Decision making for new technology: A multi-actor, multi-objective method

Abstract

Technology managers increasingly face problems of group decision. The scale and complexity of research, development, and alliance efforts in emerging fields of technology mandate a correspondingly sophisticated form of group coordination. Choices made include the selection of projects, the choice of investment alternatives, and the formation of technology licensing agreements. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods are often used to help decision makers in such situations. This chapter explores an approach closely related to MCDA, known as exchange modeling. Exchange modeling incorporates actor preferences, and assumptions about the play of the game, to better examine the resulting preferences of groups. The advantage of this method is that the results provide an improved prescription for strategy, given the constraints of preferences and the existing alliance structures. The model is motivated based upon the needs of technology managers in new, converging fields of technology. The model is formally analyzed using operations research techniques.