Abstract
As a new preference structure, the intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preference relation (IFLPR) was introduced to efficiently cope with situations in which the membership degree and non-membership degree are represented as linguistic terms. For group decision making (GDM) problems with IFLPRs, two significant and challenging issues are individual consistency and group consensus before deriving the reliable priority weights of alternatives. In this paper, a novel decision support model is investigated to simultaneously deal with the individual consistency and group consensus for GDM with IFLPRs. First, the concepts of multiplicative consistency and weak transitivity for IFLPRs are introduced and followed by a discussion of their desirable properties. Then, a transformation approach is developed to convert the normalized intuitionistic fuzzy priority weights into multiplicative consistent IFLPR. Based on the distance of IFLPRs, the consistency index, individual consensus degree and group consensus degree for IFLPRs are further defined. In addition, two convergent automatic iterative algorithms are proposed in the investigated decision support model. The first algorithm is utilized to convert an unacceptable multiplicative consistent IFLPR to an acceptable one. The second algorithm can assist the group decision makers to achieve a predefined consensus level. The main characteristic of the investigated decision support model is that it guarantees each IFLPR is still acceptable multiplicative consistent when the predefined consensus level is achieved. Finally, several numerical examples are provided, and comparative analyses with existing approaches are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the investigated model.
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Acknowledgments
The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 91546108, 71371011, 71490725, 71501002), the National Key Research and Development Plan under Grant (No. 2016YFF0202604). The authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions that have led to an improved version of this paper.
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Appendix
Appendix
Proof of Theorem 1
First, we prove the necessary part. If IFLPR \( B = (b_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is multiplicative consistent, by Definition 3, we have
As \( b_{ij\mu } = b_{ji\nu } ,b_{ij\nu } = b_{ji\mu } ,i,j \in N \), one can get
then
Therefore, it follows from Eq. (34) that
Next, we prove the sufficient part. Since \( \varPhi (b_{ij} ) = \varPhi (b_{ik} ) \cdot \varPhi (b_{kj} ),i,j,k \in N \), and \( \varPhi (b_{ij} ) = \frac{{I(b_{ij\mu } )}}{{I(b_{ij\nu } )}} \), we have
then by reversing the aforesaid proof of the necessary condition, one can obtain that
which means that \( B \) is multiplicative consistent. □
Proof of Theorem 2
Since \( B = (b_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is a multiplicative consistent IFLPR, then we have \( \varPhi (b_{ij} ) = \varPhi (b_{ik} ) \cdot \varPhi (b_{kj} ),i,j,k \in N \). If \( \varPhi (b_{ik} ) \ge 1 \) and \( \varPhi (b_{kj} ) \ge 1 \), thus \( \varPhi (b_{ij} ) = \varPhi (b_{ik} ) \cdot \varPhi (b_{kj} ) \ge 1 \), for any \( i,j,k \in N \). By Definition 4, the proof of Theorem 2 is completed. □
Proof of Theorem 3
First, we prove that the matrix \( F = (f_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is an IFLPR.
For any \( i,j \in N \), we have \( f_{ij\mu } = I^{ - 1} \left( {2\tau \sqrt {\omega_{i\mu } \omega_{j\nu } } } \right) = I^{ - 1} \left( {2\tau \sqrt {\omega_{j\nu } \omega_{i\mu } } } \right) = f_{ji\nu } \).
As \( \omega_{i\mu } ,\omega_{i\nu } \in [0,1],\omega_{i\mu } + \omega_{i\nu } \le 1,i \in N \), we have
then
it follows that
i.e.,
Moreover,
that is
According to Definition 1, \( F = (f_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is an IFLPR.
Next, we prove that the IFLPR \( F = (f_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is multiplicative consistent.
