The amount of information involved in many decision making situations has increased dramatically in recent years and support of some kind is often needed. Consequently, fields like Business Intelligence (BI) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) have advanced. Decision analysis applications belong to the latter category and aim to support decision making activities in businesses and organizations, and provide more clearly structured decision material to use as a basis for decisions. In spite of a belief in their potential, their employment is still limited in practice, which could partly be attributed to the fact that they are incomplete to support decision processes sufficiently in real settings. At present, e.g., the specification and execution of the elicitation of input data is often left to the discretion of the user. Yet, this involves quite a few problematic elements and is of importance for the quality of the process as a whole. This thesis focuses on more practically useful elicitation of information in decision analysis applications than what is offered today. A process model emphasizing the importance of structured elicitation of adequate input data throughout decision processes is also suggested. In order to further define the problematic aspects of elicitation, three empirical studies were conducted. The problems with eliciting precise decision data suggests that using imprecise values within elicitation is a more realistic and useful approach to strive for. Based on theory and the findings of the studies, a weight elicitation method for imprecise statements and noisy input was formalized into the Cardinal Rank Ordering of Criteria (CROC) method. This method is both compatible with an adapted prescriptive decision making model, focused on a more structured elicitation component, as well as algorithms for dealing with such data. The CROC method was employed and validated in two real-life cases, which is not so common within decision analysis research. / Mängden information i många beslutssituationer har ökat markant under senare år och det finns ofta behov av någon form av stöd. Följaktligen har områden som Business Intelligence (BI) och Beslutsstödssystem (BSS) avancerat. Beslutsanalysverktyg tillhör den senare kategorin och syftar till att fungera som stöd vid beslutsfattande inom företag och organisationer och tillhandahålla mer strukturerat underlag för beslut. Trots en tro på deras potential, så är deras användande begränsat i praktiken, vilket delvis kan tillskrivas det faktum att de är inkompletta för att stödja beslutsprocesser i tillräcklig utsträckning i verkligheten. För närvarande förutsätts, t.ex. ofta att användaren själv klarar av att specificera och utföra utvinningen (eliciteringen) av input data. Detta involverar dock ett antal problematiska delar och dess kvalité är av vikt för hela processen. Denna avhandling fokuserar på mer praktiskt användbar elicitering av information i beslutsanalys-applikationer än vad som finns att tillgå idag. En processmodell som betonar vikten av strukturerad elicitering av adekvata indata genom hela beslutsprocessen föreslås också. För att ytterligare definiera de problematiska aspekterna av elicitering utfördes tre empiriska studier. Problemen med att utvinna precisa beslutsdata antyder att användandet av oprecisa värden inom elicitering är en mer realistisk och användbar ansats att sträva efter. Baserat på teori och resultaten av studierna formaliserades en vikteliciterings-metod för oprecisa utlåtanden och osäkra indata i Cardinal Rank Ordering of Criteria (CROC) metoden. Metoden är både kompatibel med en anpassad preskriptiv beslutsmodell fokuserad på en mer strukturerad eliciteringskomponent samt algoritmer för att hantera denna typ av data. CROC-metoden användes och validerades i två riktiga fall, vilket inte är så vanligt inom beslutsanalys forskning. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 7: Submitted. </p>

