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Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Group DEMATEL Method with Multi-granular Evaluation Scales

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Abstract

Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is a widely applied method used in the research of complicated socioeconomic system issues. However, this traditional method is not feasible when experts are non-homogeneous and hesitant between two or more statements. In this paper, hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs) are applied to facilitate the experts’ expressions with regard to a direct influence level between factors, in order to analyze the causal relationship of the relevant system. Experts can use a linguistic expression (which is close to human expression) to show their opinions, which can be easily transferred into HFLTSs. Meanwhile, by using the concept of regarding the influence between factors as object and the level of influence as criteria, this paper proposes a comparison-based ranking algorithm to cope with the aggregation process of multi-granular scaled evaluation. In the algorithm, two adjustable possibility thresholds are introduced to control the output granule of the group consensus direct-influence scores. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach are finally demonstrated through an illustrative example and analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71561015 and 71261013), the Applied Basic Research Foundation of Yunnan Province of China (Nos. 2015FB137 and 2016FB116), the Science Research Foundation of Yunnan Provincial Education Department of China (No. 2017ZZX153), the Educational Science in Philosophy and Social-science Foundation of Yunnan Province of China (No. AB16002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Management and Economics, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Wei Han, Yonghe Sun, Hui Xie & Zhimin Che

  2. City College, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650051, China

    Wei Han

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  1. Wei Han
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  2. Yonghe Sun
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  3. Hui Xie
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Correspondence to Wei Han.

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Han, W., Sun, Y., Xie, H. et al. Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Group DEMATEL Method with Multi-granular Evaluation Scales. Int. J. Fuzzy Syst. 20, 2187–2201 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40815-017-0397-8

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