New Methods and Models of Group Decision and Negotiation Presented in Recife

Abstract

Wearegladtobeofferedthepossibilityofeditingthisspecialissueonselectedpaperspresented at the Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN) conference in Recife, inwhich we acted respectively as Chair of the Program Committee and the Organiz-ing Committee. Since 2000, in Glasgow, GDN meetings traditionally bring togetherresearchers and practitioners from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.GDN 2012 was the 12th Annual Meeting and the first time the conference wasorganizedinLatinAmerica,namelyinRecife,Brazil,bytheUniversidadeFederaldePernambuco. This conference in Recife was a great opportunity to show the varietyof methodological research studies and application models on group decision andnegotiation developed in Brazil, which deal with different types of problems, suchas social security, public policy, water resources management, information systems,project portfolio selection, supplier selection and participatory budget.From the perspective of Latin America there are studies including a diversity ofpracticalapplicationandmethodologicaldevelopments,whichhavegiveninsightsonhow to deal with a diversity of cultural issues (Almeida and Costa 2012). A growthin the demand for GDN models in order to overcome a variety of problems has beennoticeableindailybusinesslife.InBrazil,thereisahugeopportunityfordevelopmentsof GDN models and applications. Although, an increasing number of studies relatedto GDN models in Brazil have been developed in recent years, there is still a largeopportunitytoproduceresearchrelatedtotherelevantliterature,similartothesituation