Article ID: | iaor20114087 |
Volume: | 19 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 157 |
End Page Number: | 175 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2011 |
Journal: | Central European Journal of Operations Research |
Authors: | Flp Jnos, Bozki Sndor, Poesz Attila |
Keywords: | weights |
Pairwise comparison matrices are often used in Multi‐attribute Decision Making for weighting the attributes or for the evaluation of the alternatives with respect to a criteria. Matrices provided by the decision makers are rarely consistent and it is important to index the degree of inconsistency. In the paper, the minimal number of matrix elements by the modification of which the pairwise comparison matrix can be made consistent is examined. From practical point of view, the modification of 1, 2, or, for larger matrices, 3 elements seems to be relevant. These cases are characterized by using the graph representation of the matrices. Empirical examples illustrate that pairwise comparison matrices that can be made consistent by the modification of a few elements are present in the applications.