MCDM'07 - paper no. 7


 

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Computer-based support of multicriteria cooperative decisions - some problems and ideas

Lech Kruś

Abstract:

The paper deals with a class of cooperation problems related to the decision situations in which several parties consider participation in a joint enterprise. Typical questions arise: When is the cooperation beneficial? What should be the fair engagement of the parties in the enterprise and the fair allocation of benefits among them? Problems related to construction of a computer-based system supporting the decisions analysis made by the parties are discussed. To construct the system, first a substantive model describing the decision situation has to be built. The model includes specifications of decision variables, exogenous variables, output quantities, criteria of the parties, constraints defining the set of admissible decisions, mathematical relations enabling derivation of the output quantities and the criteria as dependent on given decision and exogenous variables. It is assumed that each party has given its own set of criteria, in general different, and has independent preferences over the criteria. The sovereignty of the decision makers representing the parties is assumed, i.e. the decision makers are fully responsible for the decisions they make. The computer-based system is only a tool aiding the analysis of the decision situations and a tool facilitating the consensus seeking. The bargaining game model extended to the multicriteria case is used to describe the cooperation problems. Solution concepts formulated for the classical bargaining problem, such as the egalitarian solution and those proposed by Nash, Raiffa-Kalai-Smorodisky, Imai are considered. Extensions of the solutions to the multicriteria bargaining problem are presented. Properties of the solutions are discussed. The solution concepts can be used to derive mediation proposals generated in the system and presented to the parties for analysis in iterative procedures. The application area includes, among others, the analysis of cooperation in the case of innovative activities, education systems, cost allocation problems.

Keywords:

cooperative decisions, multicriteria analysis, mediation support, computer-based systems

Reference index:

Lech Kruś, (2008), Computer-based support of multicriteria cooperative decisions - some problems and ideas, Multiple Criteria Decision Making (3), pp. 103-116

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