Search results for "Management Science"
showing 10 items of 1017 documents
The foundations of decision theory: An intuitive, operational approach with mathematical extensions
1985
A new axiomatic basis for the foundations of decision theory is introduced and its mathematical development outlined. The system combines direct intuitive operational appeal with considerable structural flexibility in the resulting mathematical framework.
Understanding Decision Support in Large-Scale Disasters: Challenges in Humanitarian Logistics Distribution
2017
Disasters are characterized by conflicting, uncertain, or lacking data. Nevertheless, humanitarian responders need to make rapid decisions. This is particularly true for the immediate response to a sudden onset disaster. Since most humanitarian decision support systems (DSS) make important assumptions on data availability and quality that are often not fulfilled in practice, decision-makers are largely left to their experience. In this paper, we identify three major challenges for an operational DSS to support distribution planning: (i) deep uncertainty; (ii) reflecting field conditions and constraints; and (iii) rapid humanitarian logistics modeling. We review the relevant theories and pro…
Requirements for Relief Distribution Decision-Making in Humanitarian Logistics
2020
Making efficient and effective decisions in the chaotic environment of humanitarian relief distribution (HRD) is challenging. Decision-makers need to concentrate on numerous decision factors categorized into decision objectives, variables, and constraints. Recent HRD literature focuses on optimizing procedures while neglecting the quantification of essential requirements (decision factors) for information systems to provide decision-making support. In this article, we address this gap by accumulating affecting decision factors from both literature and practice. We investigated the practical implications of these factors in HRD decision-making by measuring the preferences of a Delphi panel c…
Survey of methods to visualize alternatives in multiple criteria decision making problems
2012
When solving decision problems where multiple conflicting criteria are to be considered simultaneously, decision makers must compare several different alternatives and select the most preferred one. The task of comparing multidimensional vectors is very demanding for the decision maker without any support. Different graphical visualization tools can be used to support and help the decision maker in understanding similarities and differences between the alternatives and graphical illustration is a very important part of decision support systems that are used in solving multiple criteria decision making problems. The visualization task is by no means trivial because, on the one hand, the grap…
Software Modernization and Replacement Decision Making in Industry: A Qualitative Study
2006
Software modernization and replacement decisions are crucial to many organizations. They affect greatly to the success and well being of the organizations and their people. The decisions like that are usually presumed to be rational and based on facts. These decisions and how they are made tell much about the decision makers and the decision making tools available to them. Interviews of 29 software modernization decision makers or senior experts were analyzed in order to find out how the decisions were made and what models and tools were used. It turned out that decisions are not as rational as supposed. Intuition is the dominant factor in decision making. Formal software engineering orient…
Verbal ordinal classification with multicriteria decision aiding
2008
Abstract Professionals in neuropsychology usually perform diagnoses of patients’ behaviour in a verbal rather than in a numerical form. This fact generates interest in decision support systems that process verbal data. It also motivates us to develop methods for the classification of such data. In this paper, we describe ways of aiding classification of a discrete set of objects, evaluated on set of criteria that may have verbal estimations, into ordered decision classes. In some situations, there is no explicit additional information available, while in others it is possible to order the criteria lexicographically. We consider both of these cases. The proposed Dichotomic Classification (DC…
Reference point approach for multiple decision makers
2005
We consider multiple criteria decision-making problems where a group of decision-makers wants to find the most preferred solution from a discrete set of alternatives. We develop a method that uses achievement functions for charting subsets of reference points that would support a certain alternative to be the most preferred one. The resulting descriptive information is provided to the decision-makers in the form of reference acceptability indices and central reference points for each decision alternative. Then, the decision-makers can compare this information with their own preferences. We demonstrate the use of the method using a strategic multiple criteria decision model for an electricit…
Multivariate Gaussian criteria in SMAA
2006
Abstract We consider stochastic multicriteria decision-making problems with multiple decision makers. In such problems, the uncertainty or inaccuracy of the criteria measurements and the partial or missing preference information can be represented through probability distributions. In many real-life problems the uncertainties of criteria measurements may be dependent. However, it is often difficult to quantify these dependencies. Also, most of the existing methods are unable to handle such dependency information. In this paper, we develop a method for handling dependent uncertainties in stochastic multicriteria group decision-making problems. We measure the criteria, their uncertainties and…
Emergent vulnerabilities in Integrated Operations: A proactive simulation study of economic risk
2009
Abstract The protection of critical infrastructure requires an understanding of the effects of change on current and future safety and operations. Vulnerabilities may emerge during the rollout of updated techniques and integration of new technology with existing work practices. Managers need to understand how their decisions, often focused on economic priorities, affect the dynamics of vulnerability over time. Such understanding is difficult to obtain, as the historical data typically used for decision support, prediction and forecasting may not be available. We report on the use of group model building and simulation to consider proactively the effects of a 10-year, multi-billion dollar mo…
Systems Thinking and Sustainability in Organisations
2015
This set of articles arises from a series of conferences (Business Systems Laboratory Symposia, 2013-2015) and in particular from the 2nd Business systems Laboratory International Symposium, Rome 2014 with the theme ‘Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Economy’, concerned with systems thinking and its relations with sustainable management, where the relevance of systems thinking was demonstrated. The current period of our global society is characterised by intense transformations in the competitive logics of organisations, markets, and, generally speaking, society. Social circumstances today are typified by dynamism, connectivity, nonlinearity, and emergent properties — in other words by ‘co…