Supporting the multi-criteria decision aiding process: R and the MCDA package

EURO Journal on Decision Processes volume 5, pages169–194(2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Reaching a decision when multiple, possibly conflicting, criteria are taken into account is often a difficult task. This normally requires the intervention of an analyst to aid the decision maker in following a clear methodology with respect to the steps that need to be taken, as well as the use of different algorithms and software tools. Most of these tools focus on one or a small number of algorithms, some are difficult to adapt and interface with other tools, while only a few belong to dynamic communities of contributors allowing them to expand in use and functionality. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing to use the R statistical environment and the MCDA package of decision aiding algorithms and tools. This package is meant to provide a wide range of MCDA algorithms that may be used by an analyst to tailor a decision aiding process to their needs, while the choice of R takes advantage of the yet poorly explored opportunity to interface data analysis and decision aiding. We additionally demonstrate the use of this tool on a practical application following a well-defined decision aiding process.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. IMT Atlantique, Lab-STICC, Univ. Bretagne Loire, 29238, Brest, France

    Sébastien Bigaret, Patrick Meyer, Tatiana Mironova & Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu

  2. Leeds University Business School, Maurice Keyworth Building, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Richard E. Hodgett

Authors
  1. Sébastien Bigaret
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  2. Richard E. Hodgett
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  3. Patrick Meyer
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  4. Tatiana Mironova
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  5. Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu
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Correspondence to Patrick Meyer.

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Bigaret, S., Hodgett, R.E., Meyer, P. et al. Supporting the multi-criteria decision aiding process: R and the MCDA package. EURO J Decis Process 5, 169–194 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40070-017-0064-1

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Keywords

  • R
  • MCDA
  • Decision aiding process

Mathematics Subject Classification

  • 90
  • 68