An analysis of DEMATEL approaches for criteria interaction handling within ANP

Abstract

Majority of the Multiple-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) methods assume that the criteria are independent of each other, which is not a realistic assumption in many real world problems. Several forms of interactions among criteria might occur in real life situations so that more sophisticated/intelligent techniques are required to deal with particular needs of the problem under consideration. Unfortunately, criteria interaction concept is very little issued in the literature. It is still a very important and critical research subject for intelligent decision making within MADM. The present paper aims to put a step forward to fill this gap by depicting the general picture, which provides a classification of methods related to criteria interaction phenomenon, and discuss/review the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) hybridizations first time in the literature. DEMATEL and ANP hybridizations grab remarkable attention of decision analysis community in recent years and seem as one of the most promising approaches to handle criteria interactions in a MADM setting.