The state-of-the-art integrations and applications of the analytic hierarchy process

Because of its great flexibility and wide applicability, integrated analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approaches have been studied extensively for the last 20 years. This paper, as a follow-up study to Ho (2008), reviews the literature on the integrated AHP approaches and applications published between 2007 and 2016 and compares those studies with papers published during the previous decade, i.e., 1997–2006. Based on the 88 journal articles, five questions can be answered: (1) which type of integrated AHP approaches was paid most attention to? (2) Which application areas were integrated AHP approaches primarily applied to? (3) Which specific problems were integrated AHP approaches most commonly applied to? (4) What is the trend in publications regarding integrated AHP approaches? and (5) Which international journals were integrated AHP approaches most widely published in? Finally, some new applications of new AHP integrations are proposed to assist scholars in filling the literature research gaps.