Citation
Ishizaka, A. and Labib, A. (2013), "Special issue on multi-criteria decision aid methods for modelling and solving business and management problems", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-08-2013-0039
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Special issue on multi-criteria decision aid methods for modelling and solving business and management problems
Article Type:
Guest editorial
From:
Journal of Modelling in Management, Volume 8, Issue 3
The papers in this special issue contribute to the modelling and solving business and management problems with multi-criteria methods. The original idea of this special issue was discussed at the 50th Annual Conference of the Operational Research Society held in York, UK, in September 2008, where the guest editors of this special issue organised a stream on analytic hierarchy process (AHP). 30 papers were presented in this stream, which was by far the highest number among the 33 streams. The same performance was repeated two years later at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Operational Research Society held in the Royal Holloway University, UK, in September 2010, where Dr Alessio Ishizaka and Dr Philippe Nemery organised a stream on multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). 26 papers were presented, which was again the highest number among the 27 streams. This popularity shows the healthy status of the research in multi-criteria methods, probably because problems to be solved with these methods can be found everywhere and affect everybody. This special issue accommodates extended papers presented at the conferences but was also opened to the broad academic community.
The six papers included in this special issue have been selected after a rigorous refereeing process among the submitted 24 papers.
The first paper is titled “From initial risk assessments to system risk management, and co-authored by Elena Beauchamp-Akatova and Richard Curran. The authors provide an approach for modelling system risk management and develop an integrated framework for simulating decisions on introducing innovations in air transport systems. They propose AHP and analytic network process (ANP) methodologies for overcoming fragmentation in risk assessments perceived by risk, budget, quality or schedule managements, and for resolving potential conflicts between safety, efficiency and well-being. The results of this study contribute to the development and implementation of a usable version of MCDA at senior management level. Further, it stimulates mechanism for learning and trade-offs between various stakeholders.
The second paper is titled “Modelling critical elements of selection for strategic alliance partner for network managed services using interpretive structural modeling and co-authored by Divij Jain and D.K. Banwet. The authors investigate and model the issue of selection of strategic alliance partner for managing and implementation of an operations and maintenance (O&M) centre. This is done through the development of an interpretive structural modelling (ISM) model for evaluation of a strategic alliance partner in telecom operator space.
The third paper is titled “Evaluation of AHP software from a management accounting perspective and co-authored by Wolfgang Ossadnik and Ralf Kaspar. The authors argue that software support can reduce barriers to applying AHP and can enhance acceptance by managers. So they evaluate five software products from a management accounting perspective with an AHP-based decision model. The relevant criteria contained in this model were developed from the international standard norm for software evaluation. The evaluation reveals the strengths and weaknesses of various software solutions for practical purposes.
The fourth paper is titled “Prioritizing emotional intelligence training needs using optimal globalization grey relational analysis, co-authored by Hui-Wen Vivian Tang and Mu-Shang Yin. The authors demonstrate the application of optimal globalization grey relational analysis as a workable decision-making tool to prioritize emotional intelligence (EI) training needs of specific groups of academic leaders. Results of the optimal GGRA suggest that context specific EI interventions focusing on enhancing weak areas of emotional competency are made possible through optimal globalization grey analysis.
The fifth paper is titled “Providing sufficient strict individual rankings consistency level while group decision-making with feedback authored by Vitaliy V. Tsyganok. The authors proposed to achieve sufficient consistency of individual expert alternative rankings with the help of evolutionary algorithms. This method is helpful to find a consensus in group decision with divergent views.
The sixth paper is titled “Deploying the ELECTRE III and MACBETH multicriteria ranking methods for SMEs tactical performance improvements and co-authored by Vincent Clivillé, Lamia Berrah and Gilles Mauris. The authors apply two MCDA methods issued (ELECTRE III and MACBETH) to the same real case problem: choose improvement actions to increase the business turnover. A comparison of two MCDA competing methods on a same problem is seldom presented in the literature and insightful lessons are found.
Overall, the contributions selected for this special issue indicate that MCDA methods have a valuable role in supporting business and management decisions. It is also really encouraging to see a wide geographical coverage of the authors involved, spanning from Taiwan, India, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Ukraine. We hope that the works presented here encourage more research in the field and stimulate more practitioners to explore the potential of MCDA methods in their organisations.
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the authors that submitted their manuscripts for consideration in this issue. We are also very grateful to all the referees that have dedicated their time, effort and expertise to assess the high quality of the papers.
Alessio Ishizaka, Ashraf Labib
Guest Editors