Informatica

Policy-makers are often hesitant to invest in unproven solutions because of a lack of the decision-making framework for managing innovations as a portfolio of investments that balances risk and return, especially in the field of developing new technologies. This study provides a new portfolio matrix for decision making of policy-makers to identify IoT applications in the agriculture sector for future investment based on two dimensions of sustainable development as a return and IoT challenge as a risk using a novel MADM approach. To this end, the identified applications of IoT in the agriculture sector fall into eight areas using the meta-synthesis method. The authors extracted a set of criteria from the literature. Later, the fuzzy Delphi method helped finalise it. The authors extended the SWARA method with interval-valued triangular fuzzy numbers (IVTFN SWARA) and used it to the weighting of the characteristics. Then, the alternatives were rated using the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method based on interval-valued triangular fuzzy numbers (IVTFN ARAS). Finally, decision-makers evaluated the results of ratings based on two dimensions of sustainability and IoT challenge by developing a framework for decision-making. Results of this paper show that policy-makers can manage IOT innovations in a disciplined way that balances risk and return by a portfolio approach, simultaneously the proposed framework can be used to determine and prioritise the areas of IoT application in the agriculture sector.

In practice, the judgments of decision-makers are often uncertain and thus cannot be represented by accurate values. In this study, the opinions of decision-makers are collected based on grey linguistic variables and the data retains the grey nature throughout all the decision-making process. A grey best-worst method (GBWM) is developed for multiple experts multiple criteria decision-making problems that can employ grey linguistic variables as input data to cover uncertainty. An example is solved by the GBWM and then a sensitivity analysis is done to show the robustness of the method. Comparative analyses verify the validity and advantages of the GBWM.

This paper focuses on the aggregation or scoring methods to evaluate the alternatives in Multiple Attribute Decision Making problems (MADM), e.g. Weighted Sum Model (WSM) and Weighted Product Model (WPM). The paper deals with the incorporation of the two concepts into the scoring methods, which has not been studied yet. These concepts are decision maker’s Indifference Thresholds (IT) and Yearning Thresholds (YT) on the decision making criteria. Reviewing the related literature reveals that the existent scoring methods do not have a suitable structure to involve the IT, and there is no scoring method which addresses a way to take the YT into account. The paper shows that there is an important drawback to the famous Aspiration Level (AL) concept. Hence, the YT idea is given to resolve the AL limitation. Based on the IT and YT concepts, two new scoring methods are developed: Extended WPM (EWPM) and Extended WSM (EWSM). The EWPM and EWSM are compared with the other scoring methods using a set of simulation analysis. A real-world case extracted from Exploration and Production (E&P) companies in oil industry is examined.