Portfolio decision analysis: Recent developments and future prospects

Abstract

Portfolio decision analysis (PDA) refers to the body of theory, methods and practice which support decision makers in making informed multiple selections from a set of alternatives with the help of mathematical models that account for relevant constraints, preferences and uncertainties. In this review, we take stock of recent advances in PDA research, based on a representative sample of 148 PDA articles in operations research and management science journals from 2006 to 2019. In particular, we analyse relevant methodologies and discuss prominent PDA application areas. Our analysis indicates that PDA is a vibrant research field with close ties to practice, as a substantial share of articles present real applications or contain illustrative examples which are motivated by such applications. For continued knowledge accumulation, there is substantial promise in exploiting PDA concepts in deriving recommendations from decision models for problems which may not have been viewed as PDA problems; fostering the cross-fertilization of conceptual and methodological advances across application areas; and ensuring that new methodological advances are systematically evaluated through engagements with real decision makers.