The Hierarchical VIKOR Method with Incomplete Information: Supplier Selection Problem

Abstract

To solve a multi-criteria decision-making problem, many attempts have been made to alleviate difficulties of obtaining precise preference information attributed to time pressure, lack of data and domain knowledge, limited attention and information processing capabilities, etc. Structuring any decision problem hierarchically is known to be an efficient way of dealing with complexity and identifying the major components of the problem. In this paper, we propose the hierarchical VIKOR method that uses incomplete alternatives' values as well as incomplete criteria weights, extending previous works that consider mostly intervals or fuzzy under a flat structure of criteria. It ranks alternatives using the aggregated scores of group utility and individual regret scores which are computed from the linear programs. To show how to use our proposed method, we exemplified an international supplier selection problem that affects the organization's sustainable growth.