New aggregation methods for decision-making in the selection of business opportunities

Abstract

We analyse decision-making process in the selection of business opportunities. A new mathematical application based on OWA operator and selection index is developed. We consider the use of the OWA distance (OWAD), the OWA adequacy coefficient (OWAAC) and the OWA index of maximum and minimum level OWAIMAM operators. The study proposes a fuzzy significance vector (FS), which can aggregate information according to the importance of its characteristics. The introduction of the selection OWA operator using fuzzy significance vector can reflect decision with different degrees of optimism through normalization process where the maximum value of the aggregated information can be higher than 1. These methods are called FS-OWAAC, FS-OWAD and FS-OWAIMAM operator. By using FS-OWA operator, we can parameterize attitudinal character of decisor and the importance of characteristics of the information. A numerical example is developed in decision-making process for the selection of opportunities to start a new business within different sectors according to preference of decisor and environmental factors.