Tradeoff-based decomposition and decision-making in multiobjective programming

To facilitate the evaluation of tradeoffs and the articulation of preferences in multiple criteria decision-making, a multiobjective decomposition scheme is proposed that restructures the original problem as a collection of smaller-sized subproblems with only subsets of the original criteria. A priori preferences on objective tradeoffs are integrated into this process by modifying the ordinary Pareto order by more general domination cones, and decision makers are supported by an interactive decision-making procedure to coordinate any remaining tradeoffs using concepts of approximate efficiency. A theoretical foundation for this method is provided, and an illustrative application to multiobjective portfolio optimization is described in detail. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.