Developing similarity based IPA under intuitionistic fuzzy sets to assess leisure bikeways

• A new IPA approach is developed to solve the inconsistency in traditional IPA.
• A means of converting Likert scale into intuitionistic fuzzy sets is presented.
• A well-defined similarity measure is proposed and proved.

Since its introduction in 1977, importance-performance analysis (IPA) has been used widely to assess marketing and operating strategies. In previous IPA studies, three methods have been used to position the crosshairs: the mean, median, and middle positions of scale. However, as several studies have pointed out, differently positioning the crosshairs may lead to dramatically different results. To resolve this inconsistency, this study proposes a similarity-based importance-performance analysis (SBIPA) under intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The basic idea of SBIPA is to classify service attributes into the most similar quadrant of a conventional IPA grid according to the proposed similarity measure. Using SBIPA to assess the Tamsui Golden Riverside Bikeway shows that the natural environment of the bikeway is attractive enough to support tourism, but authorities should pay greater attention to improving the facilities of the bikeway.