A BAYESIAN APPROACH TO PLANT-LOCATION DECISIONS*

The paper addresses the problem of plant location in the formal context of decision making under uncertainty and presents a framework employing Bayesian analysis in the collection and assessment of information. As a general model, the Bayesian approach is shown to subsume two practical approaches common to plant-location literature: satisficing and spatial hierarchy of plant-site characteristics.     

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF INFORMATION UNDER TWO BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Information economics models evaluate the value of information under the assumption that decision makers wish to maximize their expected payoff. This assumption has been criticized for not being realistic enough since decision makers usually consider more than one business objective and might be satisficers rather than optimizers. This paper attempts to apply an information economics model to decision situations where two business performance criteria, expected payoff and risk, are considered. In order to overcome the difficulty of unknown trade-off between the two criteria, one criterion is used as an objective to be optimized, while the other is set as a constraint. This may be interpreted as a combination of optimizing and satisficing approaches. It is shown how an information system can be evaluated in terms of both expected payoff and risk. The model suggests the trade-off between the two criteria as an additional trait of an information system. In the last part of the paper, a numerical example illustrates how a comparative evaluation of information structures is performed when risk minimization and expected payoff maximization are concurrently used as business performance criteria.     

Managing the Risk of Uncertain Threshold Responses: Comparison of Robust, Optimum, and Precautionary Approaches

Many commentators have suggested the need for new decision analysis approaches to better manage systems with deeply uncertain, poorly characterized risks. Most notably, policy challenges such as abrupt climate change involve potential nonlinear or threshold responses where both the triggering level and subsequent system response are poorly understood. This study uses a simple computer simulation model to compare several alternative frameworks for decision making under uncertainty -- optimal expected utility, the precautionary principle, and three different approaches to robust decision making -- for addressing the challenge of adding pollution to a lake without triggering unwanted and potentially irreversible eutrophication. The three robust decision approaches -- trading some optimal performance for less sensitivity to assumptions, satisficing over a wide range of futures, and keeping options open -- are found to identify similar strategies as the most robust choice. This study also suggests that these robust decision approaches offer a quantitative, decision analytic framework that captures the spirit of the precautionary principle while addressing some of its shortcomings. Finally, this study finds that robust strategies may be preferable to optimum strategies when the uncertainty is sufficiently deep and the set of alternative policy options is sufficiently rich.     

Adaptive Spatial Sampling of Contaminated Soil

Suppose that a residential neighborhood may have been contaminated by a nearby abandoned hazardous waste site. The suspected contamination consists of elevated soil concentrations of chemicals that are also found in the absence of site-related contamination. How should a risk manager decide which residential properties to sample and which ones to clean? This paper introduces an adaptive spatial sampling approach which uses initial observations to guide subsequent search. Unlike some recent model-based spatial data analysis methods, it does not require any specific statistical model for the spatial distribution of hazards, but instead constructs an increasingly accurate nonparametric approximation to it as sampling proceeds. Possible cost-effective sampling and cleanup decision rules are described by decision parameters such as the number of randomly selected locations used to initialize the process, the number of highest-concentration locations searched around, the number of samples taken at each location, a stopping rule, and a remediation action threshold. These decision parameters are optimized by simulating the performance of each decision rule. The simulation is performed using the data collected so far to impute multiple probable values of unknown soil concentration distributions during each simulation run. This optimized adaptive spatial sampling technique has been applied to real data using error probabilities for wrongly cleaning or wrongly failing to clean each location (compared to the action that would be taken if perfect information were available) as evaluation criteria. It provides a practical approach for quantifying trade-offs between these different types of errors and expected cost. It also identifies strategies that are undominated with respect to all of these criteria.

