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Two decades on the MACBETH approach: a bibliometric analysis

  • S.I.: MOPGP 2017
  • Published:
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Abstract

MACBETH stands for measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique. It is a multiple criteria decision analysis technique created by Carlos Bana e Costa and Jean-Claude Vansnick in the early 1990s. Due to both the increasing application of the technique and progress achieved to date, this study aims to conduct a bibliometric literature review on MACBETH. The database for the review contains 192 scientific articles published in scholarly publications indexed in the Scopus database from 1994 to 2016. Although other literature reviews of the technique exist, this study has a different emphasis and uses two distinct citation analysis methods—bibliographic coupling and co-citation—, allowing us to generate new insights regarding some of the most active and influential articles, journals and authors, as well as to reveal rankings, clusters of contributions and collaboration networks. The results obtained are important to enhance our understanding of the technique’s anatomy (i.e., its intellectual structure), and can support the identification of new lines of application and development.

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Source: Wang et al. (2016: 37, adap.)

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Source: Scopus (2016)

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Source: Scopus (2016)

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Source: Scopus (2016)

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Ana Rita Azevedo, Neuza Ferreira, and Sara Marques for their assistance and hours spent in data preparation and confirmation. The second author acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Grant UID/ECO/04007/2013), and FEDER/COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007659).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISCTE Business School, BRU-IUL, University Institute of Lisbon, Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026, Lisbon, Portugal

    Fernando A. F. Ferreira

  2. Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152-3120, USA

    Fernando A. F. Ferreira

  3. Faculty of Economics and CEFAGE, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    Sérgio P. Santos

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Correspondence to Fernando A. F. Ferreira.

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Ferreira, F.A.F., Santos, S.P. Two decades on the MACBETH approach: a bibliometric analysis. Ann Oper Res 296, 901–925 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-018-3083-9

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