Hesitant picture fuzzy linguistic prospects theory-based evidential reasoning assessment method for digital transformation solution of small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Due to the barriers of finance, talent, and technology, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have faced uncertainty and risks if they fail to engage in digital transformation (DT). A good choice is for SMEs to choose solutions already on the market, provided by professional DT solutions suppliers. However, how to choose the most suitable DT solution remains a major challenge for SMEs. Thus, to help SMEs to select an appropriate DT solution, we proposed a novel, prospect theory-based evidential reasoning (ER) assessment method under a hesitant picture fuzzy linguistic sets (HPFLSs) environment. First, the novel distance measures of picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) and HPFLSs are proposed, then, based on the proposed distance measures of HPFLSs, novel, prospect theory formula are constructed. Additionally, a novel HPFLS ER method was developed to aggregate the evaluation information. Afterward, an assessment and selection decision approach for DT solutions for SMEs, based on the prospect theory-based ER of HPFLSs, was conducted. Finally, actual examples of DT solutions for SMEs to illustrate the decision-making approach were used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the conclusions were summarized.