Following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, politicians, media, and lobbyists rendered a number of conflicting and confusing interpretations of its merits and demerits. Such interpretations intensified the skepticism and concerns of small business enterprise (SBE) owners. The purpose of this study was to develop a representative, prioritized list of SBE owners' concerns or resistance factors. The goal was to create a useful guide for SBE owners who are seeking ways to reducing the adverse financial impact of the law. With social choice theory as the theoretical framework, 50 randomly selected SBE owners across 5 distinct industry groups from Richmond, Virginia, participated in an online, cross-sectional, pairwise comparison survey. The overall results of an analytic hierarchy process indicated that the top-ranked resistance factor of SBE owners was insurance premiums, followed by quality of care and the tax burden. However, these rankings were not uniform among industry groups. With a focus on these crucial concerns, SBE owners could benefit by seeking approaches to reduce the business costs of health care. The implications for positive social change include the potential for business organizations, researchers, and policymakers to channel SBE owners' voice for a socioeconomic growth by addressing their concerns in seeking improvements from the ACA.

The following research study attempts to identify the determinant factors, affecting the customer choice among alternative suppliers of mortgage products. The other objective of the study is to evaluate the role of bank brand in the customer choice of mortgage provider. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is employed as the research methodology. Research results suggest that cost-related factors (interest rate, borrowing limit and application costs), and one service-related factor (speed of decision) are determinant for the choice among alternative mortgage providers. However, brand-related factors, such as bank reputation and recommendations, are not found to have a significant effect on the customer choice. The method of brand value calculation, developed in the study requires further research to explain the role of brand in customer decision-making.

金融資訊科技的發展及未來社會走向資訊化的必然趨勢下，自1960年至1970年間建置的銀行業大主機架構，多己到達設備投資轉換及軟體效率不足、系統發展週期過長及維護成本過大之瓶頸。由於核心銀行作業系統的複雜性及重要性，系統轉型的龐大投資計畫失敗時可能對銀行產生相當大的影響，系統廠商的評估選擇非常重要。本研究主要提出資訊系統整合廠商評量模式之形成及應用方式，針對核心銀行系統進行評估及選擇適當的系統整合廠商。 經由文獻探討及針對國內某商業銀行的個案研究，我們先建立一個初步的模型，定義出考量層級及涵蓋因素。之後，配合分析層級法(Analytical Hierarchy Process)設計問卷，收集國內各型銀行的資訊主管及業務主管針對「資訊系統整合廠商評量模式考量因素」進行兩兩比較所回應的相對重要性認知，經AHP運算建立層級因素間的權重分派，之後再依受測者所屬銀行類別及職務類別進行統計分析，作為評估廠商時參考的對象。決策者可根據各自銀行狀況再作權重調整，以此標準評量廠商資料，計算最後評比結果，AHP可在評量模式形成時，彙整產業認知資訊計算出考量因素之權重分配；也可在評量模式應用時彙整參與決策者意見，調整考量因素之權重分配，甚至在廠商評選時彙整參與決策者意見，如同計算權重分配一樣，計算出各合作廠商之優先次序。本研究可用來探討資訊系統整合廠合評量的主要考量因素，思考新的資訊科技可能所帶來的危機或轉機，而加以因應或利用；所發展的評量模式可以提供實務使用，期能協助銀行業，在核心銀行系統轉換需求過程中，建立一個對合作廠商評估與選擇的考量模式，在參考產業認知及層級分析的運算作業下，縮短系統轉型之時程，提高成功機率。 / Facing the technology advancement, it is about the time to upgrade the core banking systems built during 1960s and 1970s. The massive variety of banking operation requirements and the IT dependency of critical banking services make the system upgrade transition an enormous burden. This study aims to establish an evaluation model to be used for selecting appropriate system integration vendor of core banking systems. We review the literature and establish an initial model by identifying a group of consideration categories and their included factors. These factors are conformed to real world situations through a case study on a commercial bank at Taiwan. In the following survey, the weight allocation for these consideration factors is to be investigated from the banking community at Taiwan. A questionnaire based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to collect the comparative perceptions for the importance of the consideration factors. Through the AHP, the aggregated evaluation weights can be calculated. Based on the perception difference among bank types and manager types, a statistical analysis will be conducted later. The decision-makers may adjust the evaluation weights based on the ad-hoc needs for their banks. The comparative scoring of the evaluated vendors is then calculated based on the evaluation weights. The study contributes to investigate the important consideration factors for core banking systems and establish an evaluation model based on the industry perception. The similar approach can be extended to other information systems evaluation in the future.

