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Saaty, Thomas L., Luis G. Vargas. 2006. Decision Making with the Analytic Network Process: Economic, Political, Social and Technological Applications with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks.

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SAATY, THOMAS L. LUIS G. VARGAS. 2006. Decision Making with the Analytic Network Process: Economic, Political, Social and Technological Applications with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks. Springer, New York. 278 pp. $99.00.

Saaty first introduced the theory of the analytic network process (ANP) in Chapter 8 of his 1990 book, Multicriteria Decision Making: The Analytic Hierarchy Process. In 1996, he followed it with The Analytic Network Process: Decision Making zoith Dependence and Feedback, which he revised in 2001 to include benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR). Finally, in 2005, he wrote Theory and Applications of the Analytic Network Process, which included negative priorities and different formulas for synthesis (Saaty 1990, 2001, 2005).

Many see the ANP, which allows the user to input both judgments and facts to a decision-making process using a ratio scale to evaluate the relationships that exist between various factors, as the most comprehensive framework used in decision making today. It can be used to decipher an innumerable number of problems that governments, society, or major corporations face. This book addresses the application of network structures with dependence and feedback in making decisions. It is a collection of selected applications of the ANP to economic, social and political sciences, and technological design. The book shows the universal applicability of this model in a wide range of areas.

Chapter 1 introduces the basic ANP theory. It briefly explains the supermatrix of a feedback system, BOCR and their merit ratings, group decision making, and other related issues using figures, tables, and examples. Chapters 2 through 12 vividly demonstrate real-world problems. In Chapter 2,...

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