A novel multicriteria decision-making method based on distance, similarity, and correlation: DSC TOPSIS

Abstract

Decision-making, briefly defined as choosing the best among the possible alternatives within the possibilities and conditions available, is a far more comprehensive process than instant. While in the decision-making process, there are often a lot of criteria as well as alternatives. In this case, methods referred to as Multicriteria Decision-Making (MCDM) are applied. The main purpose of the methods is to facilitate the decision-maker's job, to guide the decision-maker and help him to make the right decisions if there are too many options. In cases where there are many criteria, effective and useful decisions have been taken for granted at the beginning of the 1960s for the first time and supported by day-to-day work. A variety of methods have been developed for this purpose. The basis of some of these methods is based on distance measures. The most known method in the literature based on the concept of distance is, of course, a method called Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). In this study, a new MCDM method that uses distance, similarity, and correlation measures has been proposed. This new method is shortly called DSC TOPSIS to include the initials of distance, similarity, and correlation words, respectively, prefix of TOPSIS name. In the method, Euclidean was used as distance measure, cosine was used as similarity measure, and Pearson correlation was used as relation measure. Using the positive ideal and negative-ideal values obtained from these measures, respectively, a common positive ideal value and a common negative-ideal value were obtained. Afterward DSC TOPSIS is discussed in terms of standardization and weighting. The study also proposed three different new ranking indexes from the ranking index used in the traditional TOPSIS method. The proposed method has been tested on the variables showing the development levels of the countries that have a very important place today. The results obtained were compared with the Human Development Index (HDI) value developed by the United Nations. © 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.