Abstract:

The aim of the article is to introduce a mathematical concept of indecisiveness into the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework. This concept allows to express ‘strength’ of decision makers preferences, as some decision makers might have stronger opinion than others, and along with inconsistence (defined by the consistency ratio C.R.) this new concept can be used for the evaluation of quality of decision makers’ preferences. More specifically, indecisiveness can be useful in two ways: firstly, decision makers with high indecisiveness (higher than a given threshold value) can be excluded from a decision making process in its early stages as low-competent and replaced by other, more competent decision maker; secondly, indecisiveness along with consistency index C.R. can be used in a group AHP for a calculation of (aposteriori) weights of decision makers without any additional information about decision makers’ age, formal knowledge, social status, etc. The proposed approach is demonstrated by numerical examples.