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The purpose of this paper is to present a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, by combining the AHP, ELECTRE II, ELECTRE III, ELECTRE IV and Copeland techniques for road maintenance prioritization, in which the roads are evaluated and ranked based on various criteria. The proposed method is applied to four streets in Tehran, as a case study.

First, a set of criteria for road maintenance was determined and their weights were obtained using the AHP method. Four streets in Tehran, Iran were considered as alternatives and prioritized using the ELECTRE II, ELECTRE III and ELECTRE IV methods. Finally, the results of employing the three methods were integrated using the Copeland method and a final result was obtained.

The findings of the study suggested that “road safety” is the most important criterion in maintenance and “traffic volume” and “pavement quality index (PCI)” have the second and third rank in importance. Moreover, “The width of the street” is the least important criterion in road maintenance. Additionally, the streets' final ranking was obtained using the proposed method.

The proposed method helps managers effectively assign their limited budget and resources to roads with higher maintenance priority and as the result, increase the roads efficiency.

In this research, eight main criteria were collected using previous researches and experts' opinions. Also, a new combination of different MCDM techniques is proposed in this research.

This paper presents an algorithm that can elicitate all or any combination of parameters for the ELECTRE II, III or IV, methods. The algorithm takes some steps of a machine learning ensemble technique, the random forest, and for that, the authors named the approach as Ranking Trees Algorithm.

First, for a given method, the authors generate a set of ELECTRE models, where each model solves a random sample of criteria and actions (alternatives). Second, for each generated model, all actions are projected in a 1D space; in general, the best actions have higher values in a 1D space than the worst ones; therefore, they can be used to guide the genetic algorithm in the final step, the optimization phase. Finally, in the optimization phase, each model has its parameters optimized.

The results can be used in two different ways; the authors can merge all models, to find the elicitated parameters in this way, or the authors can ensemble the models, and the median of all ranks represents the final rank. The numerical examples achieved a Kendall Tau correlation rank over 0.85, and these results could perform as well as the results obtained by a group of specialists.

For the first time, the elicitation of ELECTRE parameters is made by an ensemble technique composed of a set of uncorrelated multicriteria models that can generate robust solutions.

This study aims to focus on the application of a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method to compare results presented by the Integrated Goals System based on the 12th edition of the Integrated Public Safety Areas (IPSAs) Award, which achieved goals established for Strategic Crime Indicators for the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main objective of this research was to limit the compensatory effects of classification criteria on IPSAs that have achieved goals established for crime indicators by applying the MCDA method.

The methodology was based on the application of MCDA. The MCDA method selected and used was ELECTRE III, being implemented by J-Electre software.

Compared to results of the current method, the results of the ELECTRE III method showed a 94.87 per cent change in ranking positions revealed via the SIM method. This finding denotes the elimination of compensatory effects of the criteria. As a consequence, it can be affirmed that the application of resources by IPSA managers to reduce the prevalence of a single strategic crime indicator is no longer a success factor for awarding in the established goal system.

As limitations, it is possible to indicate the time cut used to carry out the research. The research may be extended to other issues of the productivity award.

The methodology applied with the use of ELECTRE III revealed that the government could reduce the cost with the incentive program to reduce criminal indices.

As the MCDA method is based on a binary pairwise comparison system, the methodology imposes a change of attitude on local managers fighting crime to reduce crime indicators and to consequently build a local sense of safety in IPSAs.

This research fills a gap in the literature because there are few studies using the MCDA method in the field of public security. The value of the work lies in the creation of a method that gives the decision-maker, of the law enforcement agency, an alternative to improve the process of rewarding by productividad of the integrated areas of public security.

For a nation to become a superpower, it's scientific and technological advancement is essential. Each country is exploring how to improve themselves in terms of science and technology. The authors analyzed the innovation capabilities of 35 OECD countries that have not recently joined Lithuania.

In recent years, a lot of research work has been done on trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy sets (TIT-2 FS), and many research works have been published. The trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy set helps effectively to represent the uncertainty comparatively than the type-1 fuzzy set. Taking advantage of this effectiveness, the authors extend the best multi-criteria decision making method (MCDM) for trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Here, ELimination and Choice Expressing REality III (ELECTRE III) method in the trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy set environment is proposed.

This analysis helps to the OECD countries to develop their level of innovation in the criteria. The authors are making this evaluation for the year 2018 based on the 31 criteria. Application of the proposed method expressed by evaluation of the national innovation capability problem. Based on the obtained results, the top five countries are United States, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Japan.

