Linear inequalities and the analysis of multi-attribute value matrices

Barren and Barrett, 1996(b) demonstrate empirically that a surrogate weight vector, rank order centroid (ROC) weights, based only on ranked swing weights, is surprisingly efficacious in general in selecting a best multi-attribute alternative. An Excel-based simulation, EMAR, allows one to assess the applicability of the general result to any particular value matrix. In this paper we extend EMAR to partial information sets of weights other than a strict ranking. We also apply these procedures to examine the effect of reducing the number of attributes.