A survey of collaborative decision-making: Bibliometrics, preliminaries, methodologies, applications and future directions

Abstract

Complex and uncertain decision-making environment increasingly requires the collaborations of participants, the exchange and interaction of knowledge of different actors can effectively promote and improve the decision-making process. Collaborative decision-making (CDM), a prevailing decision-making method, is extensively studied by scholars, in which different actors can communicate mutually and then reach a common goal. Hence, in view of the advantages and usefulness of CDM, an overview is conducted for showing the state of the art of CDM, pointing out the current issues and indicating the future research directions. To achieve those goals, firstly, the bibliometric analysis is implemented to briefly review the previous research topics. Then, the definitions, comparisons, weights and consensus concerning CDM are recalled, which are followed by the summarization of methodologies used for solving CDM problems. Subsequently, the current research directions and popular application areas are highlighted. Finally, the challenges and potential research directions are concluded from five perspectives.