<p><p><em>Making a decision today is quite important, especially in companies, where the consequences can bring benefits or costs. Sometimes the decisions to be made are complex and we need to evaluate many criterions that can involve several factors. In those cases, it is not easy to have a good overview of all choices and for this reason it is important to have a system that helps us in making complex decisions, when it is not possible to evaluate all the alternatives manually. This thesis describes different algorithms and tools that can aid in the process of making decisions. Based on the review of existing tools a new web based application is proposed. The new tool, Decision Maker, uses both the full Analytical Hierarchical Process approach and Chainwise Paired Comparisons method to evaluate different alternatives.</em></p></p>

Abstract ¡§Taiwan Domestic Shipbuilding Industries and Warship Commercial Maintenance¡¨ is the long-term policy of defense independent industries pushed by the Taiwan government. Domestic shipbuilding, ship maintenance, and national integrated resources can be used to support naval ships logistic maintenance. But there are some differences in technology and concept between ¡§merchant ship¡¨ and ¡§warship¡¨. The complexity, mobility, and specialization of warship systems are higher than merchant ships. Every type of operating system now utilized by commercial shipyards must be modified if they want to receive and carry on warship commercial maintenance activity. Building desirable systems to conduct warship maintenance project management effectively is the key factor if commercial shipyards wish to carry on warship commercial maintenance activity. How to evaluate a warship commercial maintenance system and provide improved solutions for commercial shipyards is the main purpose of this research. This paper start from warship maintenance project management and focuses on warship commercial maintenance peculiarities to correct domestic public projects and shipbuilding related references. We use the Habitual Domains (HD) method to search Key Success Factors (KSF) for warships commercial maintenance system applied to commercial shipyards and to adopt Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to exploit a multi-estimate criteria model to enhance effectiveness and reliability for evaluating a warship commercial maintenance system. The present study uses theoretical and actual experiences to develop a warship commercial maintenance system. Several recommendations are made in order to improve overall performance of a warship commercial maintenance system. We hope that domestic commercial shipyards can do the long-term planning and investment on conducting warship commercial maintenance activity. The navy also can perform warship maintenance frugally and diversely. In this way, navy and commercial shipyards can cooperate and realize the optimal benefit from both sides. ¡iKey Words¡j Taiwan Domestic Shipbuilding Industries, Warship Commercial Maintenance, warship maintenance project management, Habitual Domains (HD), Key Success Factor (KSF), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

This study explores the application of wireless local area network (WLAN) in mobile learning. Although still in its infancy, Taiwan¡¦s government has devoted much resource on mobile learning as the extention of e-Taiwan project. National museums are among the key projects where the effectiveness of mobile learning can be soundly demonstrated. Taking national museums as observing objects, this study examines whether museum visitors appreciate WLAN environment within which personal digital assistants (PDA) operate as mobile educational tools. It further explores the key success factors that leads to successful deployment of mobile learning system. The researcher conducted a two-wave survey, firstly on museum visiters then on museum and e-learning experts for data gathering. Using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as the research method, this study filters out the priority setting of those six categories as follows according to their significance: learning content, network connection, interface design, mareking and promotion, and business model. It also shows that the priority setting might change as a matter of time. As far as implication for education is concerned, the study suggests that, in the learning space of museum, PDA equipped with WLAN proves to be an appropriate mobile learning tool, notably useful in conducting blending learning and self-directed learning. Such finding should contribute to the understanding and further deployment of mobile learning activities in the context of museums. Keywords: wireless local area network (WLAN), mobile learning, blending learning, self-directed learning, personal digital assistant (PDA), fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), key success factors, museum

