauffman Firm Survey, the third essay employs the liability of foreignness theoretical framework to empirically examine immigrant start-up processes and outcomes

Absorptive capacity and internationalization of New Zealand high-tech SMEs in the agro-technology sector

This study investigates the relationships between firm's technology, absorptive capacity and the internationalization process in the high-tech SMEs. The research identifies the most influential factors that affect the international activities and expansion decisions of New Zealand high-tech SMEs with core capabilities in agro-technology. Mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative elements in the data collection and analysis, were employed in this research for a reason that a deeper understanding of the research subject and the analysis of complex issues such as the internationalization process and absorptive capacity required methodological variety. The use of qualitative and quantitative methods took place in parallel. Both methods were used to study the same subject but they had specific objective related purposes and they offered the possibility of developing rich empirical data as well as a more comprehensive understanding of the subject under the study. The findings show that it is absorptive capacity that explains internationalization process, not internationalization process that explains absorptive capacity. The practice of internationalizing is as much a reflection of a firm's absorptive capacity as it is its determinant. The research identifies that high-tech SMEs possess technological and non-core absorptive capacity which in a different way influence firms' strategies. The research suggests that firm's technological capabilities and the advantage of specialized knowledge along with their limited non-core absorptive capacity act as constraints to the development of the future international strategy in high-tech SMEs. The study expands the existing literature on internationalization by developing variables for evaluating absorptive capacity in firms. This helped develop an absorptive capacity model which can be used as a valuable tool for self-assessment by firms to facilitate gaining insight towards further growth and development. The research suggested that if firms were able to measure its absorptive capacity this may result in improved business activities and enhanced presence in the world market. The results of this study should encourage firms to identify, capture and articulate knowledge achieved by their ventures. Managers must develop and nurture skills that ensure effective integration of learning as their firms expand, particularly internationally. These findings and absorptive capacity model offered as a tool should encourage managers to explore when, where, and how to best use firm's resources in the business operations. This is particularly important in regards to the research context (high-tech SMEs) where scientists are managers as well

Decision-making moon-bridge : SMEs’ usage of causation and effectuation perpetually in motion

The importance of new ventures and SMEs to the economy has been at the forefront of decision-making logic research. The growth and diversity of nascent effectuation have been reported in the literature, without forgetting the effects of the traditional causal approach. Despite the general popularity of the topic, literature on the role of decision-making logic in innovation, internationalization and business relationships is rather limited. To address this gap, this paper draws on causation and effectuation theories to develop: (1) a model that describes; (1a) the interconnectedness of the decision-making logics, (1b) matters that determine the prevailing logic, (1c) focus phenomena affected by decision-making logics, and (1d) how decision-making logic influences companies' reactions to opportunities and obstacles. (2) a concept that will assist entrepreneurs in their decision-making related considerations. The results are based on an abductive multi-case study on six Finnish energy technology firms, three of which are start-ups and three are solidly established SMEs. The main data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and observations within a time period of three years. The data indicate that these two logics are not opposites and most decisions contain at least the seeds of both logics. Actually, the findings confirm that the use of absolute causation or effectuation logic is negligible, and the usage of logics are intertwined and constantly changing. The contribution is a view of the decision-maker's role, the effects of the operational context and the subject matter topic on the definition of the prevailing decision-making logic and its effects.Uusien yritysten ja pk-yritysten tärkeys taloudelle on ollut päätöksentekologiikan tutkimuksen kärjessä. Suhteellisen uuden toimintateorian (effectuation) vahvistumista ja monimuotoisuutta on kirjallisuudessa laajalti raportoitu, unohtamatta perinteisen kausaalisen (causation) lähestymistavan vaikutuksia päätöksen¬tekoon. Kuitenkin, huolimatta aiheen yleisestä suosiosta tutkimukset päätöksentekologiikan roolista innovaatioissa, kansainvälistymisessä ja liikesuhteissa on varsin rajallista. Tämän puutteen korjaamiseksi tämä tutkimus hyödyntää ”causation” ja ”effectuation” -teorioita kehittääkseen (1) mallin, joka kuvaa; (1a) päätöksentekologiikkojen keskinäistä yhteyttä, (1b) tekijöitä, jotka määrittävät vallitsevan logiikan (1c) fokusilmiöitä, joihin päätöksentekologiikat vaikuttavat ja (1d) miten päätöksentekologiikka vaikuttaa yritysten reaktioihin mahdollisuuksiin ja esteisiin. Lisäksi tutkimus hyödyntää näitä teorioita kehittääkseen (2) konseptin, joka auttaa yrittäjiä heidän päätösten tekoon liittyvissä pohdinnoissa. Tulokset perustuvat abduktiiviseen monitapaustutkimukseen kuudessa suomalaisessa energiateknologia-alan yrityksessä, joista kolme on startup-yrityksiä ja kolme vakiintuneita pk-yrityksiä. Merkityksellisin tutkimusdata kerättiin puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla ja havainnoilla kolmen vuoden seurantajakson aikana. Tulokset osoittavat, että nämä kaksi logiikkaa eivät ole toistensa vastakohtia ja useimmat päätökset sisältävät molemmista logiikoista ainakin ituja. Itse asiassa havainnot vahvistavat, että absoluuttisen ”causation” tai ”effectuation” -logiikan käyttö on vähäistä ja toisiinsa kietoutuneiden logiikkojen käyttö on jatkuvassa muutoksessa. Tutkimuksen tuotos on selvä näkemys päätöksentekijän roolista sekä ympäristön, kontekstin ja itse aiheen vaikutuksista vallitsevaan päätöksentekologiikan ja näiden vaikutusten seurauksiin.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

