Multi-Criteria Analysis for Business Location Decisions

Virginia Perez-Benitez, German Gemar and Mónica Hernández
Additional contact information
Virginia Perez-Benitez: PhD Program in Economics and Business, Campus El Ejido, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
German Gemar: Department of Economics and Business Administration, Campus El Ejido, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Mónica Hernández: Department of Applied Economics (Mathematics), Campus El Ejido, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 20, 1-20

Abstract: Choosing the physical place in which to locate a company or make investments is a strategic decision that managers must make when their business activities begin and as they expand. These decisions are key to firms’ survival. This study sought to shed light on this decision problem and assist managers in making these decisions. The first research objective was to examine the different dimensions that decision makers should consider regarding locations. The second objective was to test the efficacy of multi-criteria analysis methods regarding this decision problem. More specifically, this study applied a combination of the preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations and the geometric analysis for interactive aid method, complemented by the analytical hierarchy process. The last objective was to rank major European cities on their suitability as business locations. The results include a preferential ranking of 66 European cities. London is the best positioned in all dimensions, followed by Paris and Barcelona. The findings’ originality comes from the inclusion of dimensions such as climate, security, and technology, which are given little weight in other similar indices, as well as the fresh approach to this decision problem from a business perspective and the combination of methodologies.

Keywords: business location; multi-criteria decision analysis; preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations (PROMETHEE); analytic hierarchy process (AHP); cities; geometric analysis for interactive aid (GAIA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/20/2615/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/20/2615/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:20:p:2615-:d:658200

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().