Virtual enterprise partner selection integrating LINMAP and TOPSIS

Virtual enterprise (VE) has become an ever‐increasing trend in today’s highly competitive markets. A more scientific decision‐making process for selecting partner is very important during the formation phase of VE. Partner selection is formulated as a type of fuzzy hybrid multi‐criteria group decision‐making problems with fuzzy truth degrees of alternatives’ comparisons represented as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFNs). Integrating Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Linear Programming Technique for Multidimensional Analysis of Preference (LINMAP), we use the relative closeness degrees to define fuzzy consistency and inconsistency indices. The decision makers’ weight vector is derived by using the relative entropy. Criteria weights are estimated through constructing a new fuzzy linear programming model with TrFNs, which is solved by the developed fast and efficient method. Collective ranking matrix of alternatives is generated through constructing multi‐objective assignment model. Example analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.