New Challenges in Neutrosophic Theory and Applications

Neutrosophic theory has representatives on all continents and, therefore, it can be said to be a universal theory. On the other hand, according to the three volumes of “The Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers” (2016, 2018, 2019), plus numerous others not yet included in Encyclopedia book series, about 1200 researchers from 73 countries have applied both the neutrosophic theory and method. Neutrosophic theory was founded by Professor Florentin Smarandache in 1998; it constitutes further generalization of fuzzy and intuitionistic fuzzy theories. The key distinction between the neutrosophic set/logic and other types of sets/logics lies in the introduction of the degree of indeterminacy/neutrality (I) as an independent component in the neutrosophic set. Thus, neutrosophic theory involves the degree of membership-truth (T), the degree of indeterminacy (I), and the degree of non-membership-falsehood (F). In recent years, the field of neutrosophic set, logic, measure, probability and statistics, precalculus and calculus, etc., and their applications in multiple fields have been extended and applied in various fields, such as communication, management, and information technology. We believe that this book serves as useful guidance for learning about the current progress in neutrosophic theories. In total, 22 studies have been presented and reflect the call of the thematic vision. The contents of each study included in the volume are briefly described as follows. The first contribution, authored by Wadei Al-Omeri and Saeid Jafari, addresses the concept of generalized neutrosophic pre-closed sets and generalized neutrosophic pre-open sets in neutrosophic topological spaces. In the article “Design of Fuzzy Sampling Plan Using the Birnbaum-Saunders Distribution”, the authors Muhammad Zahir Khan, Muhammad Farid Khan, Muhammad Aslam, and Abdur Razzaque Mughal discuss the use of probability distribution function of Birnbaum–Saunders distribution as a proportion of defective items and the acceptance probability in a fuzzy environment. Further, the authors Derya Bakbak, Vakkas Uluc¸ay, and Memet S¸ahin present the “Neutrosophic Soft Expert Multiset and Their Application to Multiple Criteria Decision Making” together with several operations defined for them and their important algebraic properties. In “Neutrosophic Multigroups and Applications”, Vakkas Uluc¸ay and Memet S¸ahin propose an algebraic structure on neutrosophic multisets called neutrosophic multigroups, deriving their basic properties and giving some applications to group theory. Changxing Fan, Jun Ye, Sheng Feng, En Fan, and Keli Hu introduce the “Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method Using Heronian Mean Operators under a Bipolar Neutrosophic Environment” and test the effectiveness of their new methods. Another decision-making study upon an everyday life issue which empowered us to organize the key objective of the industry developing is given in “Neutrosophic Cubic Einstein Hybrid Geometric Aggregation Operators with Application in Prioritization Using Multiple Attribute Decision-Making Method” written by Khaleed Alhazaymeh, Muhammad Gulistan, Majid Khan, and Seifedine Kadry

Multiple-Criteria Decision Making

Decision-making on real-world problems, including individual process decisions, requires an appropriate and reliable decision support system. Fuzzy set theory, rough set theory, and neutrosophic set theory, which are MCDM techniques, are useful for modeling complex decision-making problems with imprecise, ambiguous, or vague data.This Special Issue, “Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, aims to incorporate recent developments in the area of the multi-criteria decision-making field. Topics include, but are not limited to:- MCDM optimization in engineering;- Environmental sustainability in engineering processes;- Multi-criteria production and logistics process planning;- New trends in multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes;- Multi-criteria decision making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria