COMPARISON OF MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING METHODS: IS IT ALL THE SAME?

Abstract

Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods have been used in various research areas in order to evaluate and rank finite number of alternatives based on a set of predetermined criteria. One of the main concerns when applying MCDM methods is related to the fact that different methods can yield different results in terms of the ranking of the proposed alternatives. This is usually explained with the subjectivity in the decision-making process which is incorporated in the most of the MCDM methods. The aim of this paper is to show that different methods can yield different results even when the subjectivity is reduced to the minimum. For this purpose, five of the most used MCDM methods (i.e., PROMETHEE, ELECTRE, AHP, TOPSIS, and VIKOR) were analysed and compared on a general example. As expected, the ranking of the alternatives is not the same for all of the used methods. Based on the results presented in this paper, researchers and practitioners should be motivated to investigate more thoroughly the specificities of various MCDM methods and consequently make more reliable decisions based on the use of appropriate methods for their specific problem.