DEMATEL Technique: A Systematic Review of the State-of-the-Art Literature on Methodologies and Applications

Abstract

Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is considered as an effective method for the identification of causeeffect chain components of a complex system. It deals with evaluating interdependent relationships among factors and finding the critical ones through a visual structural model. Over the recent decade, a large number of studies have been done on the application of DEMATEL and many different variants have been put forward in the literature. The objective of this study is to review systematically the methodologies and applications of the DEMATEL technique. We reviewed a total of 346 papers published from 2006 to 2016 in the international journals. According to the approaches used, these publications are grouped into five categories: classical DEMATEL, fuzzy DEMATEL, grey DEMATEL, analytical network process-(ANP-) DEMATEL, and other DEMATEL. All papers with respect to each category are summarized and analyzed, pointing out their implementing procedures, real applications, and crucial findings. This systematic and comprehensive review holds valuable insights for researchers and practitioners into using the DEMATEL in terms of indicating current research trends and potential directions for further research.

Advances in Multiple Criteria Decision Making for Sustainability: Modeling and Applications

“…A hybrid model based on DEMATEL (decision making trial and evaluation laboratory) and intuitionistic fuzzy sets is applied to analyze the influential relationships among the criteria/factors of this problem. The DEMATEL technique has the advantage of identifying the source factors that have influences on the addressed performance gap, which has been applied in many MCDM studies [30][31][32] that require a systematic analysis for guiding improvements. The findings of this study provide meaningful insights for the associated industries and policy makers to refer.…”

Packaging design elements and consumers' decision to buy from the Web: A cause and effect decision‐making model

“…It can be used to create an impact‐relation map of certain elements, and to ascertain the level of influence of each element over the other . This method not only converts the interdependency relationships into a cause and effect group via matrixes, but also identifies the critical factors of a complex structure system with the help of an impact relation diagram . In the context of this study, the use of the DEMATEL method would help decision makers to understand more effectively the relationship between the design of a package and consumers' decision to purchase products via the internet.…”

Introducing a heuristic approach to enhance the reliability of system safety assessment

“…DEMATEL is a type of structural modeling approach, which is particularly useful in analyzing the cause and effect relationships among components of a system. 86 • 1972: Irving Janis proposed the term of "groupthink" for faulty decision making which morals and ethics compromise over the best consequences. Michael Cohen, James March, and Johan Olsen published "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice" that suggested organizations to seek for their useless data and information due to solutions thrown out formerly because of lack of a problem.…”