Application of stepwise data envelopment analysis and grey incidence analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of export promotion programs

Export promotion programs are incentives to increase the participation of companies in international markets. On the other hand, governments try to help exporting companies with developing their goal markets. Therefore, for this purpose, many different programs have been created. To show the effectiveness of these programs, the paper refers to stepwise DEA and grey incidence analysis. Finally, the article determines a unified ranking of the applied programs that can be used by decision makers for resource allocation considering different types of programs based on their effectiveness

A complex proportional assessment method for group decision making in an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy environment

Multi-criteria decision making is an implicational field that concerns with selecting or designing the best scenarios among a finite set of scenarios based on a finite set of criteria. Different methods and techniques for handling this issue have been proposed. Complex proportional assessment is an analytical tool for solving multi-criteria decision making problems. Originally, the COPRAS method has been developed for decision making under a deterministic environment. Since uncertainty is an unavoidable property of decision making due to a lack of knowledge, this paper suggests an extended form of the COPRAS method used for group decision making problems in an uncertain environment where such uncertainty is captured through a generalized form of fuzzy sets - the so called interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. An algorithmic scheme for the COPRAS-IVIF method has been introduced thus examining its application with reference to two numerical examples. It seems that the recommended framework of COPRAS-IVIF can be satisfactorily implemented in decision making problems under ambiguous and ill-defined conditions

Fuzzy belief structure based VIKOR method: an application for ranking delay causes of Tehran metro system by FMEA criteria

Public transport is a critical part of civilization in this decade. The amount of money invested and the criticality of transferring people in an acceptable time and without any conflict made it a challenging problem for managers, especially in metropolises. Absolutely, making effective decisions in this area requires considering different aspects. Waiting time is a key criterion in apprising quality of public transport. In this paper, a real world case study of ranking causes of delay in Tehran (Iran) metro system is solved by developing multi attribute group decision-making VIšeKriterijumska Optimizacija I KOmpromisno Rešenje (in Serbian, VIKOR) method under uncertainty, where this uncertainty is captured by Fuzzy Belief Structures (FBS). The obtained results are then compared with a previously proposed Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method with FBSs. The results show that human related issues, along with the problems related to line and transportation system are the most important causes of delay. The obtained results of the problem seem acceptable for decision makers

Extensions of LINMAP model for multi criteria decision making with grey numbers

The linear programming technique for multidimensional analysis of preference, known as LINMAP is one of the existing well-known ideal seeking methods for multi attribute decision making problems. This method originally is proposed under crisp and deterministic circumstances. However, uncertainty is an indubitable property of decision making problems. In this paper, a new version of LINMAP-G is proposed where the decision maker's judgments are expressed as grey numbers. Like original LINMAP method, the grey ideal solution and attributes weight vector is determined and alternatives are ranked according to their weighted distance from determined ideal point. Application of the proposed method is illustrated in two numerical examples

Causal modelling of failure fears for international entrepreneurs in tourism industry: a hybrid Delphi-DEMATEL based approach

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Abstract Purpose This paper aims to recognise and identify fears of failure in the international entrepreneurship ecosystem and find the effects of these fears on each other to reduce these increasing effects and minimise the mental barriers for potential entrepreneurs. Therefore, this research is beneficial to strengthen international entrepreneurial personality and to reduce the shadows of fears on entrepreneurs’ minds. To address this purpose the international tourism industry has been investigated in the emerging economy of Iran. Design/methodology/approach This paper is organised based on experts' opinions, and then factors are identified by literature review and are finalised through the Delphi method with a panel of practical and academic experts. These fears are categorised using a questionnaire and factor analysis (FA) technique. The respondents were entrepreneurship students and tourism entrepreneurs. Subsequently, the effect and importance of fears of failure are scored and ranked by some experts. These fears were analysed through decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The results presented the effects of fears of failure in the international entrepreneurial in the tourism industry and the relationship amongst them. Findings The first two fears are respectively “fears of future” which are caused by the unclear situation; and “fear of losing credit” that is due to the importance of “personal relationships” in Iranians culture. As pointed out by results, “fear of future” is the most effective group of factors that may lead to other fears too. This fear seems important in the international entrepreneurial tourism industry because of future ambiguity. Originality/value This study indicates the relations between groups of fears and offers some practical and applicable solutions to reduce these effects. To the best knowledge of the authors, analysing the relationship between fears amongst the entrepreneurs has not been investigated previously

The Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy MULTIMOORA Method for Group Decision Making in Engineering

Multiple criteria decision making methods have received different extensions under the uncertain environment in recent years. The aim of the current research is to extend the application of the MULTIMOORA method (Multiobjective Optimization by Ratio Analysis plus Full Multiplicative Form) for group decision making in the uncertain environment. Taking into account the advantages of IVIFS (interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets) in handling the problem of uncertainty, the development of the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy MULTIMOORA (IVIF-MULTIMOORA) method for group decision making is considered in the paper. Two numerical examples of real-world civil engineering problems are presented, and ranking of the alternatives based on the suggested method is described. The results are then compared to the rankings yielded by some other methods of decision making with IVIF information. The comparison has shown the conformity of the proposed IVIF-MULTIMOORA method with other approaches. The proposed algorithm is favorable because of the abilities of IVIFS to be used for imagination of uncertainty and the MULTIMOORA method to consider three different viewpoints in analyzing engineering decision alternatives

An interactive fuzzy approach for solving multi product, multi period production planning problem

Master production scheduling is a midterm phase in planning which translates the long term aggregate production planning to a plan which determines the scheduling and magnitude of different products production. This problem requires investigating a wide range of parameters about demand, manufacturing resource usage and costs. Uncertainty is an intrinsic characteristic of these parameters. In this paper, a model is developed for master production scheduling under uncertainty where demands are considered as stochastic variables, while cost and utilization parameters are expressed as fuzzy numbers. A hybrid approach is also proposed to solve the extended model. The application of the proposed method is examined in a numerical example

Prioritization of export promotion programs by Fuzzy linear assignment method

Foreign business and export are the most important aspects of business and affect the country economics significantly. Therefore, governments try to stimulate the merchandises to export and extend their business abroad. This leads to better quality, extended markets, more customers and higher income. For this purpose, governments have considered some persuasive programs to promote exporting activities. However these programs do not influence export activities equally and their importance is different in exporters’ viewpoint. In this paper we tried to use exporters’ preferences and rank these promotion programs based on their opinions. Accordingly, we selected 15 exporters and asked them to rank 18 identified export promotion programs against to their effects on export procedures. The proposed Fuzzy Linear Assignment Method has assured responders that their uncertainty in ranking will be recognized in model. Finally the proposed method is applied for prioritizing the export promotion programs for Iranian food industry. Its results show that ambiguity of scoring among several options would be easy by considering each number as a triangular fuzzy number and it’s more precise and reliable

Topsis- based non-Iinear programming model for calculating the ldeal weights of the decision

The development of Multiple Criteria Decision Making Techniques is to provide the possibility of using multiple criteria in decision making problems. Multi-criteria decision making problems primarily relate to choosing the best option among several available options and according to some indicators. One of the major issues in this regard is to determine the importance weights of decision criteria. Various methods such as Entropy, LINMAP and Saaty’s method have been presented for determining the weights of the indicators. In this paper, a non-linear model based on the logic of TOPSIS method is proposed to estimate the ideal weights. Simplicity, ‌ Reduction of received data from the decision makers in the evaluation process, and the possibility of considering his comments about the preference of indicators to each other can be cited as the advantages of this metho