A preference aggregation method through the estimation of utility intervals

In this paper, a preference aggregation method is developed for ranking alternative courses of actions by combining preference rankings of alternatives given on individual criteria or by individual decision makers. In the method, preference rankings are viewed as constraints on alternative utilities, which are normalized, and linear programming models are constructed to estimate utility intervals, which are weighted and averaged to generate an aggregated utility interval. A simple yet pragmatic interval ranking method is used to compare and/or rank alternatives. The final ranking is generated as the most likely ranking with certain degrees of belief. Three numerical examples are examined to illustrate the potential applications of the proposed method.