Planning is what sustains an energy system. It is a process of analysis and ongoing decision making about what resources and energy technologies to use when supplying energy to society. This research focuses on integrated energy systems, i.e. systems that are comprised of several energy carriers – electricity, gas, hot water - and energy distribution networks. The planning of these kinds of systems is a complex process, influenced by many factors, among which the most important are the availability of energy resources and the competition between different energy carriers in satisfying energy demand. During the last 10-20 years significant changes have taken place on the world energy scene, which have important implications for energy planning. Two main factors have triggered these changes. The first factor is the immediate need to address environmental changes or more generally, to take measures that are sustainable in the long run. Sustainability can be defined in many ways and in relation to different issues such as economic and ecologic development, reduction of greenhouse gases, responsible use of natural resources, social equity, etc. In recent years, an increased awareness of these issues has been observed at all levels of the society. The second factor is the deregulation of national energy sectors in more than 50 countries. This process brought changes in the ownership of different parts of the formerly integrated energy systems. New business opportunities were created in power generation, wholesale power/gas trading and energy retailing, while the energy infrastructures remained state owned or/and under regulatory control. The newly created energy markets (many of them international) have attracted both new players (power, oil and gas companies and financial institutions) together with the old ones (integrated utilities). In parallel with this vertical separation of national energy sectors, recent studies have shown a tendency for horizontal integration at the regional/company level. For instance, in order to reduce their overall business risk, companies prefer to participate in several segments of the energy value chain (in both regulated and non-regulated activities), and often across more than one fuel commodity, such as gas and electricity or district heating. In this context, the competition between different energy carriers in satisfying the end-use energy demand became obvious in economic as well as in technological and environmental terms. Traditionally, in integrated planning, this competition did not play a big role, since the same state entity made decisions at both national and regional levels. However, in the post-deregulation era it is no longer obvious who the planner is. In many cases, planning decision at local levels involve at least three main interest groups: energy companies (and/or other investors), the state and the local community. This thesis is motivated by the need to help planners to cope with the changes in concepts and values concerning the planning of local energy supply systems. This thesis has two aims. The first aim is to improve the understanding of what planning of local systems implies and how such a process can be structured. The second aim is to contribute to the development of decision support methodologies and tools that can cope with the needs in planning. For this purpose, the use of energy modelling and Multi- Criteria Decision Analysis has been studied.

Abstract Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were one of the major contributors to the economic miracle of Taiwan. There are over a million SMEs, which comprise 97.7% of all Taiwanese enterprises, However, SMEs faced with high risks of failure, especially at their entrepreneurship stages, due to their lack of expertise and abilities in technologies developments, together with their disadvantages in economy scale, market, capital and business connections. Thus more than 60 incubators were founded by Taiwan Government in past seven years to help SMEs entrepreneur cope with the above threaten. These incubators vary in factors such as capabilities, facility, and resources. Therefore, the selection of an appropriate incubator is a critical issue for an SME entrepreneur. This research identifies a set of evaluating criteria within five categories: facility, technical and human resource, business administrative, knowledge source, and organization infrastructure based on extensive literature review and interview with industry experts. ELECTRE I, a multiple criteria decision making method is applied to evaluate incubators. The results provide an efficient and effective method for selecting an appropriate incubator for SME entrepreneur.

The study aims to explore relevant issues concerning educational personnel¡¦s and students¡¦ parents¡¦ attitudes towards the elementary school principal evaluation in Kaohsiung County and to provide a basis for municipal administrators to conduct the principal evaluation in the future. Applying the method of ¡§literature analysis¡¨, both domestic and international studies on the evaluation of the principals were collected and analyzed. These studies included the role and ability of the principal, profession characteristics and pressure, the definition, criteria and purpose of the principal evaluation, and the implementation of principal evaluation in America and Britain. Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was designed to look into the viewpoints of the educational personnel and students¡¦ parents in Kaohsiung County. The questionnaire was distributed to 858 related subjects, including administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents in 51 elementary schools which were randomly selected. The response rate was 88% (757 specimens).Based on findings of this study, conclusions are drawn as follow: 1. School administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents all approved of the criteria of the principal evaluation and they placed great value on the aspect of fund management. 2. Senior school administrative staff and teachers had more positive attitudes towards the criteria of the principal evaluation. 3. Female and male parents had significantly different viewpoints on the aspect of the teaching leadership of the evaluation criteria. Females agreed with it more than males. 4. School administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents all approved of both the internal and external evaluators and they especially thought highly of the representatives of school teachers. 5. School administrative staff and teachers of different backgrounds had significantly different views about the representative evaluators from the Teachers¡¦ Association. 6. School administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents had a tendency to approve of applying both the quantitative and qualitative analyses to report the results of the principal evaluation. 7. Concerning the principal evaluation reports, school administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents had a tendency to approve of informing the principal individually instead of in public. 8. Concerning the implementation of the evaluation results, school administrative staff, teachers and students¡¦ parents had a tendency to approve that it would provide the reference for the principal to improve his/her practice and professional growth. 9. School administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents all thought that cooperating with academic institutes and providing opportunities for principal¡¦s further study to improve his/her professional growth was the most important relevant step of the principal evaluation. 10. School administrative staff, teachers, and students¡¦ parents agreed that having interviews with school teachers was the most important means of the principal evaluation. Based on findings of this study, recommendations are made for the municipal administrators, elementary school principals and further studies.

