Alternative Measurement Scales in Multi Criterion Decision Making Context


Journal of Management Research

ISSN: 0972-5814 Online ISSN: 0974-455X

Alternative Measurement Scales in Multi Criterion Decision Making Context


Mohammad Azadfallah


Abstract

Selection of a suitable measurement scale is one of the main challenges in multi-criteria decision making. In the literature, a number of measurement scales (i.e., linear, power, etc.) have been proposed to solve various Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problems. However, some authors claim that sufficient empirical evidence has not been provided to support the choice among these scales. This may be because the interpretation of verbal expressions varies from one person to another. Therefore, the selection of a suitable measurement scale is difficult, and in order to be realistic, other scales from different perspectives must be introduced. This is the aim of this paper. In this paper, we present four new measurement scales—three Fibonacci-based and one Golden Ratio-based—to obtain a more suitable measurement scale in the MCDM context. In addition, a comparison of the proposed scales with original scales (linear or Saaty’s 1–9 scale) is also provided. The findings in this paper confirm the effectiveness of some of these scales.