Analytic Hierarchy Process with the Correlation Effect via WordNet

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a well-known approach in decision-making because of its simplicity and rationality. However, in conventional AHP, it cannot account for the correlation effect between criteria. In this paper, we use the lexical database, WordNet, to calculate the similarity between criteria set by a decision-maker. Then, we use the similarity matrix to process the factor analysis and obtain the independent factors, which are composed of their criteria. Finally, the weights of factors are derived to evaluate the alternatives. Moreover, we use a case study of online shopping to illustrate the proposed method and compare the result with the conventional AHP.

Automated summary

The study combines AHP with WordNet to handle the correlation between criteria, deriving independent factor weights and comparing with traditional AHP method through an online shopping case study.