Multiple stage optimization driven group decision making method with interval linguistic fuzzy preference relations based on ordinal consistency and DEA cross-efficiency

Interval linguistic term (ILT) is highly useful to express decision-makers’ (DMs’) uncertain preferences in the decision-making process. This paper proposes a new group decision-making (GDM) method with interval linguistic fuzzy preference relations (ILFPRs) by integrating ordinal consistency improvement algorithm, cooperative game, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) cross-efficiency model, and stochastic simulation. Firstly, the ordinal consistency of ILFPR is developed. For improving the ordinal consistency of an ILFPR, a two-stage integer optimization model is presented to derive an ILFPR with ordinal consistency. Then, a weight-determination method for obtaining DMs’ weights is presented based on cooperative games. Moreover, a DEA cross-efficiency model is presented to obtain the priorities of linguistic preference relation derived from ILFPR. Meanwhile, the expected ranking vector of ILFPR is obtained based on the DEA cross-efficiency model by integrating stochastic preference analysis and Monte Carlo stochastic simulation. Finally, a numerical example of emergency logistics selection illustrates the applicability and credibility of the proposed method.