In the current pluralistic societies, public policy-makings had to take into account various stakeholders as well as the social values. The research, based on the integrated public affairs management¡]PAM¡^ framework (Wang et al., 2004a) and place marketing strategy (Kotler, 1999), defined the applicable operational variables which includes three major factors of economical, social and political, and government, and nine derivative attributes, two situations of direct three-links between Taiwan and Mainland China, and status quo are used as the scenario. Altogether they will influence the stakeholders as decision-makers while deciding if they should invest, live, or work in Kaohsiung. For research design, we employed three major multiple-attribute theories or methods for individual stakeholders¡¦information processing and integration, Information Integration Theory¡]IIT¡^, Analytical Hierarchy Process¡]AHP¡^, Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique¡]SMART¡^, and Rating. In particular, the way the information is integrated cognitively is empirically examined instead of assumed with the averaging model of the IIT (Anderson, 1991a), and the scale values (equivalent to the utility component in MAUT or AHP) and the weights are concurrently separated and measured as results of the examination. Such separation rendered measurement of the psychological weights with theoretical validity possible, and could be used as the standard so that weights measured with the other three methods are evaluated and compared. Findings of the research are as follow, in the aspect of multiple-attribute weight measurement methods applied in the place marketing of Kaohsiung¡G 1. Among the three major factors, the most important is ¡§economic development¡¨, the second is ¡§government function¡¨, and then the third is ¡§social and political development¡¨. 2. For economic development, under the situation of maintain status quo, the most crucial derivative attribute is¡§ the level of economic globalization of Kaohsiung¡¨. The second one is ¡§the industrial structure of Kaohsiung city¡¨. The last one is ¡§the competitiveness of Kaohsiung Port and Airport project¡¨¡FUnder the situation of opening for three direct-links, the most crucial derivative attribute is still ¡§the level of economic globalization of Kaohsiung¡¨. The second one is ¡§the competitiveness of Kaohsiung Port and Airport project¡¨. The last one is ¡§the industrial structure of Kaohsiung city¡¨. 3. For the factor of social and political development, the most important attribute is ¡§the level of citizen participation in public affairs and the extent they influence public policies¡¨, the second is ¡§the public values and culture¡¨, the last is ¡§the operational mechanism of politics and election¡¨. 4. As for government function, the most essential attribute is ¡§the provision of public infrastructures¡¨. The second is ¡§the elected officials¡¦ perception of place marketing and capabilities of policy planning¡¨. The third is¡§the career officials¡¦ identifications for the elected officials¡¦ ambitions and abilities to carry out the place marketing policies¡¨. 5. The second group examinees think that direct-links has positive effects on the developments of Kaohsiung and most of them approve of the policy of three direct-links¡Fthe first group examinees have diverse opinions on it. 6. Based on PAM framework, we will sum up the problems of place marketing of Kaohsiung and brings out policy suggestions for Kaohsiung city. In the aspect of Multiple-attribute weight measurement methods theory¡G 1. Take the weight parameters derived from IIT¡¦s averaging model as the standard, weights from rating¡BAHP and SMART are all theoretically valid. The theoretical validity of rating outperforms that of AHP, AHP outperforms that of SMART. Among the convergence validity or consistence of four methods, between rating and AHP with IIT¡¦s averaging model fit better in convergence validity, between SMART and IIT¡¦s averaging model don¡¦t. 2. All three models had fairly high predictability and notable for subjects¡¦ holistic judgments. The predictability of IIT is the a little bit higher than SMART, the third one is AHP, and the last one is rating. 3. For convergence, measured with accumulative weights derived from subjects selected 15-20 examinees randomly, IIT was better than SMART, and SMART was better than AHP. 4. In terms of perceived performance, degree of operational easiness and fondness, the three models are not significantly different. As for the degree of confidence, IIT outperformed AHP, and AHP outperformed SMART.

Our country is a risky position in terms of natural disasters. In the long run, preferentially settlement areas were selected to ensure maximum benefits in terms of both economic and security aspects, other criteria is not taken account when selection of sites. The main purpose of this study is to examine and compare the properties of settlement location based on natural hazard and environmental constraints to be able to understand the interaction between the settlements and natural conditions at the regional scale of YeSilirmak Basin. A MCDA was set up with 10 different data layers in two data domains (environmental and natural hazards domains), are evaluated. The results of the MCDA scores are then transferred to settlement databases in order to evaluate the number of existing settlements in different environmental and natural hazard related suitability classes. It is found that almost 29% of YeSilirmak catchment is environmentally favorable for settlement, and in coherence with that 41% of all existing settlements are located in this zone, indicating a clear preference among the perception of environmentally better places to be settled in. On the other hand with respect to the natural hazards dataset, the locations of the settlements fail to create any preference, as 73,32% of the area is used by 73,50% of existing settlements, which indicates that the perception of natural hazards are low and do not effect settlement criteria, while the acceptable risk of community is high.

