A hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach for longitudinal data

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to meet the need for a robust, longitudinal, and an objective multi-criteria decision-making method. This paper presents a hybrid approach that uses time-series data to produce multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) based future rankings of alternatives. The suggested approach leverages the strengths of existing methods such as grey forecasting for small sample prediction, Criteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation (CRITIC) for objective criteria weighting, Multiplicative, Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of Ratio Analysis (MULTIMOORA) for robust aggregation, and a combination of rank integration methods. The proposed approach is illustrated using the case of the Logistics Performance Index dataset published by the World Bank for The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Further, results are compared with the aggregate ranks published by the World bank (2010-2018), and the differences are discussed. Practitioners would find the suggested approach useful because of its predictive ability, versatility, objectivity, and robustness of results. Further, the suggested approach is a useful contribution to existing research in terms of providing a MCDM method to generate future ranks.