Article ID: | iaor2004399 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 37 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 169 |
End Page Number: | 184 |
Publication Date: | Sep 2003 |
Journal: | Socio-Economic Planning Sciences |
Authors: | Vargas Luis G., Saaty Thomas L., Dellmann Klaus |
Keywords: | decision theory: multiple criteria, analytic hierarchy process |
An intangible is an attribute that has no scale of measurement. Intangibles such as effort and skill arise in conjunction with resource allocation but are not usually included directly in a mathematical model because of the absence of a unit of measurement. However, intangibles can be quantified through relative measurement (priorities). Intangible resource allocation uses these priorities along with normalized measures of tangibles (when present) in a linear programming model with coefficients and variables measured in relative terms. The priorities of tangible resources from the optimal solution can then be used to assign monetary values to priorities of any intangible resources.