Hesitant Uncertain Linguistic Z-Numbers and Their Application in Multi-criteria Group Decision-Making Problems

This paper introduces hesitant uncertain linguistic Z-numbers (HULZNs) based on Z-numbers and linguistic models. HULZNs can serve as a reliable tool to depict complex and uncertain decision-making information and reflect the hesitancy of DMs. This paper focuses on the development of an innovative method to address multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems in which the weight information is incompletely known. Handling qualitative information requires the effective support of quantitative tools, after which the linguistic scale function is employed to deal with linguistic information. First, the operations and distance of HULZNs are defined. Then, two power aggregation operators for HULZNs are proposed. Subsequently, a new MCGDM approach is developed by incorporating the power aggregation operators and the VIKOR model. Finally, an illustrative example of ERP system selection is provided for demonstration, and the feasibility and validity of the proposed method are further verified by sensitivity analysis and comparison with an existing method.