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1 – 10 of 175
Article
Publication date: 3 April 2018

Jing Quan, Bo Zeng and LuYun Wang

Equally weighted factors and initial data from behavioural sequences are used for calculating the degree of grey incidence in Deng’s grey incidence analysis. However, certain grey…

Abstract

Purpose

Equally weighted factors and initial data from behavioural sequences are used for calculating the degree of grey incidence in Deng’s grey incidence analysis. However, certain grey information cannot be directly obtained, and the correlation coefficients of each sequence at different times are of different importance to the system. The purpose of this paper is to propose an improved grey incidence model with new grey incidence coefficients and weighted degree of grey incidence. Some grey information can be obtained more easily by using the grey transformation sequences, and the maximum entropy method is used to calculate the weights of new grey incidence coefficients, so the new degree of grey incidence was distinguished more effectively by the proposed model.

Design/methodology/approach

New grey incidence coefficients are defined using transformation sequences of the initial data. To overcome the shortcomings arising from the use of equal weights, the maximum entropy method is proposed for determining the weights of the grey incidence coefficients. The resulting model optimises the classical models and evaluates the influencing factors more effectively. The effectiveness of the model was verified by a numerical example. Furthermore, the model was used for analysing the main influencing factors of the tertiary industry in China.

Findings

The proposed model optimises the classical models, and the application example shows that urbanisation has the greatest effect on employment in the tertiary sector.

Originality/value

An improved grey incidence model is proposed that improves the grey incidence coefficients and their weights, and has better performance than the classical models. The model was successfully used in the analysis of the influence factors of the tertiary industry in China. The results indicate that the model can reflect the significance of incidence coefficients at different time points; therefore, their fluctuation can be effectively controlled.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2022

Bingjun Li, Shuhua Zhang, Wenyan Li and Yifan Zhang

Grey modeling technique is an important element of grey system theory, and academic articles applied to agricultural science research have been published since 1985, proving the…

Abstract

Purpose

Grey modeling technique is an important element of grey system theory, and academic articles applied to agricultural science research have been published since 1985, proving the broad applicability and effectiveness of the technique from different aspects and providing a new means to solve agricultural science problems. The analysis of the connotation and trend of the application of grey modeling technique in agricultural science research contributes to the enrichment of grey technique and the development of agricultural science in multiple dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the relevant literature selected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Web of Science, SpiScholar and other databases in the past 37 years (1985–2021), this paper firstly applied the bibliometric method to quantitatively visualize and systematically analyze the trend of publication, productive author, productive institution, and highly cited literature. Then, the literature is combed by the application of different grey modeling techniques in agricultural science research, and the literature research progress is systematically analyzed.

Findings

The results show that grey model technology has broad prospects in the field of agricultural science research. Agricultural universities and research institutes are the main research forces in the application of grey model technology in agricultural science research, and have certain inheritance. The application of grey model technology in agricultural science research has wide applicability and precise practicability.

Originality/value

By analyzing and summarizing the application trend of grey model technology in agricultural science research, the research hotspot, research frontier and valuable research directions of grey model technology in agricultural science research can be more clearly grasped.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 November 2015

Qiuping Wang, Subing Liu and Guoqiang Xiong

The aggregation of information from a group of decision experts for developing collective opinion is the important question in practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a…

Abstract

Purpose

The aggregation of information from a group of decision experts for developing collective opinion is the important question in practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a group decision-making method via ordered weighted aggregation (OWA) operator and grey incidence analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, OWA operator provides aggregation of attribute values to form an overall decision for each decision expert, and grey incidence model provides aggregation of decision experts’ evaluations to form overall score for each alternative. The example illustrates the procedure and practicability of the proposed model.

Findings

A new thought for multiple attribute group decision-making problems is given. The proposed method produces an overall desirability score for each alternative.

Practical implications

This is to obtain a more comprehensive and realistic solution to the given group decision-making problem. The proposed analysis method of group decision-making problems reveals vitality of grey systems theory.

Originality/value

This paper combines OWA operator and grey incidence analysis to obtain a novel and effective method for group decision making. It is suitable for group decision-making problems in which the attribute weights are completely unknown, expert weights are completely unknown.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 March 2019

Mikiale Gebreslase Gebremariam, Yuming Zhu, Naveed Ahmad and Dawit Nega Bekele

The increasing African population and economic growth leading to urbanisation continues to increase the need to redevelop brownfields as a strategy of encouraging sustainable…

Abstract

Purpose

The increasing African population and economic growth leading to urbanisation continues to increase the need to redevelop brownfields as a strategy of encouraging sustainable development of cities, in particular in Ethiopia. However, the adoption of brownfield redevelopment in Ethiopia is at initial stage. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the framework based on grey-incidence decision-making approach to manage brownfields in African countries by taking Ethiopia as case example. The grey-incidence decision-making model integrates multiple factors such as economic, social, environmental, technical and associated risks and provides an effective decision-making and management tool for environmental practitioners and government agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaires were used to collect data on terms and definitions of brownfield. The questions were prepared on the basis of currently used definitions developed by a number of developed countries. Moreover, this study utilises a grey-incidence decision-making approach to help in management and decision-making for the implementation of brownfield redevelopment projects (BRPs) in the remediated sites.

