Integrations and applications of Analytic Hierarchy Process with data envelopment analysis - A literature review

Abstract

The scope of the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is widened when they are integrated to create the DEAHP. This method has boundless flexibility and varied applicability. Furthermore, the scope, flexibility, and applicability are also increased when DEAHP is integrated with other approaches and methods. This paper reviews the literature that discusses this integration with DEAHP. On the basis of a defined search criterion, related articles appearing in international journals from 2000 to 2018 were collected and analyzed so that the following five questions could be answered: (1) Which approach out of the various integrated-DEAHP approaches was most prevalent and got the utmost attention?, (2) Which of the areas of application were most often studied and found their application with integrated DEAHP approaches?, (3) Which of the specific problems were most frequently applied to integrated DEAHP approaches?, (4) What are the publication trends for the papers considering the integrated DEAHP approaches?, and (5) Which jourmals of international standards published what number of journal articles and among them which has the highest number of articles on the approach of integrated DEAHP? This literature review shows that the integrated DEAHPs are able to tackle the inadequacies of the stand-alone DEAHPs. This article allows the researcher to think about new application areas and specific problem areas where an integrated DEAHP approach could be effectively and efficiently applied. The novelty of this paper lies in the fact that this is a one of a kind literature review that considers the integrated DEAHP approach along with stand-alone DEAHP with its applications.