Abstract Water is the essential resource of people for their livelihood and is the foundation for the economy to develop unceasingly. Based on the trend of economic growth, population growth, and the improvement of the quality of life, the demand for water is expected to continuously increase. When the demand for water resources is continuing to increase, burdens are added to the environment and ecology. The severe challenge for human beings is how to promote the sustainable development of economy, society, an ecological environment, and to achieve sustainable use of water resources. The Penghu Island has endured water scarcity for a long time. The government also takes great pains over the water resource problem. The purpose of this study is to establish indicators of a framework for the sustainable development of water resources in Penghu County. This can be used to construct a model of the system dynamics to conduct simulations of various scenarios. After that, we can understand the current situation and problems of the subject of water resources and sustainable development in Penghu County to provide suggestions for the government to make decisions. First, literature should be collected that relates to the indicators of a sustainable development system of water resources, adopting the D-S-R (Driving forces-State-Response¡^indicator framework proposed by the United Nations. We should draw up a water resource sustainable development indicators system which suits the characteristic of the native environment in Penghu County initially, estimating by using Delphi and AHP. Moreover, we will construct a model of the system dynamics and proceed to do the simulation of scenarios. There are 43 indicators in this study which built up the D-S-R water resources sustainable development indicator framework in Penghu County. They belong to 8 different assessment categories, which include watershed conservation and management, groundwater conservation and management, diverse use and development of water resources, allocation and management of water resources, drought and flood mitigation, promotion of water conservation measures, technology research and develop of water resources, personnel training and education about cherishing water resources. Among them, there are 14 driving force indicators, 14 state indicators, and 15 response indicators. According to the dynamic system model constructed in this research, the continuous increase of the population and number of tourists represent the social and economic development of the driving force aspect. When the groundwater is overdrawn, this causes the seawater to invade and it becomes salty. The State aspect is and the people's health and welfare. In the Response aspect, there are 4 strategies regarding the management scenarios, including the control of overdrawn groundwater, building a seawater desalination factory, rational water price adjustment, and the promotion of water conservation measures are drafted. According to the simulation and scenarios, some results were found, such as the rational water price adjustment and promotion of water conservation measures have a limited effect upon slowing down the groundwater overdraw because of the severe water resource shortage in Penghu County. The control of overdrawn groundwater can appropriately decelerate the groundwater being drawn excessively, but can't retard the rise in demand for water. Building a seawater desalination factory can satisfy the continuous rise in demand for water, and have the greatest effect on decelerating the aggravation of the water resource ecology and the quality of the water environment. The strategy of improving the shortage of water resources usually can be executed from two directions: water resources development and economization. This study found that the key points to overcome in order to achieve the sustainable development of water resources in Penghu County are mainly: the destruction of the ecological environment because of deep groundwater overdraw, and the negative influence of setting up a seawater desalination factory on marine ecology resources. The relation is very clear that deep groundwater overdraw causes seawater invasion and the result is salty water. But it's not clear whether the waste water produced from the seawater desalination factory will effect the rich marine resources of Penghu County. The residents, mainly fishermen, still have doubts about building a seawater desalination factory. There should be more thorough analysis and research.

Η αξιολόγηση και επιλογή προμηθευτών αποτελεί μια απαραίτητη επιχειρησιακή λειτουργία για την επίτευξη βέλτιστων δυνατών προμηθειών. Λόγω της φύσης του προβλήματος αυτού, οι μέθοδοι Πολυκριτηριακής Ανάλυσης μπορούν να παίξουν αποφασιστικό ρόλο στην επίλυσή του. Η εργασία αυτή μελετά και παρουσιάζει τα πιο συνηθισμένα κριτήρια καθώς και τις πιο διαδεδομένες μεθόδους της Πολυκριτηριακής Ανάλυσης για την αξιολόγηση και επιλογή προμηθευτών των επιχειρήσεων. Στο πρώτο μέρος της εργασίας αυτής, παρουσιάζεται το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο, όπου γίνεται αναφορά στις έρευνες προηγούμενων μελετητών του προβλήματος της αξιολόγησης και επιλογής προμηθευτών, ομαδοποιώντας μια σειρά από τους σημαντικότερους παράγοντες για την επιλογή προμηθευτών. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται οι πλέον χρηστικές μέθοδοι Πολυκριτηριακής Ανάλυσης στην αξιολόγηση προμηθευτών με αντίστοιχα παραδείγματα. Στο δεύτερο μέρος γίνεται εφαρμογή της μεθόδου της Αναλυτικής Διαδικασίας Ιεράρχησης (ΑΗΡ) συνδυάζοντάς την με Γραμμικό Προγραμματισμό, επί των πραγματικών δεδομένων της μικρομεσαίας επιχείρησης επεξεργασίας νερού Health Affair, για αξιολόγηση και επιλογή των προμηθευτών της. / Vendor selection and evaluation is a very important process for all kinds of firms. Due to the nature of the vendor selection problem, Multicriteria methods can play a decisive role to its solution. This work examines and presents the most commonly used criteria and the most widespread Multicriteria methods for vendor selection and evaluation. In the first part of the project, the Theoretical Framework is presented, where the work of previous researchers is mentioned, by grouping some of the most vital criteria in vendor selection process. Moreover, the most useful Multicriteria methods in vendor selection are analyzed into their corresponding examples. In the second part of the project, the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in combination with Linear Programming is implemented on the real data of a Greek water treatment SME.