The authors collected required data from different available data sources like OECD, IMD, USPTO, ITU and surveyed data reported by KISTEP. After collecting all the data from different sources, the authors calculated the standard values as KISTEP. After converting the standard values into trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy values, the authors construct a decision matrix based on these values. Then, the authors determined the possibility mean values and preference. Then, they calculated the concordance and discordance credibility degree values. Finally, they ranked OECD countries by the net credibility degree. The results are computed by using the MATLAB software.

Industrial companies are continuously looking to improve their business turn-over and choose improvement actions to achieve this objective. Legitimating this choice by only a strategic financial point of view currently has some limits, because additional ones such as quality, delay, resources needs have also to be taken into account. The multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) approaches have been developed to deal with problems such as ranking, sorting or quantification. The purpose of this paper is to describe the operational aspects in MCDA deployment through a case study submitted by the SME Fournier Company.

This paper concerns analytical overall performance models to allow the decision-makers (DMs) to select potential actions to launch regarding given decision criteria. The principles of the main MCDA approaches, outranking and aggregation, are presented. Then representative MCDA methods, ELECTREIII and MACBETH, are successively deployed to a tactical decision problem of business turn-over increase. From the building of their respective preference modelling, decision aid is provided in the form of preference relation or performance function.

A formal framework supplying information to the industrial DMs in order to legitimate the action selection is described. In addition, the DMs feedback highlights the required expertise for the preference modelling.

The article gives a guideline for industrial practitioners to carry out ELECTREIII and MACBETH for their improvement action selection.

SMEs can find an adapted framework for their improvement actions choice dealing with financial and non-financial criteria. It is also enriched by practical considerations concerning the methods deployment for tactical decision problems.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study on the application of interpretative structural modelling (ISM) integrated with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques for enabling the sustainability supplier selection.

In this paper, two approaches of hybrid MCDM methods are followed and the selection of sustainable supplier was based on the comparative results obtained from both the methods. The first hybrid approach is ISM – analytic network process (ANP) – ELimination and Et Choice Translating REality (ELECTRE II) and the second hybrid approach is ISM – ANP – Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR). ISM was used to identify the inter relationship between the criteria. Inter-relationship of criteria obtained from ISM will serve as an input for ANP. The weights obtained from ANP will be used in ELECTRE II and VIKOR. ELECTRE II is an outranking method, whereas VIKOR is a compromise ranking method; comparison of both the methods was carried out in this study.

In this study, two modules ISM–ANP – ELECTRE and ISM–ANP – VIKOR were compared for the problem of sustainable supplier selection. ELECTRE results with a single solution showed that Supplier 2 can be selected as the best supplier; VIKOR result shows that Supplier 1 and Supplier 2 can be selected as the best suppliers.

The selection of sustainable supplier considering the interrelationship of criteria using ISM and ranking the alternatives using compromise and outranking techniques was found to be original and novel contribution of the author.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the managerial efficiency and the customer satisfaction of Parisian boutique hotels by using the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods.

In the first stage, hotels’ managerial efficiency is assessed by data envelopment analysis to establish which hotel has the most efficient performance. In the second stage, the customer satisfaction of these hotels is estimated by the ELECTRE (ELimination et Choix Traduisant la RÉalité) method to assess the hotel’s ability to satisfy their customers.

Empirical results show that there is an inverse relation between customer satisfaction and ability to maximise the Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR). In other words, trying to improve efficiency implies a reduction in guests’ satisfaction (and vice versa).

Therefore, through this research the authors can realise that hotel managers should give more attention to customer service because it has a more direct and important impact on customer satisfaction. It also positively impacts on resource management. However, there are some limitations to this study. First, this study only focuses on 12 hotels. Because the data set is very confidential, it is very difficult to have a bigger sample. Then, the evaluation is based on 2014 figures only. It could be interesting to know their performance for previous years to understand their evolution. Finally, it is necessary to know the percentage of direct reservations for each hotel. For instance, if a hotel is relying too much on online travel agents (i.e. Booking.com, Expedia, etc.), it needs to pay a significant amount of commission to these companies. As a result, it could have a good RevPAR but might pay a huge commission (for example, 20 per cent for most of sites) at the end. In terms of perspectives, it is necessary to conduct a more extensive research to test the hypothesis in a different context. Additionally, the data were taken for a single period of time. It will be very interesting to create a panel of hotels and collect data over a period of time (Barros, 2005; Barros and Santos, 2006; Barros and Deike, 2008). This would enable to better understand the relationship between managerial efficiency and customer satisfaction in a long-term prospective.

