A Similarity Measure-based Optimization Model for Group Decision Making with Multiplicative and Fuzzy Preference Relations

Group decision making (GDM) problem based on different preference relations aims to obtain a collective opinion based on various preference structures provided by a group of decision makers (DMs) or experts, those who have varying backgrounds and interests in real world. The decision process in proposed question includes three steps: integrating varying preference structures, reaching consensus opinion, selecting the best alternative. Two major approaches: preference transformation and optimization methods have been developed to deal with the issue in first step. However, the transformation processes causes information lose and existing optimization methods are so computationally complex that it is not easy to be used by management practice. This study proposes a new consistency-based method to integrate multiplicative and fuzzy preference relations, which is based on a cosine similarity measure to derive a collective priority vector. The basic idea is that a collective priority vector should be as similar per column as possible to a pairwise comparative matrix (PCM) in order to assure the group preference has highest consistency for each decision makers. The model is computationally simple, because it can be solved using a Lagrangian approach and obtain a collective priority vector following four simple steps. The proposed method can further used to derive priority vector of fuzzy AHP. Using three illustrative examples, the effectiveness and simpleness of the proposed model is demonstrated by comparison with other methods. The results show that the proposed model achieves the largest cosine values in all three examples, indicating the solution is the nearest theoretical perfectly consistent opinion for each decision makers.