Solution for Convergence Problem in DEMATEL Method: DEMATEL of Finite Sum of Influences

Abstract

Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is one of the multicriteria decision-making methods based on asymmetric linguistic comparison matrices that has received a great deal of attention, and it is a widely used method in various fields. One of the drawbacks of DEMATEL is a convergence problem that may occur when the infinite sum of normalized influences does not converge. Based on the observations of some examples, the new concept of DEMATEL, the DEMATEL of a finite sum of influences (FSI DEMATEL), is proposed. Instead of an infinite sum, a finite sum of influences is used in FSI DEMATEL so that the convergence problem is avoided. The advantage is that FSI DEMATEL can handle more decision-making problems than the DEMATEL. It can also be used for fuzzy evaluations. FSI DEMATEL can be used as the multicriteria decision-making method to evaluate the relationships between the factors in many different fields.