For any \( i,j,k \in N \), one can get that
By Theorem 1, it is certified that IFLPR \( F = (f_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is multiplicative consistent, which competes the proof of Theorem 3. □
Proof of Theorem 4
Since \( \tilde{d}_{ij}^{ - } ,\tilde{d}_{ij}^{ + } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{ - } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{ + } ,i,j \in N \) are the optimal deviation values and \( \tilde{\omega } = (\tilde{\omega }_{1} ,\tilde{\omega }_{2} , \ldots ,\tilde{\omega }_{n} )^{\rm T} \) is the optimal normalized intuitionistic fuzzy weight vector in Model 2, then for any \( i,j \in N \), we have
that is
it follows that
i.e.,
thus, from Eq. (17), one can get that
According to Corollary 1, \( \tilde{B} = (\tilde{b}_{ij} )_{n \times n} \) is a multiplicative consistent IFLPR, which completes the proof of Theorem 4. □
Proof of Theorem 6
(i) and (iii) are obvious. In the following, we prove that (ii) and (iv) are valid.
(ii) Since \( a_{ij\mu } = a_{ji\nu } ,a_{ij\nu } = a_{ji\mu } ,b_{ij\mu } = b_{ji\nu } ,b_{ij\nu } = b_{ji\mu } ,i,j \in N \), then
(iv) According to Eq. (18), we have
This completes the proof of Theorem 6. □
Proof of Theorem 7
Let \( d_{ij}^{(t) - } ,d_{ij}^{(t) + } ,e_{ij}^{(t) - } \) and \( e_{ij}^{(t) + } ,i,j \in N \) be the deviation variables and \( \omega = (\omega_{1}^{(t)} ,\omega_{2}^{(t)} , \ldots ,\omega_{n}^{(t)} )^{\rm T} \) be the normalized intuitionistic fuzzy weight vector in Model 2 for \( B^{(t)} \), then for each \( t \), we have
Since \( d_{ij}^{(t) - } \ge 0,d_{ij}^{(t) + } \ge 0,e_{ij}^{(t) - } \ge 0,e_{ij}^{(t) + } \ge 0 \) and \( d_{ij}^{(t) - } \cdot d_{ij}^{(t) + } = 0,e_{ij}^{(t) - } \cdot e_{ij}^{(t) + } = 0,i,j \in N \), for each \( t \), then
Assume that \( \tilde{\omega }^{(t)} = (\tilde{\omega }_{1}^{(t)} ,\tilde{\omega }_{2}^{(t)} , \ldots ,\tilde{\omega }_{n}^{(t)} )^{\rm T} \) is the optimal normalized intuitionistic fuzzy weight vector, \( \tilde{d}_{ij}^{(t) - } ,\tilde{d}_{ij}^{(t) + } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{(t) - } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{(t) + } ,i,j \in N \) are the optimal deviation values in Model 2 \( B^{(t)} \). Since \( \tilde{B}^{(t)} \) is a multiplicative consistent IFLPR, based on Theorem 4, we have
i.e.,
According to Eq. (20), for each \( t \), we have
As \( \tilde{d}_{ij}^{(t + 1) - } ,\tilde{d}_{ij}^{(t + 1) + } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{(t + 1) - } ,\tilde{e}_{ij}^{(t + 1) + } ,i,j \in N \) are the smallest deviation variables respect to IFLPR \( B^{(t + 1)} \) in Model 2, by using Eqs. (38)–(40), one can obtain that
Let \( \omega_{i}^{(t + 1)} = \tilde{\omega }_{i}^{(t)} ,i \in N \), it follows that
In addition, from Eq. (22), we have
Therefore, by using Eqs. (40)–(44), for each t, we can get
Furthermore, by Eq. (45), we have
Since \( {\text{CI}}(B^{(t)} ) \ge 0 \) for each \( t \), then \( \mathop {\lim }\limits_{t \to + \infty } {\text{CI}}(B^{(t)} ) = 0 \).
