Formulating the multi-segment goal programming

Goal programming (GP) is an important analytical approach devised to solve many real-word problems. However, the condition of multi-segment aspiration levels (MSAL) may exist in many marketing or decision management problems. The problem cannot be solved by current GP techniques. In order to improve the effective of GP and solve the multi-segment goal programming (MSGP) problem, this paper provides a new idea for programming the MSAL problem from multi-aspiration contribution levels viewpoint. This significantly improved the utility of GP in real application; in addition, two illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the solution procedure of the proposed model. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.