     

基于CI-TOPSIS的梯形直觉模糊多准则群决策分类方法

模糊群决策分类方法广泛应用于政治、经济与社会生活各个领域,可有效避免个人知识与经验局限性所导致的决策失误。针对信息不完备的多准则群决策问题,提出基于CI-TOPSIS的梯形直觉模糊多准则群决策分类方法。首先,给出梯形直觉模糊集及广义梯形直觉模糊几何聚类算子,兼顾考虑群决策中相应依赖属性与决策者的决策偏好。其次,给出基于离散Choquet积分的TOPSIS算子（CI-TOPSIS）,以此为基础,进一步给出基于CI-TOPSIS的梯形直觉模糊多准则群决策分类步骤,用于确定具有最大可信度群体一致案例比较信息集,并逐步引导决策者给出部分及全部方案的精确分类,充分考虑模糊决策环境下决策者偏好与案例比较信息的级别关系。最后,通过一个投资决策实例对所提出的多准则分类方法进行验证。实例分析表明：该方法克服了决策过程中信息的遗漏,充分保留了决策过程中信息的完备性,更适用于直觉模糊群决策环境下的决策实践,是一种非常有效和科学的方法,可应用推广到更多决策领域。本文所得结论,对于有效解决多人多投资方案的群决策问题,具有一定的借鉴意义。     

科学基金项目立项评估:综合评价信息可靠性的多指标证据推理规则研究

公正合理的科研项目立项评估与选择是国家自然科学基金管理活动的关键环节。综合考虑科研项目的评估指标体系和选择流程,提出了利用历史评估准确性度量专家提供信息可靠性的方法,进而提出了一种系统性的基于证据推理规则的科学基金项目评估决策模型。该模型使用证据推理合成规则对多专家多指标评估信息进行集结。在集结过程中：充分考虑评估指标的权重以及评估等级的多样性;鉴于参与项目评估的专家具有不同的知识背景和经验,提出利用历史评估结果的准确性衡量专家提供的评价信息可靠性的方法;应用信度分布表征项目的整体评价结果,包含了更丰富的信息。国家自然科学基金项目评估的实例分析证明了该评估决策模型的有效性。     

考虑信息源相关的软件可信性评估模型

本文研究了信息源相关背景下的软件可信性评估问题.首先提出了一种改进的Denoeux谨慎连接规则,给出了面向多证据合并的水平合成算法;其次,定义了一个综合折扣和相对权重的联合系数用于指标集结或群体意见集结;最后,在分析评估过程中客观存在的信息不确定性和信息源相关等问题的基础上,给出了一个基于证据理论的软件可信性评估模型.典型算例验证了该模型的合理性和有效性.     

Organizational processes as determinants of information value

Research on the determinants of information value has not explicitly considered whether the type of organizational process participated in by a decisionmaker has an effect on his/her evaluation of information on which the decision is based. Much important managerial activity in organizations is carried on through formal or informal processes such as budgeting and strategic planning. If process differences are significant determinants of the way in which information is valued, the inclusion of this element into the framework for thinking in this area might add considerably to our ability to prescribe appropriate managerial processes as well as to our understanding of differences in the outcomes of decision processes. This empirical study suggests that organizational process type does have a significant effect on the determination of information value in the context of two generic process types (individual, group) that were evaluated in a strategic decisionmaking context.     

Participation in Strategic Decision Making: The Role of Organizational Predisposition and Issue Interpretation*

Each time managers are faced with a strategic decision they decide how to decide. Specifically, they make choices about who has necessary information and, therefore, who needs to participate in the decision. Such responses to strategic issues are believed to be affected by the way in which decision makers interpret issues. However, organizations develop habitual responses to issues and may be predisposed because of their attention to rules and routines, or because of past performance, to respond to strategic issues in certain ways regardless of how issues are interpreted. We examined the direct and indirect effects of predisposition (rule orientation and past financial performance) and interpretation of strategic issues on the participation of internal stakeholder groups in strategic decision making. Executives in 52 organizations indicated that rule orientation and performance are directly linked to participation in strategic decision making, and that interpretation and rule orientation are directly linked to each other. Implications for managers include the notion that any effort to improve decision-making effectiveness by shaping how organizational members frame and interpret issues will be constrained by the organization's existing routines as well as its past performance.     

