A HYBRID APPROACH COMBINING CONJOINT ANALYSIS AND THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS FOR MULTICRITERIA GROUP DECISION-MAKING

In this article, we introduce the Conjoint Analytic Hierarchy Process (CAHP), a novel multi-criteria aggregation function that hybridizes Conjoint Analysis (CA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Most of the limitations of traditional multi-criteria methods are addressed by CAHP. The proposed approach has many practical implications in various sectors such as business, industry, healthcare, education, and more. The keystone of the method is to apply CA to obtain the weights of criteria before applying the usual AHP in the subsequent steps (level of alternatives). Prior to using the AHP, decision tables from decision-makers were transformed into a unique decision table using the arithmetic mean of alternatives’ performances on criteria. Appropriate formulas were then used to turn this aggregated decision table into pairwise comparison matrices, upon which the AHP was applied. We tested the CAHP in two real-world situations to demonstrate its reliability. The results show that the rankings obtained from CAHP are identical to those from other methods, such as TOPSIS, ELECTRE II, and PROMETHEE II. Future research should focus on developing user-friendly tools to facilitate CAHP application. Other perspectives would involve carefully classifying each criterion’s modalities to prevent inversions in respondent preferences during CA and assessing possible biases to manage unexpected preferences.