A novel capacity-based approach for measuring alternative interactions in multicriteria decision analysis

Abstract

The issue of criteria interactions has been well addressed in multicriteria decision analysis research, whereas the interactive effects of alternatives on decision results are yet to be further investigated. To provide new insights into the issue of alternative interactions, we propose a novel approach for measuring alternative interactions by using the λ-capacity, Choquet integral, and criteria interactions. With the notion of alternative interactions being reflected and measured by criteria interactions, the approach first develops an absolute interaction index and a relative interaction index to objectively measure the degree of interactive effects between alternatives under different decision contexts. It then testifies the impact of criteria interactions on alternative interactions. To examine the effectiveness and applicability of the approach, an empirical study on city environmental performance evaluation is conducted. The empirical results show that the interaction between cities as alternatives provides valuable insights into city planning for developing effective city alliance forms.

Keywords:

• Multicriteria decision analysis
• alternative interaction
• criteria interaction
• λ-capacity
• city environmental performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 71834003], the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China under Grant [number 22YJC630179], the Major Projects of Philosophy and Social Science Research of Jiangsu Universities under Grant [number 2021SJZDA026], and the [Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China] under Grant [number 2021JM-079]. We are grateful to the Associate Editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.