泛综合评价信息集成框架求解算法及应用

针对多信息来源、多数据结构的复杂评价问题,对传统评价模式进行拓展并提出了泛综合评价的方法。泛综合评价理论主要为复杂评价信息的整合及求解提供支撑,具体而言主要采用构建信息融合框架的方式对不同类别与结构的多源信息进行整合,并通过随机模拟仿真的方法对信息融合框架的求解算法进行了探讨。由于信息融合框架中包含信息的复杂性增加了框架的求解成本,因而进一步分析了信息集成框架的简化求解算法,并通过算例的方式对信息集成框架简化求解算法的有效性进行了验证。简化求解算法的研究提升了泛综合评价在实际应用中的可操作性。"区域发展绩效的参与式评价"算例的构建,说明泛综合评价的理论为不同利益主体之间的民主决策提供了可能。本文的研究可为大数据背景下群体智慧的挖掘、民主决策的结果分析等实际应用问题提供理论和技术支撑。     

An analytic approach for planning computerized office systems

The increasing demand for timely business information as well as the need to improve the effectiveness of administrative operations are forcing managements to consider installing automated office systems. These systems provide text word processing capabilities, information management and communication options. Their planning and evaluation process considers decision issues that are, at times, in conflict with each other. This paper presents a decision framework for the planning and evaluation of computerized office systems. Attention is focused, in particular, on the selection and the integration of word processing systems in the broader context of future office developments. It evolved from several real acquisition cases where such systems had to be planned, evaluated and selected.     

不完全确定信息的群体语言指派问题的求解方法

针对决策者权重和准则权重为不完全确定信息且评价语言值确定或位于二个标准语言值之间甚至缺失的多准则指派问题,提出了一种求解方法。首先利用证据推理算法计算得到各候选人完成各任务的优劣程度属于各个语言评价等级的信任度,并据此利用二元语义的Δ函数及其函数Δ-1将其集成为群体在所有准则下的综合评价矩阵,然后结合决策者权重和准则权重的不完全确定信息等构建非线性混合整数规则模型,并利用粒子群算法与匈牙利算法联合进行求解。最后实例说明该方法的可行性和有效性。     

Stochastic and Intransitive Behavior in a State-Preference Model of Asset Choice*

Most models of investor behavior assume a time-state independent utility function and result in a deterministic solution where a given set of inputs uniquely specifies the decision. In contrast, a state preference model using a time-state dependent utility function is derived in this paper. The model allows the investment choice decision to be analyzed in a game theoretic context. The general solution is a mixed strategy which allows for a probabilistic interpretation of the decision. The approach presented in this paper can accommodate anomalies such as intransitivity of preference and satisficing as rational behavior. An example of a possible implementation is given along with interpretations of the outcomes.     

A Learning Real Options Framework with Application to Process Design and Capacity Planning

This paper studies the impact of learning on a multi‐staged investment scenario. In contrast to other models in the real options literature in which learning is viewed as a passive consequence of the delay period, this paper quantifies information acquisition by merging statistical decision theory with the real options framework. In this context, real option attributes are discussed from a Bayesian perspective, thresholds are identified for improved decision‐making, and information's impact on downstream decision‐making is discussed. Using real data provided by a firm in the aerospace maintenance, repair, and overhaul industry, the methodology is used to guide a multi‐phased irreversible investment decision involving process design and capacity planning.     

