Interactive consistency correction in the analytic hierarchy process to preserve ranks

Alessio Ishizaka () and Sajid Siraj ()
Additional contact information
Alessio Ishizaka: NEOMA Business School
Sajid Siraj: University of Leeds

Decisions in Economics and Finance, 2020, vol. 43, issue 2, No 3, 443-464

Abstract: Abstract The analytic hierarchy process is a widely used multi-criteria decision-making method that involves the construction of pairwise comparison matrices. To infer a decision, a consistent or near-consistent matrix is desired, and therefore, several methods have been developed to control or improve the overall consistency of the matrix. However, controlling the overall consistency does not necessarily prevent having strong local inconsistencies. Local inconsistencies are local distortions which can lead to rank reversal when a new alternative is added or deleted. To address this problem, we propose an algorithm for controlling the inconsistency during the construction of the pairwise comparison matrix. The proposed algorithm assists decision makers whilst entering their judgments and does not allow strong local inconsistencies. This algorithm is based on the transitivity rule and has been verified through statistical simulations. Appropriate thresholds of acceptable evaluations have been inferred from these simulations. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is a helpful decision aid to decision makers when entering pairwise comparison judgments.

Keywords: Decision making; Multi-criteria; AHP; Rank reversal; Consistency ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10203-020-00309-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:decfin:v:43:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10203-020-00309-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/10203/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10203-020-00309-4

Access Statistics for this article

Decisions in Economics and Finance is currently edited by Paolo Ghirardato

More articles in Decisions in Economics and Finance from Springer, Associazione per la Matematica
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().