Solving the bilateral group selection problem using optimal stopping options

The group selection problem (GSP) models situations in which a decision maker (DM) is required to select the best from amongst a set of offers that are presented sequentially in a specified number of groups. Such a decision process is a part of everyday organisational life where dynamic decisions have to be taken in real time. However, practical scenarios involve more than one person in making critical decisions. Motivated by these facts, we address in this article the GSP with two DMs. We define the bilateral GSP as follows: two DMs are required to collectively make a choice from alternatives that are presented over time in groups. Every DM has its own evaluation of the inspected offers which may eventually lead to conflicts if the DMs do not agree on a decision. To solve this problem, we propose a dynamic programming approach incorporating conflict management rules to come up with a compromise decision. We test our approach on several data sets and for different DMs' utilities, and we finally show the relevance of our approach via convenient performance measures.