A Posteriori Trade-off Analysis in Reference Point Approaches

This paper is concerned with extensions to existing reference point methods for multiple objective decision making (MODM) through the incorporation of an a-posteriori trade-off analysis, i.e. an examination of the tradeoffs between objectives which are implied by a given, tentative solution to the problem under consideration. The term reference point method is used in this context to include both conventional goal programming approaches, where the reference point represents the decision maker’s actual aspiration levels (cf. Lee 1972; Ignizio 1976), and the more recent interactive procedures where the reference point is used as a primarily technical means of exploring the feasible region (Wierzbicki 1979a, 1979b; Lewandowski and Grauer 1982).