MCDM Combined with Fuzzy Decision Maps for the Structural Modeling Problem

• Main Authors: Rachung Yu, 尤瑞崇
• Other Authors: Wen-Hsien Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28961335080107211526

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 資訊管理學研究所 === 96 === Decision-making process involves a series of identifying the problems, constructing the preferences, evaluating the alternatives, and determining the best alternative. It is extremely intuitive while considering the single criterion problems, since we only need to choose the alternative with the highest preference rating. However, when decision makers evaluate the alternatives with the multiple criteria, many problems, such as weights of criteria, preference dependence, and conflicts among criteria, seem to complicate the decision problems and should be overcome by more sophisticate methods. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) involves determining the optimal alternative among multiple, conflicting, and interactive criteria. Many methods, which are based on multiple attribute utility theory (MAUT), have been proposed (e.g. the weighted sum and the weighted product methods) to deal with the MCDM problems. The main problem of MAUT is the assumption of preferential independence. Two major methods could use to solve preferential independence problem that are analytic network process (ANP) and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The analytic network process (ANP) was proposed to overcome the problem of dependence and feedback among criteria or alternatives. The ANP is the general form of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). AHP was proposed to derive the relative weights according to the appropriate hierarchical system with preferential independence. Although the ANP have been widely used in various applications, two main problems should be highlighted as follows. The first is the problem of comparison. The second is the key for the ANP is to determine the relationship structure among features in advance. Another approach to deal with the interdependence among the criteria is using the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method. The major shortcoming of the DEMATEL method is to assume the criteria-iteration states may be interactive linearly and no feedback loops will allow in relationship maps. In this dissertation, we proposed the fuzzy decision maps (FDM), which incorporates the eigenvalue method, the fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM), and the weighting equation, to overcome the problem of preferential independent and the shortcomings of the ANP. On the basis of the mathematical proof and numerical results, we can conclude that FDM is a generalization of DEMATEL method. A real world case, value assessment for knowledge capital of enterprises, is implemented to demonstrate the FDM method.