Using data envelopment analysis and fuzzy logic as intelligent risk-based decision making support for virtual organizations

Abstract

Collaboration is key to foster and leverage business. Management techniques regarding organizational issues involved in collaborative working between partners require special attention. Particularly, Virtual Organizations (VO) have raised as cornerstone to enable intelligent attendance to Collaboration Opportunities (CO). Therefore, the VO concept has emerged as one of the most promising forms of collaboration among companies by providing a way of sharing their costs, benefits and risks, in order to attend particular goals. In general, organizational goals are achieved through management processes, whose result depends on the performance of several areas such as planning, design, development and decision making. Particularly, intelligent decision making can be accomplished using techniques that take into account information regarding indicators on the environment being analysed. Therefore, this chapter elaborates on the decision making using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Fuzzy Logic on partners’ selection process complying particularly with the risks involved in VO formation process.