The Use of Analytic Hierarchy Process to Analyse International Corporations’ Operating Environment

The paper aims at analyzing the main determinants of International Corporations’ behaviours with application of Analytic Hierarchy Process method. In first instance the study focuses on describing the business environment of International Companies. It has been divided in three groups, namely the Operating Environment, the Host – Country Environment and the Global Environment, accordingly to H. Deresky’s concept of the Open Systems Model. The following section is a presentation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process method by T.L. Saaty. In next chapter the author proposes the application of AHP method for decision making in a turbulent operating environment of International Corporations. The basic assumption of the paper is that a correct identification of relevant groups of environmental factors allows a better decision making by choosing appropriate solutions from a set of alternatives. The Analytic Hierarchy Process seems to be a useful tool for ranking the relevance of particular elements of hierarchical problems. At the same time it helps the managers choosing the correct way of problem solving, which leads to a better management in complex environments.