A linguistic information granulation model based on best-worst method in decision making problems

Abstract

In the elicitation of decision makers’ fuzzy and uncertain assessments, linguistic terms are natural and efficient as the preference modeling tools. Although the linguistic variables are available, they would not be operational without any detailed quantification. Motivated by the flexibility of information granularity, this paper develops information granules to represent linguistic terms in the form of intervals and interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) in best worst method (BWM). The development is aimed at minimizing inconsistency in the decision making (DM) process to ensure the rationality of the assessments provided by decision makers. Furthermore, the input and output based consistencies of BWM are considered. The granulation of entries of pairwise comparison vectors are the foundation of BWM to formulate an optimization problem where particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm serves as the optimization framework. Both individual and group decision making (GDM) scenarios are taken into consideration. For the GDM process, a performance index for measuring the group consensus is also proposed. Several examples and validity analysis are covered to illustrate the major ideas of this study. Finally, as a case study, a recommendation of the sequence of visiting tourist attractions in Wuhan and the corresponding comparative analysis are represented.