ERP¡]Enterprise Resource Planning¡^comes from manufacturing industry at first. When the times develope, it hasn¡¦t the only patent in manufacturing industry. It changes the basic IS for all kinds of industries.In the past, the related topics for the researches of the the academic circle surrounded with the topics of ERP selecting and CSF. There are very fewer related researches for how to understand and how to select ERP consultant and Consultant Company.Because the academic and the industry circle recently understand the importance of consultant, consultant for ERP implementing is the success and failure role. Base on these reasons, those cause this research to discuss the topic of ERP consultant and Consultant Company. The purpose of this research is arranging and analysising the crieteria of selecting consultant and Consutant Company by collecting records¡Bexpert interviews and questionnaire. The research uses case studey to help for the case enterprise to select the most suitable ERP consultant by ELECTRE I and provides the rational decision structure and basis for the companies that want to implement ERP. At last , the case has selected JDE from the three consultant companies of Oracle¡BJDE and Proyoung. The result of this research mainly provides feasibility evaluation model. When company considers which consultant and Consultant Company to select, he can refer this crieteria and importance from this research. The company also finds the most suitable Consultant Company by using the methods and procedures from this research.

In this e-commerce era, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been viewed as the entering cost for conducting the business and establishing contact with others. ERP system is very expensive and enormous complex package software, and applies the best business practice with partial adjustment and integration to suit for the operation of different enterprises. But due to the characteristics of high investement, high complexity and high risk of failure of ERP systems, misfits have been one of important issues for the implementation of ERP systems. Therefore, the selection of an appropriate ERP system has become the key factor leading to the eventual success of an ERP system implementation. And we select an appropriate ERP system by studing a case that uses ELECTRE I as evaluating tool. This paper first identifies a set of evaluating criteria based on the extensive literature review and the considerat5ion of the environment and characteristics of ERP systems. Once the list was generated, an iterative process of personal interview with the consultant, suppliers, users and managers was conducted to modify the evaluating criteria in order to insure the integrity of it. The result of this study is not only can contribute to the understanding of the functionalities of an ERP system, but also can provide a practical guideline for the selection of an ERP system.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-171).

Thesis ( Ph.D. ) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

The objective of this Thesis is to develop a methodological framework to guide the decision maker in selecting a decommissioning method for offshore wind farms which is supported by the majority of relevant stakeholders. Initially, a literature review has been conducted to find out which methods are available to decommission an off-shore wind farm and which criteria can influence the outcome.Two methods have been found in literature, namely partial and total removal of the foundation. Furthermore, twenty one (21) criteria have been found which could influence the results. These criteria can be divided in four categories which are economical, environmental, social and technical.Subsequently, a methodological framework was developed that included four steps. First, the possible decommissioning methods should be identified. Following on that, information should be collected and stakeholders should be selected. Subsequently, criteria should be selected and as last a multi criteria decision aid method should be used. It is expected that this procedure would lead to a decommissioning method which is supported by most of the stakeholders.To validate the methodological framework, a case study in the Netherlands has been selected. For this case study, four (4) stakeholders were identified and eleven (11) criteria were assessed. The outranking multi-criteria decision aid method PROMETHEE II was selected and results were obtained. Analyzing the results, it was possible to conclude that only one stakeholder preferred the total removal method while the other three stakeholders preferred the partial removal method.

The study analyses various methods to solve multiple criteria optimization problems of different kinds and defines principles of parallel computing. A multiple criteria optimization problem has been solved applying a computer network and a new strategy that analyses and uses intermediate results in the calculation process has been suggested. The optimization problem has been solved applying a computer network and parallel computing software MPI (Message Passage Interface). Numerous experimental trials have been carried out to investigate efficiency of the designed strategy in the solution of multiple criteria optimization problems. A computer network with different number of computers solved a single problem of different duration and final results of various strategies have been compared. The experiments have proved the designed strategy to be more precise in results and more economical in computing time.