Findings

Standard definition of brownfield and essential guidelines for brownfield redevelopment is proposed for Ethiopian context. The research findings were tested and verified using literature data and survey from major stakeholders. In addition, the grey-incidence decision-making approach is applied for the evaluation of BRPs in the remediated sites. A framework is proposed to control future brownfields for African countries by taking Ethiopia as a case example.

Originality/value

This research stresses the significance of an urban structure to address sustainable development, and the need to consider redevelopment of brownfields and identify the potential for a specific government policy framework. This research provides the best opportunity for Ethiopia by devising an urban land policy and create a strategy to contribute social, economic, financial and environmental benefits. It also provides a foundation to solve environmental issues by involving all major stakeholders, including community citizens, environmentalists and government agencies, and it also serves as guidelines to transform brownfields into Greenfields; and finally, it contributes to achieve the 2030 UN global goals.

Details

World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5945

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2006

Yaoguo Dang, Sifeng Liu and Chuanmin Mi

Based on the characteristics of interval number, the distance of interval number is defined. And based on the grey incidence degree theory, the degree of interval number incidence…

416

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the characteristics of interval number, the distance of interval number is defined. And based on the grey incidence degree theory, the degree of interval number incidence is defined. These extend grey incidence analysis theory from real number sequence to interval number sequence.

Design/methodology/approach

Studies the multi‐attribute incidence decision‐making problems for interval number and models the incidence decision‐making model of multi‐attribute interval number.

Findings

An application example is given based on grey incidence decision model with multi‐attribute interval number.

Research limitations/implications

This new model can avoid the difficulty of seeking the dummy optimal scheme and the negative optimal scheme, and it regards evaluated scheme as a whole to seek the optimal scheme.

Practical implications

It is easy to realizing on computer and the evaluated result is more objective than the results obtained by other methods.

Originality/value

Studies multi‐attribute decision‐making problems.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 35 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 August 2018

Wenjie Dong, Sifeng Liu and Zhigeng Fang

The purpose of this paper is to study the modelling mechanisms of several grey incidence analysis models with great influence, including Deng’s grey incidence model, absolute…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the modelling mechanisms of several grey incidence analysis models with great influence, including Deng’s grey incidence model, absolute degree of grey incidence model, slope degree of incidence model, similitude degree of incidence model and closeness degree of incidence model; then analyse the problems to be solved in grey incidence analysis models; and clarify the applicable ranges of commonly used grey incidence models.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper comes to conclusions by means of comparable analysis. The authors compare several commonly used grey incidence analysis models, including Deng’s grey incidence model, absolute degree of grey incidence model, slope degree of incidence model, similitude degree of incidence model and closeness degree of incidence model and give several examples to clarify the reasons why quantitative analysis results of different models are not exactly the same.

Findings

As the intension of each kind of incidence model is clear and the extension is relatively obscure, grey incidence orders calculated by different incidence models are often different. When making actual decisions, incompatible results may appear. According to different characteristics of extraction, grey incidence analysis models can be divided into three types: incidence model based on closeness perspective, incidence model based on similarity perspective and incidence model based on comprehensive perspective.

Practical implications

The conclusions obtained in this paper can help people avoid some defects in the process of actual selection and choose the better incidence analysis model.

Originality/value

The conclusions can be used as a reference and basis for the selection of grey incidence analysis models, it can help to overcome the defects and shortcomings of models caused by themselves and screen out more excellent analytical models.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 December 2023

Marcin Nowak, Marta Pawłowska-Nowak, Małgorzata Kokocińska and Piotr Kułyk

With the use of the grey incidence analysis (GIA), indicators such as the absolute degree of grey incidence (εij), relative degree of grey incidence (rij) or synthetic degree of…

260

Abstract

Purpose

With the use of the grey incidence analysis (GIA), indicators such as the absolute degree of grey incidence (εij), relative degree of grey incidence (rij) or synthetic degree of grey incidence (ρij) are calculated. However, it seems that some assumptions made to calculate them are arguable, which may also have a material impact on the reliability of test results. In this paper, the authors analyse one of the indicators of the GIA, namely the relative degree of grey incidence. The aim of the article was to verify the hypothesis: in determining the relative degree of grey incidence, the method of standardisation of elements in a series significantly affects the test results.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the purpose of the article, the authors used the numerical simulation method and the logical analysis method (in order to draw conclusions from our tests).

Findings

It turned out that the applied method of standardising elements in series when calculating the relative degree of grey incidence significantly affects the test results. Moreover, the manner of standardisation used in the original method (which involves dividing all elements by the first element) is not the best. Much more reliable results are obtained by a standardisation that involves dividing all elements by their arithmetic mean.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of the conducted evaluation involve in particular the limited scope of inference. This is since the obtained results referred to only one of the indicators classified into the GIA.

