Denis Bouyssou

Building Criteria: A Prerequisite for MCDA

Following Roy (1985), we will say that decision-aid consists in trying to provide answers to questions raised by actors involved in a decision process using a clearly specified model. In order to do so, the analyst often has to compare “alternatives” (see Vincke, 1989). In an approach using several criteria, the analyst aims at establishing comparisons on the basis of the evaluation of the alternatives according to several criteria. In an approach using a single criterion, the analyst seeks to build a unique criterion taking into account all the relevant aspects of the problem. In either approach, the success of decision-aid crucially depends upon the way in which the unique criterion or the family of criteria have been built. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of this phase by a number of frequently encountered difficulties and some techniques to overcome them.

Some remarks on the notion of compensation in MCDM

Abstract This paper presents general definitions of compensation and noncompensation in MCDM within the framework of Multiattributable Preference Structure. The interests of using a more or less compensatory noncompensatory features in a consistent way, are introduced. They receive a complete axiomatic treatment for the two-attribute case, and it is shown that they contain most currently used aggregation procedures as particular cases.

Evaluation and Decision Models

1. Introduction. 2. Choosing on the basis of several opinions. 3. Building and aggregating evaluations. 4. Constructing measures. 5. Assessing competing projects. 6. Comparing on several attributes. 7. Deciding automatically. 8. Dealing with uncertainty. 9. Supporting decisions. Appendix A. Appendix B. 10. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

Utility Maximization, Choice and Preference

The utility maximization paradigm forms the basis of many economic, psychological, cognitive and behavioral models. Since it was first devised in the eighteenth century, numerous examples have revealed the deficiencies of the concept.This book makes a contribution to overcome those deficiencies by taking into account insensitivity of measurement threshold and context of choice. It covers classic theory as a special, context-free case and gives a systematic overview of new models of utility maximization within a context-dependent threshold as well as related preference and choice models.The second edition has been updated to include the most recent developments and a new chapter on classic and new results for infinite sets. The presented models will be helpful to scientists in economics, decision making theory, social choice theory, behavioral and cognitive sciences, and related fields.

Comparison of two decision-aid models applied to a nuclear power plant siting example

The aim of this paper is to examine on non-theoretical grounds the extent to which outranking and MAUT decision-aid approaches differ.

An axiomatic approach to noncompensatory sorting methods in MCDM, II: More than two categories

A number of recent papers have investigated the foundations of methods allowing to sort multi-attributed alternatives between several ordered categories. This paper has a similar objective. Our analysis uses a general conjoint measurement framework, encompassing most sorting models used in MDCM, that was proposed in the literature. Within this framework, we provide an axiomatic analysis of what we call noncompensatory sorting models, with or without veto effects. These noncompensatory sorting models contain the pessimistic version of ELECTRE TRI as a particular case. Our analysis can be seen as an attempt to give a firm axiomatic basis to ELECTRE TRI, while emphasizing its specific feature, i.e., the rather poor information that this model uses on each attribute.

Ranking methods based on valued preference relations: A characterization of the net flow method

Abstract This paper deals with the problem of ranking several alternatives on the basis of a valued preference relation. A system of three independent axioms is shown to characterize a ranking method based on ‘net flows’ which contains as particular cases the rules of Copeland and Borda and is used in one of the Promethee methods.

Outranking Relations: Do They Have Special Properties?

Outranking relations are most often built using a concordance–discordance principle. Such relations are in general neither transitive nor complete. This is not to say that the concordance–discordance principle does not impose some ‘structural’ restrictions on these relations. We show why this question may be of some importance for analysing the various techniques designed to build a recommendation on the basis of such relations. These restrictions are studied for the ELECTRE and PROMETHEE methods.

Ranking methods for valued preference relations : A characterization of a method based on leaving and entering flows

Abstract In this paper we study a particular method that builds a partial ranking on the basis of a valued preference relation. This method, which is used in the MCDM method PROMETHEE I, is based on ‘leaving’ and ‘entering’ flows. We show that this method is characterized by system of three independent axioms.

A characterization of concordance relations

Abstract The notion of concordance is central to many multiple criteria techniques relying on ordinal information, e.g. outranking methods. It leads to compare alternatives by pairs on the basis of a comparison of coalitions of attributes in terms of “importance”. This paper proposes a characterization of the binary relations that can be obtained using such comparisons within a general framework for conjoint measurement that allows for intransitive preferences. We show that such relations are mainly characterized by the very rough differentiation of preference differences that they induce on each attribute.