Generalized hesitant fuzzy synergetic weighted distance measures and their application to multiple criteria decision-making

The purpose of this paper is to present a generalized hesitant fuzzy synergetic weighted distance (GHFSWD) measure, which is based on the generalized hesitant fuzzy weighted distance (GHFWD) measure and the generalized hesitant fuzzy ordered weighted distance (GHFOWD) measure proposed by Xu and Xia [Z. Xu, M. Xia, Distance and similarity measures for hesitant fuzzy sets, Inf. Sci. 181 (2011) 2128-2138.], and investigate its some desirable properties and special cases. The GHFSWD measure not only generalizes both the GHFWD and GHFOWD measures as well as the common hesitant fuzzy distance measures, but also reflects the importance degrees of both the given individual distances and their ordered positions. Then, based on the defined notions of positive ideal hesitant fuzzy set and negative ideal hesitant fuzzy set, we utilize the proposed GHFSWD measure to develop a method for multiple criteria decision making with hesitant fuzzy information. The method is flexible because it allows decision makers to provide preference with hesitancy and determine different decision results by choosing different decision strategies. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed method. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.