基于交叉效率DEA与群体共识的区间乘性语言偏好关系群决策

针对区间乘性语言偏好关系群决策问题，提出了一种基于交叉效率DEA和群体共识的群决策方法。首先，提出乘性语言偏好关系导出函数的定义，并构建产出导向的DEA模型，证明了一致性乘性语言偏好关系的DEA效率得分与排序向量之间存在比例关系。在此基础上，建立基于理想值的交叉效率DEA模型，提出乘性语言偏好关系的通用排序方法。同时，基于群体共识建立目标规划模型来计算各语言偏好关系的权重系数。最后，利用Monte Carlo随机模拟的方法对群体语言偏好空间进行统计分析，得到群决策期望排序向量及其可信度。算例分析表明本文方法能够有效的避免信息损失，具有较强的适用性和较高的可信度。     

Intergenerational Considerations Affecting the Future of Nuclear Power: Equity as a Framework for Assessing Fuel Cycles

Alternative fuel cycles are being considered in an effort to prolong uranium fuel supplies for thousands of years to come and to manage nuclear waste. These strategies bring with them different benefits and burdens for the present generation and for future generations. In this article, we present a method that provides insight into future fuel cycle alternatives and into the conflicts arising between generations within the framework of intergenerational equity. A set of intersubjective values is drawn from the notion of sustainable development. By operationalizing these values and mapping out their impacts, value criteria are introduced for the assessment of fuel cycles, which are based on the distribution of burdens and benefits between generations. The once‐through fuel cycle currently deployed in the United States and three future fuel cycles are subsequently assessed according to these criteria. The four alternatives are then compared in an integrated analysis in which we shed light on the implicit tradeoffs made by decisionmakers when they choose a certain fuel cycle. When choosing a fuel cycle, what are the societal costs and burdens accepted for each generation and how can these factors be justified? This article presents an integrated decision‐making method, which considers intergenerational aspects of such decisions; this method could also be applied to other technologies.     

Consumer preference analysis: A data-driven multiple criteria approach integrating online information

Multiple criteria approaches can assist the product manager to know the consumer preferences in the context of e-commerce. Consumer preference analysis explains what aspects of a product affect and how they affect a consumer’s purchasing decision. This issue plays an important role in e-commerce platforms from its relevance in marketing decisions such as advertisements, recommendations and promotions. In this regard, we propose a data-driven multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) approach to integrate online information, such as explicit (e.g., reviews and ratings) and implicit (e.g., clicks and purchases) feedback from consumers. However, MCDA approaches present a critical challenge that even an experienced product manager could find it difficult to pre-define the criteria on which a product is evaluated. To address this issue, our proposed approach first utilizes text-mining techniques to assist the product manager identify the criteria, and then determines and collects the relative importance of the criteria and their values. Given the criteria information, we use a sampling process to provide two indices, the consumer preference index and rank acceptability index. The first index helps in prioritizing the pairwise comparisons of products, while the second one helps in deriving a default ranking list for first-time-registered consumers. We record the products viewed by consumers and generate their preference information in the form of pairwise comparisons for analyses within an aggregation-disaggregation paradigm. We also provide a representative value function to help the product manager gain insight into the preferences. Finally, we describe how a real-world application including the product manager and consumers exploits the proposed approach on an e-commerce platform to take a large step toward aiding more realistic and data-driven multiple criteria decision making.     

In Defense of a Utilitarian Business Ethic

In this article, I suggest and support a utilitarian approach to business ethics. Utilitarianism is already widely used as a business ethic approach, although it is not well developed in the literature. Utilitarianism provides a guiding framework of decision making rooted in social benefit which helps direct business toward more ethical behavior. It is the basis for much of our discussion regarding the failures of Enron, Worldcom, and even the subprime mess and Wall Street Meltdown. In short, the negative social consequences are constantly referred to as proof of the wrongness of these actions and events, and the positive social consequences of bailouts and other plans are used as ethical support for those plans to right the wrongs. I believe the main cause of the neglect of the utilitarian approach is because of misguided criticisms. Here, I defend utilitarianism as a basis for business ethics against many criticisms found in the business ethics literature, showing that a business ethics approach relying on John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism supports principles like justice, is not biased against the minority, and is more reasonable than other views such as a Kantian view when dealing with workers and making other decisions in business. I also explain utilitarian moral motivation and use satisficing theory to attempt to defend utilitarian business ethics from questions raised regarding utilitarian calculus.