An integrated method for complex heterogeneous multi-attribute group decision-making and application to photovoltaic power station site selection

This paper abstracts the complex heterogeneous multi-attribute group decision-making (CHMAGDM) characterized by two-layer decision-makers (DMs), individual attribute sets, complex relationships among attributes and heterogeneous evaluation information. DMs are composed by internal decision-makers (IDMs) and external decision-makers (EDMs). The evaluation information is represented by linguistic variables (LVs), intervals and real numbers. To handle such CHMAGDM, this paper puts forward an integrated method of prospect theory, DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) and QUALIFLEX (qualitative flexible). Firstly, a novel reference point determining approach is proposed based on three special indicators. A linguistic variable inverse prospect value function is designed and introduced to the transformation process from LVs to clouds to reduce the impacts of DMs' psychological behaviors on decision-making. Secondly, a cloud-based DEMATEL approach is proposed to determine the attribute weights, where LVs are employed to judge the relationships among attributes. A new linguistic scale function is initiated and introduced to another transformation process from clouds to LVs. A representative indicator of cloud is designed for facilitating the normalization of direct relation matrix. Moreover, a linear programming model is built to calculate the attribute weights. Thirdly, an extended QUALIFLEX approach is developed to obtain the optimal ranking and EDM weights, where adoption coefficient is provided by IDMs. Another linear programming model is constructed to calculate the optimal collective concordance/discordance index of each permutation. The optimal ranking is generated by the maximum collective concordance/discordance index. Finally, a photovoltaic power station site selection example validates the proposed method. The advantages are demonstrated with sensitivity and comparison analyses.