a b s t r a c tMulti-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods are widely used in various fields and disciplines. While most of the research has been focused on the development and improvement of new MCDA methods, relatively limited attention has been paid to their appropriate selection for the given decision problem. Their improper application decreases the quality of recommendations, as different MCDA methods deliver inconsistent results. The current paper presents a methodological and practical framework for selecting suitable MCDA methods for a particular decision situation. A set of 56 available MCDA methods was analysed and, based on that, a hierarchical set of methods' characteristics and the rule base were obtained. This analysis, rules and modelling of the uncertainty in the decision problem description allowed to build a framework supporting the selection of a MCDA method for a given decision-making situation. The practical studies indicate consistency between the methods recommended with the proposed approach and those used by the experts in reference cases. The results of the research also showed that the proposed approach can be used as a general framework for selecting an appropriate MCDA method for a given area of decision support, even in cases of data gaps in the decision-making problem description. The proposed framework was implemented within a web platform available for public use at www.mcda.it.Please cite this article as: J. W ątróbski et al., Generalised framework for multi-criteria method selection, Omega (2018), https://doi.
Abstract:Wind is the most used renewable energy source (RES) in the European Union and Poland. Due to the legal changes in the scope of RES in Poland, there are plans to develop offshore wind farms at the expense of onshore ones. On the other hand, the success of an offshore wind farm is primarily determined by its location. Therefore, the aim of this study is to select offshore wind farm locations in Poland, based on sustainability assessment, which is an inherent aspect of RES decision-making issues. To accomplish the objectives of this research, PROSA (PROMETHEE for Sustainability Assessment) method, a new multi-criteria method is proposed. Like PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation), PROSA is transparent for decision makers and is easy to use; moreover, it provides the analytical tools available in PROMETHEE, i.e., the sensitivity and GAIA (Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Assistance) analyses. However, PROSA is characterized by a lower degree of criteria compensation than PROMETHEE. Thus, it adheres in a higher degree to the strong sustainability paradigm. The study also compared the solutions of the decision problem obtained with the use of PROSA and PROMETHEE methods. The compared methods demonstrated a high concurrence of the recommended decision-making variant of location selection, from methodological and practical points of view. At the same time, the conducted research allowed to confirm that the PROSA method recommends more sustainable decision-making variants, and that the ranking it builds is less sensitive to changes in criteria weights. Therefore, it is more stable than the PROMETHEE-based ranking.
A literature review showed that finance is a driver of sustainability. However, to achieve sustainability through finance, it is necessary to rebuild and adapt the financial system to the specifics of sustainable development. Modern financial systems can be described as one-dimensional, focusing on ensuring the economic security of transactions. Meanwhile, the growing role of risk related to non-financial factors means that the factors referred to as ESG (environmental, social, governance) become the main source threatening the stability of financial systems. Adaptation activities toward the design of so-called three-dimensional financial systems rely on incorporating ESG risk into the financial decisions of the financial institutions that make up the financial system. This is found, among other factors, in the risk assessment methodology. The general goal of the paper is to investigate which ESG criteria are incorporated into the decision-making process of financial institutions and to verify the level of sustainability of financial systems in selected OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The main research hypothesis assumes that incorporating ESG factors into the decision-making process of financial institutions makes financial systems more sustainable. A two-stage research procedure was used to achieve the research goal. In the first stage, to determine the ESG factors that affect the level of sustainability of financial systems and identify dependencies between ESG factors incorporated by financial institutions into the decision-making process, a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) was used. The collective map elaborating on the basis of the opinions of experts participating in the study was built using the software FCMapper_bugfix_27.1.2016. In the second stage, based on multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) using the PROMETHEE method (Preference Ranking Organization Method of Enrichment Evaluation), 23 OECD countries that respect the Equator Principles were ranked according to seven groups of criteria defined for financial system assessment (financial depth, development, vulnerability, soundness, fragility, stability, and sustainability), based on a literature review. The ranking confirmed the strong position of Scandinavian countries for assuring best sustainability practices in financial institutions and in the economy. The added value of this paper can be considered at two levels: theoretical and empirical. From the theoretical point of view, it should be noted that it is the first of this kind of analysis which prioritizes ESG factors in financial decisions and ranks financial systems according to fulfilling sustainability criteria. The original empirical approach based on the two-stage research procedure provided analysis of 62 factors, of which 21 represented the environmental scope, 25 the social scope, and 16 the governance scope, which is the main advantage of the empirical study presented in the paper.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund reported that the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires an escalation of development finance. The report Scaling Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals highlighted the urgency of the efforts to realize SDGs in encouraging financial innovation to move quickly. Even if the role of finance in achieving SDGs is unquestionable, few scientific studies have addressed these issues. We tried to fill the existing research gap. In this study, we examined the link between sustainable finance and SDGs based on European Union countries belonging to the OECD. We present a new and the original research approach. We assumed that the sustainable finance model plays a fundamental role in implementing SDGs (all SDGs were analysed except for SDG 6 and SDG14, due to lack of statistics were not analysed) and ensuring that social and environmental sustainability are reflected in SDGs. The results of this study show that the more sustainable the finance model, the better the achievement of SDGs in the group of analysed countries. We found a strong link between sustainable finance model and social sustainability (SDG1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 16); environmental sustainability (SDG11, 12, 13, 15) and economic sustainability (SDG8, 9, 17).
The goal of the paper is to examine the relation between finance and sustainability, with a special emphasis on the impact of negative externalities. Sustainable development as a concept aims to mitigate negative externalities. Conventional finance offers no room for the environment and society. Therefore, three-dimensional sustainable finance has appeared. This paper is the first original attempt to examine the relationship between: financial, economic, environmental and social development indicators from the sustainability perspective, with a special focus on externalities. To study the disparities between the European Union (EU) countries belonging to the OECD in the field of sustainable development and sustainable finance, the multi-criteria taxonomy was used. The basis of the analyses was the indicators transformed according to the relative taxonomy method. The database, based on Eurostat, contains indicators describing pillars of sustainable development such as: economic (12 indicators), social (28), environmental (7) and sustainable finance (16). The study analyses the sample of 23 countries in 2007, 2013 and 2016. The results confirm a positive relationship among the analysed indicators. On the basis of 62 statistical features selected according to the statistical methods, 7 groups of countries were obtained in 2007 and 2013 and 8 groups in 2016. In the case of Scandinavian countries, one can observe a permanent separation of economic growth from its negative impact on the natural environment. Such dependencies are no longer so obvious in the case of other EU countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Therefore, attention should be paid to the most economically developed countries in Western Europe, i.e., Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, whose high rankings in the case of economic, social and very often also financial results correspond to much worse results in the case of environmental development.
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