IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v211y2013i1p565-57810.1007-s10479-012-1307-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A careful look at the importance of criteria and weights

Author

Listed:
  • Pekka Korhonen
  • Kari Silvennoinen
  • Jyrki Wallenius
  • Anssi Öörni

Abstract

We investigate the connection between weights, scales, and the importance of criteria, when a linear value function is assumed to be a suitable representation of a decision maker’s preferences. Our considerations are based on a simple two-criteria experiment, where the participants were asked to indicate which of the criteria was more important, and to pairwise compare a number of alternatives. We use the participants’ pairwise choices to estimate the weights for the criteria in such a way that the linear value function explains the choices to the extent possible. More specifically, we study two research questions: (1) is it possible to find a general scaling principle that makes the rank order of the importance of criteria consistent with the rank order of the magnitudes of the weights, and (2) how good is a simple, direct method of asking the decision maker to “provide” weights for the criteria compared to our estimation procedure. Our results imply that there is reason to question two common beliefs, namely that the values of the weights would reflect the importance of criteria, and that people could reliably “provide” such weights without estimation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Pekka Korhonen & Kari Silvennoinen & Jyrki Wallenius & Anssi Öörni, 2013. "A careful look at the importance of criteria and weights," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 211(1), pages 565-578, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:211:y:2013:i:1:p:565-578:10.1007/s10479-012-1307-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-012-1307-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-012-1307-y
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-012-1307-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoram Wind & Thomas L. Saaty, 1980. "Marketing Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(7), pages 641-658, July.
    2. Greco, Salvatore & Matarazzo, Benedetto & Slowinski, Roman, 2001. "Rough sets theory for multicriteria decision analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 1-47, February.
    3. Goldstein, William M., 1990. "Judgments of relative importance in decision making: Global vs local interpretations of subjective weight," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 313-336, December.
    4. Rüdiger von Nitzsch & Martin Weber, 1993. "The Effect of Attribute Ranges on Weights in Multiattribute Utility Measurements," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(8), pages 937-943, August.
    5. Stanley Zionts & Jyrki Wallenius, 1976. "An Interactive Programming Method for Solving the Multiple Criteria Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 652-663, February.
    6. Ahti A. Salo & Raimo P. Hämäläinen, 1992. "Preference Assessment by Imprecise Ratio Statements," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(6), pages 1053-1061, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Podinovskaya, Olga V. & Podinovski, Vladislav V., 2017. "Criteria importance theory for multicriterial decision making problems with a hierarchical structure," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 983-992.
    2. Pajala, Tommi & Korhonen, Pekka & Wallenius, Jyrki, 2017. "Road to robust prediction of choices in deterministic MCDM," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(1), pages 229-235.
    3. Joanna Jaroszewicz & Anna Majewska, 2021. "Group Spatial Preferences of Residential Locations—Simplified Method Based on Crowdsourced Spatial Data and MCDA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pekka Korhonen & Majid Soleimani-damaneh & Jyrki Wallenius, 2017. "The use of quasi-concave value functions in MCDM: some theoretical results," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 86(2), pages 367-375, October.
    2. Cinelli, Marco & Kadziński, Miłosz & Miebs, Grzegorz & Gonzalez, Michael & Słowiński, Roman, 2022. "Recommending multiple criteria decision analysis methods with a new taxonomy-based decision support system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 633-651.
    3. Choudhary, Devendra & Shankar, Ravi, 2012. "An STEEP-fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS framework for evaluation and selection of thermal power plant location: A case study from India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 510-521.
    4. García Cáceres, Rafael Guillermo & Aráoz Durand, Julián Arturo & Gómez, Fernando Palacios, 2009. "Integral analysis method - IAM," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(3), pages 891-903, February.
    5. Hayashi, Kiyotada, 1998. "Multicriteria aid for agricultural decisions using preference relations: methodology and application," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 483-503, December.
    6. Castillo, Geoffrey, 2020. "The attraction effect and its explanations," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 123-147.
    7. Wu, Zhibin & Huang, Shuai & Xu, Jiuping, 2019. "Multi-stage optimization models for individual consistency and group consensus with preference relations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 182-194.
    8. Angilella, Silvia & Greco, Salvatore & Matarazzo, Benedetto, 2010. "Non-additive robust ordinal regression: A multiple criteria decision model based on the Choquet integral," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(1), pages 277-288, February.
    9. G Özerol & E Karasakal, 2008. "Interactive outranking approaches for multicriteria decision-making problems with imprecise information," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1253-1268, September.
    10. Sam Park, Kyung & Sang Lee, Kyung & Seong Eum, Yun & Park, Kwangtae, 2001. "Extended methods for identifying dominance and potential optimality in multi-criteria analysis with imprecise information," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(3), pages 557-563, November.
    11. Guo, Min & Yang, Jian-Bo & Chin, Kwai-Sang & Wang, Hongwei, 2007. "Evidential reasoning based preference programming for multiple attribute decision analysis under uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(3), pages 1294-1312, November.
    12. Chen, Li-Fei & Tsai, Chih-Tsung, 2016. "Data mining framework based on rough set theory to improve location selection decisions: A case study of a restaurant chain," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 197-206.
    13. Diaz-Balteiro, L & González-Pachón, J. & Romero, C., 2017. "Measuring systems sustainability with multi-criteria methods: A critical review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 607-616.
    14. Chakhar, Salem & Ishizaka, Alessio & Thorpe, Andy & Cox, Joe & Nguyen, Thang & Ford, Liz, 2020. "Calculating the relative importance of condition attributes based on the characteristics of decision rules and attribute reducts: Application to crowdfunding," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(2), pages 689-712.
    15. Korhonen, Pekka J. & Silvennoinen, Kari & Wallenius, Jyrki & Öörni, Anssi, 2012. "Can a linear value function explain choices? An experimental study," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 219(2), pages 360-367.
    16. Ishizaka, Alessio & Siraj, Sajid, 2018. "Are multi-criteria decision-making tools useful? An experimental comparative study of three methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(2), pages 462-471.
    17. Durbach, Ian N. & Stewart, Theodor J., 2012. "Modeling uncertainty in multi-criteria decision analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 1-14.
    18. Borysiewicz, Mieczysław & Kowal, Karol & Potempski, Sławomir, 2015. "An application of the value tree analysis methodology within the integrated risk informed decision making for the nuclear facilities," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 113-119.
    19. Poyhonen, Mari & Vrolijk, Hans & Hamalainen, Raimo P., 2001. "Behavioral and procedural consequences of structural variation in value trees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 216-227, October.
    20. Corrente, S. & Figueira, J.R. & Greco, S., 2021. "Pairwise comparison tables within the deck of cards method in multiple criteria decision aiding," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(2), pages 738-756.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:211:y:2013:i:1:p:565-578:10.1007/s10479-012-1307-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.