This paper presents the relationship between the managerial efficiency and customer satisfaction in Parisian boutique hotels context. Study suggests that in service industry, increase of firm’s efficiency could negatively impact the guest satisfaction. Therefore, through studying the authors can realise that why hotel managers should focus on customer satisfaction, which attributes play the vital role in customer satisfaction and how to optimize their resources. One of the originalities of this paper is that the authors use the customers’ feedback from the UGC websites (Trip Advisor and Booking.com) as the performance evaluation indicators for customer satisfaction. The data are very confidential and hard to get.

In this paper, the authors focus on training as a frequently used knowledge management tool. This paper aims to help training function to achieve excellence at the first attempt by evaluating and deciding on the most interesting method for each training action before engaging the investment.

The authors apply instructional theories to evaluate the relevance of training methods and explored the multiple criteria decision analysis methods, which is a mathematical approach, for the evaluation to be rational. An experimental research based on study cases is also presented to test the applicability and effectiveness of the model proposed.

A decisional model that allows to choose rationally the most appropriate training method for each case. It is based on Elicitation and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE I) method, which is a multi-criteria decision analysis method and uses criteria from First Principles developed by Merrill in 2002.

The proposed model may have several implications for the improvement of training performance, particularly in the context of quality management systems that require product compliance based on continuous improvement and risk-based approaches. It can, therefore, be used as a tool to control the quality of training process or control the risk relative to the execution of a training action or more generally as a tool to “check” that training methods chosen are the most appropriate to attempt the training objectives before “act” the training action.

The combination of a decision analysis system with the theory of instruction and the applicability to training process management.

The rapid increase in higher education institutions (HEIs) can affect the provision of quality education especially when there are no clear integrated objectives to serve the overall HEI as well as the lack of management related to human resource needs. The quality of HEIs relies on the performance of their employees who are considered as one of the most important resources. Several studies demonstrated that the concept of talent management is not well defined for HEIs and considered it as a new study; however, researchers emphasized on its importance to improve the employees' performance and to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. The main aim of this paper is to propose a faculty equity framework for talent optimization in HEIs to help these institutions to recruit the right people, manage and motivate them to achieve their future goals and serve the best quality.

The faculty equity framework criteria are derived from the standards of national and international quality assurance and accreditation agencies which are grouped into three categories: alignment, capabilities and engagement. These criteria are used to outrank faculties and determine the entrepreneurial champions. As the framework does not require setting weights for these criteria, the authors propose to adapt the ELECTRE IV to outrank faculties.

The proposed framework has given faculty a chance to assimilate the HEI dominant culture and guidance to improve their performance through comparing themselves to entrepreneurial champions who are better aligned, capable and engaged. Also, the framework offers the HEI an opportunity to effectively retain talents and achieve maximized outcomes.

This research provides HEIs with a practical guide on how to enhance practices, policies and strategies regarding their human capital in order to achieve their missions and strategic goals.

This research focuses on suggesting an optimized model for selecting best employees using advanced multi-criteria decision making method to a supply chain firm, who is planning to start a new cold chain business vertical.

Study has been conducted in a supply chain firm in North India, who wants to expand its business with the help of efficient team members. In total 38 applicants were considered for the study, as selected by the firm after initial screening from pool of talent. AHP-LP and TOPSIS-LP integrated approach were applied separately for evaluation and implementation of personnel selection model. Further, both the approaches were compared to find the best fit and optimized model.

As per the findings, both AHP and TOPSIS can be used to select the best candidate among the alternatives available. TOPSIS was found easier to implement as it involves ranking of applicants with respect to each skills required for respective job profile only once, whereas AHP involves pair-wise comparison among candidates with respect to each skills required for respective job profile and normalization of each comparison, resulting in the formation of number of comparison matrices. However, AHP is more reliable as it considers consistency check for each level of pair-wise comparison. Hence, there is a chance to avoid or revise the human judgment error. Integrated ranking and optimization approach minimizes the cost by suggesting the relevant positions to be filed to make an efficient team.

Group of interviewers are involved in the decision-making process, hence there are chances of biasness in ranking method which can influence the group decision. Research is limited to a particular geography of North India therefore needs to be tested for other regions also in order to generalize. The research will help the third party logistics (3PL) and other related firms in efficient team selection.

The researcher focuses on formalizing a method for potential candidate selection by considering the constraints of the organization. It has been observed that limited researches have been done on the application of AHP-LP or TOPSIS-LP integrated approach for selection process. Hence, this research proposes two integrated ranking-optimization method and suggests the best fit by comparing both the approaches.