Research On Decision Analysis Methods Based On Correlative Information

Decision analysis is a process to help people achieve some goals, where the optimal alterative can be selected from some possible alternatives based on the logical judgment and trade-offs among many factors. It exists extensively in the real world, such as enterprise strategy management, project risk management, and so on. The traditional decision analysis theory is based on the additive concept along with the independence assumption, but each individual criterion/attribute is not always completely independent. In practice, there are a lot of decision analysis problems with interdependent information. Now, a number of scholars have focused on the decision analysis problem based on interdependent information. It has appeared some research results but not formed systemic research system. However, few studies are conducted to develop a scientific and effective decision analysis method for solving the problems based on interdependent information. Therefore, it is a significant, necessary and urgent research issue to summarize the decision analysis problem based on interdependent information and propose the decision analysis methodology according to a particular problem.The purpose of this thesis is to address the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information. With regard to the limitations in the existing research, a series of research works are conducted and the contributions are as follows.First, a new decision analysis problem based on interdependent information is presented and the theoretical framework for the research problem is proposed. The decision analysis problem based on interdependent information has extensive practical backgrounds. The study of this research problem has profound theoretical and practical significance. In this thesis, the research problem is classified into three categories, i.e., the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with no-hierarchical network, the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with A-hierarchical network and the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with B-hierarchical network. Furthermore, the three categories of research problems can be subdivided into several typical decision analysis problems. Based on that, to solve the presented research problem based on interdependent information, the theoretical framework for the research problem is proposed, i.e.,1) the type of network based on interdependent information, and the type of interdependent information based on subjective judgment are described;2) the decision analysis problem based on interdependent information is described;3) the research framework for solving the decision analysis problem based on interdependent information is proposed. These basic research works mentioned above make the studies of the addressed problem to be theoretically systemic. Moreover, they provide a general theoretical guidance framework and analytical framework to the related problems and also lay a solid foundation to the extended issues and related applications. Second, the study on the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with no-hierarchical network is conducted. Concretely, three categories of typical decision analysis problems are studied, i.e., risk factor identification problem based on interdependent information, employee performance evaluation problem based on interdependent information and service vendor selection problem based on interdependent information. According to the different formats of evaluation information in the three categories of decision analysis problems, several methods are developed, i.e.,1) a method for identifying risk factors based on linguistic evaluation information,2) a method for identifying risk factors based on linguistic interval evaluation information,3) a method for identifying risk factors based on uncertain linguistic evaluation information,4) a method for evaluating employees’ performances based on linguistic evaluation information,5) a method for evaluating employees’ performances based on multiple formats of evaluation information,6) a method for selecting service vendors based on linguistic evaluation information,7) a method for selecting service vendors based on multiple formats of evaluation information.Third, the study on the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with A-hierarchical network is conducted. Concretely, four categories of typical decision analysis problems are studied, i.e., intellectual capital evaluation problem based on interdependent information, airline service quality evaluation problem based on interdependent information, partner collaboration performance evaluation problem in service-oriented manufacturing based on interdependent information and technological R&D mode selection problem based on interdependent information. And then, the methods for solving the presented four categories of decision analysis problems are proposed, i.e.,1) a method for evaluating intellectual capital based on interdependent information,2) a method for evaluating airline service quality based on fuzzy evaluation information,3) a method for evaluating the collaboration performance among partners in service-oriented manufacturing based on linguistic evaluation information,4) a method for selecting technological R&D modes based on multiple formats of evaluation information.Fourth, the study on the decision analysis problems based on interdependent information with B-hierarchical network is conducted. Concretely, four categories of typical decision analysis problems are studied, i.e., information system performance evaluation problem based on interdependent information, competitive strategy selection problem based on interdependent information, service idea selection based on interdependent information and new product mix selection problem based on interdependent information. And then, the methods for solving the presented four categories of decision analysis problems are proposed, i.e.,1) a method for evaluating the performance of information system based on fuzzy evaluation information,2) a method for selecting competitive strategies based on linguistic evaluation information,3) a method for selecting service ideas based on fuzzy evaluation information,4) a method for selecting new product mixes based on multiple formats of evaluation information.The proposed method can be used to solve many practical problems, e.g., risk factor identification based on interdependent information, employee performance evaluation based on interdependent information, service vendor selection based on interdependent information, intellectual capital evaluation based on interdependent information, airline service quality evaluation based on interdependent information, partner collaboration performance evaluation in service-oriented manufacturing based on interdependent information, technological R&D mode selection based on interdependent information, information system performance evaluation based on interdependent information, competitive strategy selection based on interdependent information, service idea selection based on interdependent information and new product mix selection based on interdependent information. The proposed methods can be further extended to solve other problems, such as critical success factor identification based on interdependent information, partner selection based on interdependent information, business mode selection based on interdependent information, collaboration mode selection in supply chain based on interdependent information, operation performance evaluation based on interdependent information, alternative selection in product design based on interdependent information, and so on. These research works and research results in this thesis provide guidance and reference from theory aspect and typical application aspect focusing on the research on the decision analysis problem based on interdependent information.