Title: SMAA - Stochastic multiobjective acceptability analysis

Authors: Risto Lahdelma, Joonas Hokkanen and Pekka Salminen

Status: European Journal of Operational Research, 106/1, 1998, pp. 137-143.

 


Keywords: Decision support systems; Decision theory; Multi criteria analysis; Utility theory

 Stochastic multiobjective acceptability analysis (SMAA) is a multicriteria decision support technique for multiple decision makers based on exploring the weight space. Inaccurate or uncertain input data can be represented as probability distributions. In SMAA the decision makers need not express their preferences explicitly or implicitly; instead the technique analyses what kind of valuations would make each alternative the preferred one. The method produces for each alternative an acceptability index measuring the variety of different valuations that support that alternative, a central weight vector representing the typical valuations resulting in that decision, and a confidence factor measuring whether the input data is accurate enough for making an informed decision.