On the Development and Future Aspects of Vector Optimization and MCDM

The paper is divided into three parts: 1) Historical sketch, 2) Main streams of research, 3) Future development. In the first part, a concise review of the historical roots and the developments of vector optimization in the sense of decision making under several goals (objective functions) is presented. In the second part various main streams are discussed. Two basic aspects of vector optimization can be distinguished: the pure theoretical, mainly mathematical one, and the more practical, methodologically oriented one. A brief survey of vector optimization theory is given. In the third part we try to outline directions of future development based on the knowledge of past and present trends.