Multistage decision-making fuzzy methodology for optimal investments based on experts' evaluations

A new methodology of making a decision on an optimal investment in several projects is proposed. The methodology is based on experts' evaluations and consists of three stages. In the first stage, Kaufmann's expertons method is used to reduce a possibly large number of applicants for credit. Using the combined expert data, the credit risk level is determined for each project. Only the projects with low risks are selected. In the second stage, the model of refined decisions is constructed using the new modification of the previously proposed possibilistic discrimination analysis method (Sirbiladze, Khutsisvili, & Dvalishvili, 2010). This stage is based on expert knowledge and experience. The projects selected in the first stage are compared in order to identify high-quality ones among them. The possibility levels of experts' preferences are calculated and the projects are ranked. Finally, the third stage deals with the bicriteria discrete optimization problem whose solution makes it possible to arrange the most advantageous investment in several projects simultaneously. The decision on funding the selected projects is made and an optimal distribution of the allocated investment amount among them is provided. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is illustrated by an example. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.