Extended GRA Method Based on Cumulative Prospect Theory with Probabilistic Hesitant Fuzzy Information for MAGDM and its Application to Green Supplier Selection

An extended grey relational analysis (GRA) method is introduced in this article to reduce the limitations of the classical GRA method using the cumulative prospect theory (CPT) which takes into account psychological factors such as the risk appetite of decision makers. Moreover, the circumstance of probabilistic hesitant fuzzy (PHF) which assigns probabilistic values to DMs’ different levels of hesitation shows its superiority when making decisions in a complex environment. Meanwhile the weighting vector of each attribute is calculated according to the entropy which is calculated by the different prospect decision elements. Thus, in this paper, we proposed an extended GRA method based on cumulative prospect theory in the probabilistic hesitant fuzzy circumstance and applying the model in the selection of the green supplier. At last, the comparative analysis and the simulation analysis are made to show the practicability of this newly proposed method.

أركان العقد الإداري وشروط صحته دراسة مقارنة

The administrative contract is the tool used by the administration to maintain the continuity of the public facility and its steady progress in order to meet the needs of citizens, in way would achieve the public interest. The administrative contract consists of procedures paving the way for its conclusion, represented by the administrative decisions issued by this department with the public authority it has in accordance with the laws and regulations. These decisions are part of and component of the administrative contract. Therefore, the elements of the administrative contract are; that the public authority is one of its parties, the contract relates to a public facility service, and the contract should be subject to public law. However, the conditions of validity of the contract are; the administration shall abide by the laws and regulations in selecting the contractor, the administrative contract includes contractual and regulatory provisions and, and the public person has a generic feature throughout the life of an administrative contract. Key words; administrative law, administrative decision, elements of administrative law, conditions of validity of administrative contract, legal system of administrative law, conclusion of the administrative contract

Integrating sustainability into the multi-criteria assessment of urban dietary patterns

This study develops a decision-making procedure to help policymakers compare alternative patterns for sustainable diets by reaching a compromise among three criteria: socio-economic perspective, health and environment (including carbon and water footprints). An Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was performed in several stages. First, a total of 25 stakeholders (members of organizations on the Valencia Food Policy Council) evaluated criteria that are relevant to the sustainability of diets. Secondly, a workshop with 14 experts from different backgrounds evaluated by consensus four dietary alternatives: Mediterranean, flexitarian, pescatarian and vegan. In terms of environment, experts gave priority to the vegan diet. However, the Mediterranean diet pattern (MDP) appeared, according to the process, as the most suitable pattern from the holistic perspective that integrates all relevant criteria. The MDP was ranked first in terms of the health criterion and the socio-economic perspective. These include culture, affordability, social impact and local production as decision elements that food policy advisory bodies take into consideration to define sustainable diets.

Assessment of Arms Import Policies Using a Hierarchical Decision Model and Expert Judgments: Case Study of South Korean Arms Procurement Organizations

Arms import decisions have a significant impact on certain nations. Priorities based on diverse policies are a major cause of conflict and dissent among policy decision makers and practitioners. This is because there are many competing qualitative and quantitative decision elements from varying perspectives. Hence, it has been difficult to compare them and rank their contributions to the final decision. Instead, a common approach has been to make decisions reacting to the situation at hand and on a case by case basis. Another approach is to use a rational decision model and expert judgments to assess arms import policies. For this, a hierarchical decision model (HDM) is used to identify the decision elements. Once a model framework is established many aspects of the results can be studied. In this research, a decision model based on technology, economics, politics, industry, and military (TEPIM) perspectives is developed for assessment of arms import policies. The case of the Republic of Korea is considered. The perspectives and their composite criteria are then ranked using the consensus of panels of experts and decision makers. An important aspect of expert judgment consensus is the management and analysis of disagreements. This study includes hierarchical cluster analyses and MANOVA of the disagreements between the decision makers and practitioners. We have confirmed that the stakeholder arms procurement organizations are guided by their organizational mission and this has an impact on their policy priorities and hence can result in disagreements.

Comparative Performance of Contradictory and Non-Contradictory Judgement Matrices in AHP Under Qualitative and Quantitative Metrics

Over the years, although AHP has proved its success in various diverse fields, many authors in the literature have also shown its shortcomings, often called as criticisms of AHP. One such criticism is allowing the consideration of contradictory judgement matrices. Such matrices violate the principle of ordinal transitivity and thus there does not exist any ranking of corresponding decision elements which satisfy all the judgements. In this paper, the results of our investigation towards measuring this criticism are further explored and discussed by comparing the quality of priority vector of contradictory judgement matrices and non-contradictory judgement matrices under Rank Reversals and the common frame work of “aggregated deviation”. The results further strengthen the notion of contradictory judgement matrices as a strong criticism of AHP for higher order judgement matrices and necessitate some proper avoidance (if not elimination) procedure for them.

