An interactive approach to multiple criteria optimization with multiple decision‐makers

In this article we propose a formal man‐machine interactive approach to multiple criteria optimization with multiple decision makers. The approach is based on some of our earlier research findings in multiple criteria decision making. A discrete decision space is assumed. The same framework may readily be used for multiple criteria mathematical programming problems. To test the approach two experiments were conducted using undergraduate Business School students as subjects in Finland and in the United States. The context was, respectively, a high‐level Finnish labor‐management problem and the management‐union collective bargaining game developed at the Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University. The results of the experiments indicate that our approach is a potentially useful decision aid for group decision‐making and bargaining problems.