Originality/value

In this article, the authors have evaluated the model of GIA in which the relative degree of grey incidence is determined. As a result of the research, the authors have proposed a recommendation regarding a change in the method of standardising variables, which will contribute to obtaining more reliable results in relational tests using the grey system theory.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 August 2018

Dang Luo, Haitao Li and Qicun Qian

The purpose of this paper is to construct a key factors selection approach for a class of small-sample multi-factor cross-sectional data analysis (SMCDA) problem, which is very…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to construct a key factors selection approach for a class of small-sample multi-factor cross-sectional data analysis (SMCDA) problem, which is very common in productive practice and scientific research, such as coal-bed methane (CBM) content analysis, civil aircraft cost analysis, etc. Key factors selection is an important basic work for SMCDA problem; the proposed method is constructed to improve the accuracy and explanatory of the selected key factors.

Design/methodology/approach

Using grey system theory to solve SMCDA problem is more reasonable under few data and poor information. Therefore, this paper constructs a grey incidence analysis (GIA) model with rate of change to select the key factors of an SMCDA problem. The basic idea of the proposed method is to simulate time series by randomly sorting the selected samples, and to calculate the degree of grey incidence with rate of change by loop iterative algorithm, then to construct the degree matrix of grey incidence with rate of change, and finally by which, to utilise quantitative and qualitative analysis methods to select the key factors.

Findings

The experimental analysis of application cases demonstrates that the key factors of system’s characteristic can be successfully screened out by the proposed method, the results are consistent with actual conditions, and they have a clearer meaning and a better interpretability.

Practical implications

The method proposed in this paper could be utilised to select key factors for such a class of SMCDA problem, which has fewer observation samples (small-sample), which is influenced by a number of factors (multi-factor) and whose observation samples are placed randomly rather than by time (cross-sectional data). Taking the key influence factors of CBM content and the key driving factors of the vulnerability of agricultural drought in Henan as examples, the results proved the feasibility and superiority of this proposed method.

Originality/value

Most of the existing GIA models mainly focus on these classes of issues with time series data or panel data. However, few GIA models take SMCDA problem as the research object. In this paper, the authors develop the GIA model with rate of change according to the characteristics of SMCDA problem, and present some properties and application suggestions of the proposed method.

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2020

Shi Quan Jiang, SiFeng Liu and ZhongXia Liu

The purpose of this paper is to study the grey decision model and distance measuring method of general grey number.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the grey decision model and distance measuring method of general grey number.

Design/methodology/approach

First, intuitionistic grey number (IGN) set and an IGN are defined by grey number probability function. Second, each interval grey number in general grey number is represented by an IGN and converts the general grey number into an IGN set. Final, the operation of two general grey numbers is defined as the operation between IGN sets, and the distance measure of the general grey number is given.

Findings

Up to now, the method of measuring the distance and the grey decision model of general grey number is established. Thus, the difficult problem for set up decision mode of general grey number has been solved to a certain degree.

Research limitations/implications

The method exposed in this paper can be used to integrate information form a different source. The method that a general grey number converted to a set of IGNs could be extended to the case of grey incidence analysis models, grey prediction models and grey clustering evaluation models, which includes general grey numbers, etc.

Originality/value

The concepts of IGN and IGN set are proposed for the first time in this paper; The operation of two general grey numbers can be defined as the operation between IGN sets. On this basis, the algorithm of IGN, the integration operator of IGN and the distance measure between IGN sets are given.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2012

Sifeng Liu, Jeffrey Forrest and Yingjie Yang

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the elementary concepts and fundamental principles of grey systems and the main components of grey systems theory. Also to discuss the…

2125

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the elementary concepts and fundamental principles of grey systems and the main components of grey systems theory. Also to discuss the astonishing progress that grey systems theory has made in the world of learning and its wide‐ranging applications in the entire spectrum of science.

Design/methodology/approach

The characteristics of unascertained systems including incomplete information and inaccuracies in data are analysed and four uncertain theories: probability statistics, fuzzy mathematics, grey system and rough set theory are compared. The scientific principle of simplicity and how precise models suffer from inaccuracies are also shown.

Findings

The four uncertain theories, probability statistics, fuzzy mathematics, grey system and rough set theory are examined with different research objects, different basic sets, different methods and procedures, different data requirements, different emphasis, different objectives and different characteristics.

Practical implications

The scientific principle of simplicity and how precise models suffer from inaccuracies are shown. So, precise models are not necessarily an effective means to deal with complex matters, especially in the case that the available information is incomplete and the collected data inaccurate.

Originality/value

The elementary concepts and fundamental principles of grey systems and the main components of grey systems theory are introduced briefly. The reader is given a general picture of grey systems theory as a new method for studying problems where partial information is known, partial information is unknown; especially for uncertain systems with few data points and poor information.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

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