ABSTRACT
The outbreak of epidemic has had a big impact on the investment market of China. Facing the turbulence in the investment market, many enterprises find it difficult to judge the development prospects of investment projects and make the right investment decisions. The three-way decisions offer a novel study perspective to solve this problem. Then the developed model is applied to select the investment projects. Firstly, some relevant attributes of the project are described with the double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets. And a double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic information system is constructed for each project. Secondly, the weights of attributes are determined with the Choquet integral method. And the closeness degree calculated by Choquet-based bi-projection method is taken as the conditional probability that the project will be profitable. Next, considering the influence of the bounded rationality of decision makers, the threshold parameters are calculated based on prospect theory. Finally, the decision results about investment projects during four stages are deduced based on the principle of maximum-utility, which demonstrates the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed model.
ABSTRACT
In an increasingly complex and uncertain decision-making environment, large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM) can offer a more efficient method, allowing a large number of decision-makers (DMs) to truly participate in the decision-making process. The consensus-reaching process (CRP) is an effective method for resolving conflicting opinions among large-scale DMs. However, in the existing CRP of LSGDM, the new consensus state and the adjustment cost borne by inconsistent DMs after implementing feedback suggestions are not taken into consideration. To address this issue, this paper proposes a global optimization feedback model with particle swarm optimization (PSO) for LSGDM in hesitant fuzzy linguistic environments. An improved density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) on hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs) is introduced to classify large-scale DMs into several clusters, and a weight determination method that combines cluster size and intra-cluster tightness is also presented. The consensus degree of clusters is calculated at two levels: intra-consensus and inter-consensus. To improve the global consensus level with minimum cost, a global optimization feedback model is established to generate recommendation advice for inconsistent DMs, and the model is solved by PSO. A numerical example related to "COVID-19” and some comparisons are provided to verify the feasibility and advantages of the proposed method.
ABSTRACT
At a time of global epidemic control, the location of the medical logistics distribution center (MLDC) has an important impact on the operation of the entire logistics system to reduce the operating costs of the company, enhance the service quality and effectively control the COVID-19 on the premise of increasing the company's profits. Thus, the research on the location of MLDC has important theoretical and practical application significance separately. Recently, the TODIM and VIKOR method has been used to solve multiple-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) issues. The probabilistic uncertain linguistic term sets (PULTSs) are used as a tool for characterizing uncertain information. In this paper, we design the TODIM-VIKOR model to solve the MAGDM in PULT condition. Firstly, some basic concept of PULTSs is reviewed, and TODIM and VIKOR method are introduced. The extended TODIM-VIKOR model is proposed to tackle MAGDM problems under the PULTSs. At last, a numerical case study for medical logistics center site selection (MLCSS) is given to validate the proposed method.
ABSTRACT
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer usage behavior towards mobile payment (m-payment) services. Consumer usage behavior towards m-payment services continues to increase due to access to usage experiences shared through online consumer reviews (OCRs). The proliferation of massive OCRs, coupled with quick and effective decisions concerning the evaluation and selection of m-payment services, is a practical issue for research. This paper develops a novel decision evaluation model that integrates OCRs and multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) with probabilistic linguistic information to identify m-payment usage attributes and utilize these attributes to evaluate and rank m-payment services. First and foremost, the attributes of m-payment usage discussed by consumers in OCRs are extracted using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling approach. These key attributes are used as the evaluation scales in the MADM. Based on an unsupervised sentiment algorithm, the sentiment scores of the text reviews regarding the attributes are calculated. We convert the sentiment scores into probabilistic linguistic elements based on the probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) theory and statistical analysis. Furthermore, we construct a novel technique known as probabilistic linguistic indifference threshold-based attribute ratio analysis (PL-ITARA) to discover the weight importance of the usage attributes. Subsequently, the positive and negative ideal-based PL-ELECTRE I methodology is proposed to evaluate and rank m-payment services. Finally, a case study on selecting appropriate m-payment services in Ghana is examined to authenticate the validity and applicability of our proposed decision evaluation methodology.
ABSTRACT
This study examines decision theory based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets with linguistic information for the three-way decision approach by addressing the challenge of uncertainty for information analysis and fusion in subjective decision-making processes. First, the interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic term sets (IT2 FLTSs) are defined to represent and normalize the uncertain preference information in linguistic decision-making. Subsequently, perception computing based on computing with words paradigm is introduced to implement information fusion among different decision-makers in the linguistic information-based fuzzy logic reasoning process. Then, a three-way decision (3WD) theory based on IT2 FLTSs with fuzzy neighborhood covering is proposed, and the corresponded tri-partitioning strategies that satisfy Jaccard similarity of membership distributions are given. Finally, 3WD theory is applied to multi-criteria group decision-making with linguistic terms, and the algorithm steps are illustrated by a promising application under the background of coronavirus disease 2019 to reveal the feasibility and practicability of the proposed approach. © 2022 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Distance education quality evaluation is extremely important in improving the quality of education under COVID-19. As traditional teaching-quality evaluation methods are no longer applicable, it is crucial to construct effective evaluation methods. In the evaluation of distance education quality, decision-makers have different linguistic expression preferences, and the evaluation information may be biased due to an improper grasp of the problem. In addition, the correlation between the criteria of distance education quality evaluation is common, and the results of existing evaluation methods are quite different. In this paper, to compensate for these deficiencies, we utilize the multi-granularity probabilistic linguistic term set (MGPLTS), which can reflect the linguistic expression preference of decision-makers and the importance of linguistic terms, and propose a multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method. First, the dispersion and concentration degrees are proposed as the theoretical basis for judging the hesitancy of decision-makers’ evaluation information, and the decision-maker weight adjustment model is constructed. To reflect the importance and correlation of criteria, the SWARA method and the CRITIC method are constructed as criteria weight methods. To obtain reliable decision results, decision-makers’ psychological expectations are taken into account, the MULTIMOORA method is improved upon, and a new integration theory is proposed to improve its robustness. Finally, through an example case of distance education quality evaluation and comparison with other methods, the effectiveness, practicability and superiority of this method are verified.
ABSTRACT
In practical multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problems, the interest groups or individuals intentionally set attribute weights to achieve their own benefits. In this case, the rankings of different alternatives are changed strategically, which is called the strategic weight manipulation in MADM. Sometimes, the attribute values are given with imprecise forms. Several theories and methods have been developed to deal with uncertainty, such as probability theory, interval values, intuitionistic fuzzy sets, hesitant fuzzy sets, etc. In this paper, we study the strategic weight manipulation based on the belief degree of uncertainty theory, with uncertain attribute values obeying linear uncertain distributions. It allows the attribute values to be considered as a whole in the operation process. A series of mixed 0-1 programming models are constructed to set a strategic weight vector for a desired ranking of a particular alternative. Finally, an example based on the assessment of the performance of COVID-19 vaccines illustrates the validity of the proposed models. Comparison analysis shows that, compared to the deterministic case, it is easier to manipulate attribute weights when the attribute values obey the linear uncertain distribution. And a further comparative analysis highlights the performance of different aggregation operators in defending against the strategic manipulation, and highlights the impacts on ranking range under different belief degrees.