Decision support systems for semi-structured buying decisions

Using recent research on evolutionary systems design and on the process of learning preferences in multicriteria decision making, a Decision Support System (DSS) is proposed for semi-structured buying decisions. The general decision process model involves four phases and feedbacks among them: 1. (1) Selecting criteria and an admissible set of alternatives products. 2. (2) Searching for consistency between the decision maker's wholistic preference and an analytical model of it. 3. (3) Assesing a compromise preference model. 4. (4) Evaluating the alternative products using the compromise preference model. An illustrative example (purchasing a car) is presented. We conclude with some brief remarks on implementation of the DSS on microcomputers and extension to the case of several decision makers