Improved TODIM Method Based on Linguistic Neutrosophic Numbers for Multicriteria Group Decision-Making

Abstract

The TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multicriteria decision-making) method can consider the decision-makers’ (DMs’) psychological behavior. However, the classical TODIM method has been unable to address fuzzy information such as the linguistic neutrosophic number (LNN), which is an effective tool to represent uncertainty. In this paper, an extended TODIM method is proposed to solve multicriteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems in a linguistic neutrosophic environment. First, the definitions and characteristics of the classical TODIM and the LNNs are introduced. Then, an improved score function (SF) of LNNs is proposed. Furthermore, we obtain the combined weights of the criteria and aggregate individual decision matrices into a group decision matrix. The classical TODIM method is extended to address MCGDM problems with LNNs, and specific decision steps are provided. Finally, several examples are given to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach by comparison with some existing methods.

Keywords

• TODIM
• Linguistic neutrosophic numbers
• Score function
• Combined weight model
• MCGDM