A novel method for group decision making with interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations

This paper investigates the group decision making (GDM) problems with interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations (IV-AIFPRs) and develops a novel method for solving such problems. A new consistency index of an Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy preference relation (AIFPR) is introduced to judge the consistency of an AIFPR and then a convergent iterative Algorithm I is designed to repair the consistency of an AIFPR with unacceptable consistency. Subsequently, the consistency and acceptable consistency of an IV-AIFPR are defined through separating an IV-AIFPR into two AIFPRs. Based on Algorithm I, a new iterative Algorithm II is devised to repair the consistency of an IV-AIFPR with unacceptable consistency. Afterwards, to determine decision makers' (DMs') weights objectively, an optimization model is established by minimizing the deviations between each individual IV-AIFPR and the collective one. This model is skillfully transformed into a linear goal program to resolve sufficiently considering different principles of decision making. A linear program is built to derive interval-valued Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy (IVAIF) priority weights of alternatives. Then, a TOPSIS (technique for order performance by similarity to an ideal solution) based approach is proposed to rank such IVAIF priority weights. Thereby, a method for GDM with IV-AIFPRs is put forward. At length, a practical example of a virtual enterprise partner selection is provided to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.