Şahin R. Neutrosophic QUALIFLEX based on neutrosophic hesitancy index for selecting a potential antivirus mask supplier over COVID-19 pandemic.
Soft comput 2022;
26:10019-10033. [PMID:
36034766 PMCID:
PMC9397306 DOI:
10.1007/s00500-022-07421-0]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
In order to handle simultaneously the cardinal and ordinal information in decision-making process, QUALIFLEX (QUALItative FLEXible multiple criteria method) is a very well-known decision-making approach. In this work, we extend the classical QUALIFLEX method to neutrosophic environment and develop a neutrosophic QUALIFLEX (N-QUALIFLEX) method that uses the newly defined distance-based comparison approach. It is highly effective in solving multi-criteria decision problems in which both ratings of alternatives on criteria and weights of criteria are single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs), and their aggregated values are single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy numbers (SVNHFNs). A neutrosophic hesitancy index (NHI) of a SVNHN is introduced based on degrees of the truth-membership, indeterminacy-membership and falsity-membership, which is used to measure the degree of hesitancy of SVNHN. Considering the NHIS of SVNHFNs, we propose a distance-based comparison approach to determine the magnitude of the SVNHFNs. Then, we apply the comparison approach to define the concordance/discordance index, the weighted concordance/discordance index and the comprehensive concordance/discordance index that are steps of the developed N-QUALIFLEX. By taking all possible permutations of alternatives with respect to the level of concordance/discordance into account, we determine the order of alternatives in final decision. Finally, a practical example on antivirus mask selection over the COVID-19 pandemic is provided to present the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method, and a comparative study is conducted to show the advantages of the proposed method over other existing methods.
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