This statement completes the proof of Theorem 7. □
Proof of Theorem 8
Since \( B_{k} = \left( {b_{ij,k} } \right)_{n \times n} (k \in M) \) be a collection of IFLPRs, according to Definition 1, for any \( i,j \in N,k \in M \), we have \( b_{ij\mu ,k} = b_{ji\nu ,k} ,b_{ij\nu ,k} = b_{ji\mu ,k} ,b_{ij\mu ,k} + b_{ij\nu ,k} \le s_{2\tau } \), and then
From Eq. (26), we have
As \( I(b_{ij\mu ,k} ),I(b_{ij\nu ,k} ) \in [0,2\tau ],i,j \in N,k \in M \), using the Lemma 1, we have
it follows that
Furthermore, since \( I(b_{ij\mu ,k} ) + I(b_{ij\nu ,k} ) \in [0,2\tau ],i,j \in N,k \in M \), by Lemma 1, we have
i.e.,
According to Definition 1, it is certified that \( B_{c} = \left( {b_{ij,c} } \right)_{n \times n} \) is an IFLPR, which competes the proof of Theorem 8. □
Proof of Theorem 9
Suppose that \( \tilde{d}_{ij,k}^{ - } ,\tilde{d}_{ij,k}^{ + } ,\tilde{e}_{ij,k}^{ - } ,\tilde{e}_{ij,k}^{ + } ,i,j \in N,k \in M \) and \( \tilde{d}_{ij,c}^{ - } ,\tilde{d}_{ij,c}^{ + } ,\tilde{e}_{ij,c}^{ - } , \)\( \tilde{e}_{ij,c}^{ + } ,i,j \in N \) be the optimal deviation values of Model 3 and Model 4, respectively, and then
Let \( \tilde{B}_{c} = (\tilde{b}_{ij,c} )_{n \times n} = (\langle \tilde{b}_{ij\mu ,c} ,\tilde{b}_{ij\nu ,c} \rangle )_{n \times n} \) and \( \tilde{B}_{k} = (\tilde{b}_{ij,k} )_{n \times n} = (\langle \tilde{b}_{ij\mu ,k} ,\tilde{b}_{ij\nu ,k} \rangle )_{n \times n} ,k \in M \), where
According to Theorem 4, one can obtain that \( \tilde{B}_{k} ,k \in M \) and \( \tilde{B}_{c} \) are multiplicative consistent IFLPRs.
From Eqs. (50) and (51), we have
it follows that
Since \( {\text{CI}}(B_{k} ) \le \overline{\text{CI}} ,k \in M \), by Eqs. (49), (52) and (53), we have
Therefore, we complete the proof of Theorem 9. □
Proof of Theorem 10
According to Eq. (29), we have
and
then, by Definition 6, we have
Similarly, we have
Since \( \delta_{1} \ge \delta_{2} \), then \( d(B_{{\delta_{1} }} ,B_{\psi }^{(t)} ) \le d(B_{{\delta_{2} }} ,B_{\psi }^{(t)} ) \), which completes the proof of Theorem 10. □
Proof of Theorem 11
According to Eq. (51), we have \( B_{\psi }^{(t + 1)} = \left( {b_{ij,\psi }^{(t + 1)} } \right)_{n \times n} = \left( {\langle b_{ij\mu ,\psi }^{(t + 1)} ,} \right.\left. {b_{ij\nu ,\psi }^{(t + 1)} \rangle } \right)_{n \times n}, \) where
For all \( l \ne \psi \), we have \( B_{l}^{(t + 1)} = B_{l}^{(t)} \), and \( {\text{ICD}}(B_{l}^{(t)} ) < {\text{ICD}}(B_{\psi }^{(t)} ),l \ne \psi \).
From Definition 6 and Eq. (55), for all \( l \ne \psi \), one can obtain that
it follows that
Therefore, we complete the proof of Theorem 11. □
Proof of Theorem 12
Suppose that \( B_{\psi }^{(t)} \) is the IFLPR which needs to be adjusted in the tth iteration, then we have \( B_{l}^{(t + 1)} = B_{l}^{(t)} \) for all \( l \ne \psi \).
According to Theorem 11, we have \( {\text{ICD}}(B_{\psi }^{(t + 1)} ) < {\text{ICD}}(B_{\psi }^{(t)} ) \), that is
Therefore, by Definition 10 and Eq. (56), for each \( t \), we have
i.e.,
This completes the Proof of Theorem 12. □
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Jin, F., Ni, Z., Pei, L. et al. A decision support model for group decision making with intuitionistic fuzzy linguistic preferences relations. Neural Comput & Applic 31 (Suppl 2), 1103–1124 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-017-3071-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-017-3071-z