THE IMPACT OF THE NEW GLOBAL REALITY ON THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS: THE CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The acquisition of full membership for the Republic of Serbia in the European Union depends on a large number of factors. The combined and synergistic effect of these factors has made the process of Serbia's accession to the European Union extremely uncertain in terms of date and final outcome. The new reality, including the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. isolationist policies during President Trump's tenure, the strengthening of China and Russia, and Britain's exit from the EU, has made this process even more uncertain. In this context, it is crucial to identify and prioritize key factors that affect or could affect the process of Serbia's accession to the European Union, in order to evaluate the possible outcomes of this process. To solve problems of this level of complexity and uncertainty, it is necessary to apply an interdisciplinary approach of the appropriate level of complexity. Therefore, this paper is an extension of previous research (Krstic et al, 2018; Mimovic et al, 2019) based on the defined research goal, but incorporates a complex, network model called theAnalytical Network Process, which included new circumstances that determine what is colloquially called the new reality. All calculations in the paper were performed using the software package SuperDecisions as computer support for the Analytical Network Process.

AN AHP APPLICATION FOR FAILURE RISK-BASED RANKING OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROJECTS

In order to address challenges in the sustainable development of transportation, economy, and environment, governments along with conventional automobile manufacturers and consumers are extremely interested in the development of the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry and market. However, many manufacturers are worried about entering the EV market because of some of the limitations of EVs and government economic policies. A framework for failure risk-based ranking of EV projects is proposed that applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a method of ranking. The hierarchy structure of the AHP is created with the risk categories, risk factors, and EV project candidates at different levels of the decision. By specifying the failure risk categories and failure risk factors, the ranking of EV project failure risks and the EV projects are accomplished via the pairwise comparison in the AHP. The results from the ranking provide useful information for planning and decision making. In fact, the results of the proposed method make it possible to specify the EV projects that are feasible to carry out and to compare the various projects at the technical and economic level.

FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING AMONG YOUNG ADULTS: AN AHP APPROACH

In an uncertain economic environment, the decision-making process regarding personal finances relies heavily on personal experience and behavior, and is largely influenced by a variety of psychological and socio-demographic factors. The aim of this paper is to analyze the key factors of the decision-making process regarding financial choices of the population of young adults in the Republic of North Macedonia, and to further explain young people’s motives for the proposed decision and the conditions under which the decision was made. The research was conducted through an AHP-based questionnaire that was distributed to respondents ranging in age from 18 to 35 years. According to the obtained results, the respondents value financial security the most, hence their primary choice is investment in real estate and commodities. Young adults are less inclined to invest, especially in the more complex financial instruments. The developed AHP model will help young people make better, fact-based financial choices.

REASSEMBLING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN INDONESIA

This article aims to provide a dynamic picture of the technology transfer process in public research institutions in Indonesia that has been updated by establishing the National Research and Innovation Agency in August 2021. This body is directly under the President of the Republic of Indonesia based on Presidential Regulation number 78 of 2021. During the research period, there was a change in the landscape of technology transfer actors. Some of these changes are in line with the results of the analysis, namely increasing the role of GFRI and research and development agencies under the ministry. This change is referred to as technology transfer reassembly. The arrangement of technology transfer leads to a new form. The research was initiated in October 2017 using the AHP to determine the best institutional arrangement for integrating research. The AHP results show the rank of institutional arrangements from highest to lowest as Government Funded Research Institutes (GFRI) (0.27833), a research division under the Ministerial Office (0.24890), universities (0.17966), private R&D (0.13589) and foreign agencies (0.07214). Government Funded Research Institutes are the top choice of experts for having a significant role in the technology transfer process. The core function of GFRI in the technology transfer system is to plan, conduct and develop technology and they have contributed significantly to the policy-making process by providing information and policy recommendations. This research enriched the application of the recommendations by establishing the National Research and Innovation Agency as the most influential actor in building a national technology transfer system.

Announcing the 26th International Conference on Multicriteria Decision-making

We are very pleased to announce that the 26th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making will be held at the University of Portsmouth from June 26 - July 1, 2022. There will be an AHP/ANP track co-chaired by Enrique Mu and Rozann Saaty which will be sponsored, as in previous years, by the Creative Decisions Foundation. This is an opportunity for AHP/ANP scholars to submit their research. Abstract submissions (with a maximum of 600 characters) will be opened in early December with a submission deadline of March 1, 2022.

Book Review: Overcomign the Retributive Nature of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Thomas L. Saaty, H. J. Zoffer, Luis G. Vargas, Amos Guiora

Thomas Saaty continues to amaze us with publications appearing four years posthumously. Currently, a book written with his collaborators H. J. Zoffer, Luis G. Vargas and Amos Guiora has been recently published by Springer.

Theory and Applications of AHP/ANP in Supply Chain Management session at INFORMS 2021

INFORMS Annual Meeting was in Anaheim, CA, October 24-27, 2021 in person as well as virtual.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF GEM PRODUCTION: AN APPLICATION OF THE ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS

The gems, jewelry, and precious metals sector is essential for developing regions with this activity and there is a high degree of informality in the mining and trading gemstone sectors. The present study analyzed data from the production process of precious stones in the Brazilian national market. We identified the importance of the factors contributing to the quality of the gemstone production process concerning mining, cutting, and marketing, under the scope of sustainable chain development. A list of references was used to select thirteen significant factors in the precious stone production process that contributed to the sustainable development of the chain related to mining, cutting, and marketing. We used a multicriteria decision model applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to consider the degree of importance of the production stage process of gemstones and the factors that impact the sustainable development of the production chain. In applying the model to the production stages, the criteria and sub-criteria factors were considered. The results suggest that sustainable development is highly related to gem mining (44.7%, rank 1), moderately related to gem cutting (32.5%, rank 2), and there is little relationship to gem marketing (22 .8%, rank 3), considering the criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. The requirement related to the technical qualification and skill of the lapidary is the most critical factor in the production process. The second most important factor is commercialization, followed by the preservation of the mining area and the valuable life of the mine.

How the Analytic Hierarchy/Network Process Supports a More Responsible and Committed Research and Innovation

This essay is a brief presentation of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). It is an interesting framework that the European Union has been building around science that is more aware of global challenges. It also highlights the usefulness of AHP/ANP as valuable tools to handle the complexities derived from the implementation of a multidimensional concept such as RRI.

Tom Saaty's Spirit is Alive in his Personal Archive

While preparing this IJAHP issue for publication, I received an email from Rozann Saaty, Tom’s widow and collaborator, to inform me that the hundreds of papers and notes from Tom’s lifetime of work had been organized and were ready to be moved to their final home at the University of Pittsburgh, where Tom worked the last part of his life.