Integrating multiple criteria decision making models into the decision support system framework for marketing decisions

A large number of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) models have evolved over the past decade. This field now seems to have reached a stage of maturity. However, the managerial community has not yet extensively adopted these models in solving practical decision problems. The present article focuses on integrating the MCDM models within the decision support system (DSS) framework to encourage greater use of these models. A DSS framework and the criteria used for the choice of a model is discussed. Based on these criteria MCDM models generally used in the marketing field are evaluated. The possibility of using a mixture of MCDM models within the DSS framework is also explored. Following this, the role of the MCDM models in DSS is delineated. It is argued that, within the problem-solving process, the confluence of MCDM models and DSS plays a vital role in developing high-quality solutions.     

Establishing Reliability Goals for Naval Major-Caliber Ammunition

We describe a decision process for establishing the threshold reliabilities for components of naval major-caliber ammunition. We present a measure of reliability performance, called ef*, which relates directly to the weapons system's performance in a naval gunfire support environment. We use a simulation model to establish this relationship, a regression metamodel to estimate its parameters, and a simple decision process to specify component reliability thresholds which ensure that the ammunition is mission effective. We present this article as an example of the integration of discrete event dynamic system analysis within a decision process. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

After the Split: Partition,Successor States,and the Dynamics of War in the Horn of Africa

Why do partitioned successor states engage one another in armed conflict? We explore the drivers of war between successor states by comparing two border crises that followed the partitions of Ethiopia (1993) and Sudan (2011). We argue that the politico-military struggles that give way to partition create important historical memories that shape what successor states think about the utility of military force. While the partition of Ethiopia yielded successor states led by regimes that were victors of the preceding war of partition, the war of partition in Sudan produced successor states that emerged out of military stalemate. This distinction explains why Ethiopia and Eritrea waged a costly border war that Sudan and South Sudan were able to avoid.     

Ethnicity,class, and civil war: the role of hierarchy,segmentation, and cross-cutting cleavages

Why are some countries prone to ethno-nationalist conflict, whereas others are plagued by class conflict? This is a question that has seldom been raised and rarely been examined empirically. This paper presents a social-structural theory to account for the variable incidence of these two forms of political instability. These two types of conflict result from distinct principles of group solidarity – ethnicity and class – and since each individual is simultaneously a member of an ethnic group (or many such groups) and a particular class, these two principles vary in the degree to which they are mutually exclusive or cross-cutting. The degree of economic stratification between groups and economic segmentation within them shapes the relative salience of each principle of group solidarity in any society and is associated with a characteristic form of political mobilization. In places where between-group inequalities are high, and within-group inequalities low, ethnicity should be the dominant principle of group solidarity and serve as the primary basis of group conflict. By contrast, in countries where between-group inequalities are low, and within-group inequalities high, class is more likely to serve as the dominant principle of group solidarity, and conflicts along class lines are more likely. We test these conjectures with data in over 100 countries on cross-cutting cleavages, ethnic war, and class conflict. The results are supportive of the theory, and provide evidence that how groups are stratified and segmented in societies shapes the type of civil war.     

Finding equivalent transportation formulations for constrained transportation problems

This paper describes a procedure for determining if constrained transportation problems (i.e., transportation problems with additional linear constraints) can be transformed into equivalent pure transportation problems by a linear transformation involving the node constraints and the extra constraints. Our results extend procedures for problems in which the extra constraints consist of bounding certain partial sums of variables.     

The Banzhaf value and communication situations

Myerson 3 and 4 proposed and characterized a modification of the Shapley value in the context of communication situations. In this paper we propose several characterizations of the extension of the Banzhaf value proposed by Owen 7 to communication situations. In particular we characterize this value with the properties of fairness, isolation, and pairwise merging. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

On a class of multiple failure mode systems

The primary objective of this work is to introduce and perform a detailed study of a class of multistate reliability structures in which no ordering in the levels of components' performances is necessary. In particular, the present paper develops the basic theory (exact reliability formulae, reliability bounds, asymptotic results) that will make it feasible to investigate systems whose components are allowed to experience m ≥ 2 kinds of failure (failure modes), and their breakdown is described by different families of cut sets in each mode. For illustration purposes, two classical (binary) systems are extended to analogous multiple failure mode structures, and their reliability performance (bounds and asymptotic behavior) is investigated by numerical experimentation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 167–185, 2002; DOI 10.1002/nav.10007