Use of process guides for comprehensive urban sanitation technology decision-making: practice versus theory

The need for taking a comprehensive perspective when selecting sanitation technologies in developing contexts has been increasingly discussed. Process guides, which are planning documents describing steps decision-makers need to take, represent one possible contribution to attain comprehensive decisions. An interview study with sanitation experts was carried out to understand the importance and real use of such planning documents for the selection of urban sanitation technologies in developing countries, as well as to understand the relevance and actual consideration of decision elements and to identify recommendations for taking them into account. Although process guides appear to be helpful to guide planning processes, their use does not seem to be common practice. It is actually doubtful that the sector is currently able to make better use of those documents in the form that they exist today. Furthermore, the importance of a comprehensive approach is generally recognised, but relevant decision elements were said to be often neglected. Finally, results from the interview analysis also emphasised the need for a conducive policy environment, namely by developing appropriate institutional and legal frameworks, and by incentivising planners and decision-makers to further adapt to comprehensive decision-making practices that effectively improve the sanitation situation in developing countries.

Decision-making framework for investing in emerging markets

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the obstacles and drivers of financial investors while deciding upon investment opportunities in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach Relevant factors for financial investors in emerging markets were identified through a literature review and a series of expert interviews. Identified factors were broadly grouped into three categories, namely, microeconomic aspects, macroeconomic aspects, and aspects of the functionality of the local banking system. Finally, an expert panel (Delphi) technique is used to validate the findings in cocoa industry in Ivory Coast. Findings A decision-making framework that enables the evaluation of the attractiveness of an industry in emerging market from a financial investor perspective is developed and its application is demonstrated on the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast. Probability and consensus of the projections for the individual decision elements are tabulated along with the insights into both encouraging and discouraging aspects. Research limitations/implications Current study is a timely contribution to the call for papers in the research literature to develop frameworks that are contextualized in emerging markets. Similar to any other qualitative study, this study lacks the generalizability of results. But, the framework developed can act as a starting point toward the generalizability of the findings in future. Practical implications Decision elements identified in this study can act as a checklist for financial investors and top management to choose the elements that are relevant to the investment problem being dealt by them. Also, the study can act as a handy demonstration to practitioners for applying the framework using expert panel. Social implications A major challenge of the investment environment in emerging market is the non-availability of quality information on the potential investment opportunities. In this study, the authors suggest a framework to overcome this information asymmetry challenge and expect it to promote financial investments in emerging economies which in turn will improve the quality of life of people in these economies. Originality/value First study to present an approach to help financial investors to conduct profound evaluation and gain more in-depth insights into the future investment opportunity attractiveness of a particular industry in an emerging market.

A Comparison of Multi-Criteria Decision Making Approaches for Maintenance Strategy Selection (A Case Study)

The growth of world-class manufacturing companies and global competition caused significant changes in the manufacturing companies operations. These changes have affected maintenance and made its role even more crucial to stay ahead of the competition. Maintenance strategy selection is one of the strategic decision-making issues that manufacturing companies in the current competitive world are facing. In this paper, a comparison between different Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches is conducted in a dairy manufacturing factory to rank the maintenance strategies. The aim is to suggest an appropriate approach for the best selection of the maintenance strategy. The decision-making elements including evaluation criteria/sub-criteria and problem alternatives, i.e., maintenance strategies are determined and a group of experts from the case-study factory are asked to make their pair-wise comparisons. The pair-wise comparison matrix is constructed by using the crisp and triangular fuzzy numbers, while the aggregation of individual priorities (AIP) approach is utilized to aggregate the decision-makers' judgments. The priority vectors of decision elements are calculated by Mikhailov's fuzzy preference programming (FPP) methods and the final weights of the decision elements are found. Results show that when the effectiveness of one element on the other elements is higher, it will have greater weights; and therefore, the results from the analytic network process (ANP) method is completely different from those of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The reason for the differences between the AHP and Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) with the ANP and Fuzzy ANP (FANP) is that both AHP and FAHP evaluate the criteria only based on the level of importance and do not consider the interdependencies and interactions among the evaluation elements. In this research, a predictive maintenance is selected as the most appropriate strategy in the case company and the preventive strategies outperformed the corrective strategies. The results of this research are consistent with the results of previous studies found in the literature.