If System Dynamics (SD) models are constructed based solely on decision makers' mental models and understanding of the context subject to study, then the resulting systems must necessarily bear some degree of deficiency due to the subjective, limited, and internally inconsistent mental models which led to the conception of these systems. As such, a systematic method for constructing SD models c...

0950-7051/$ see front matter Crown Copyright 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2012.06.017 ⇑ Corresponding author at: Institute of Managem Chiao Tung University, 1001 University Road, Hsinch E-mail addresses: [email protected] (W edu.tw, [email protected] (G.-H. Tzeng). Many consumers today buy products and services from e-stores. Because e-store managers are responsible for allo...

Now-a-days, the globalization approach can be clearly observed in countries' movement toward the knowledge-based economy. It is inevitable to support knowledge-based institutions and companies in order to realize the expected goals including development of science and technology, meeting the domestic industries' needs and moving toward a knowledge-based economy. For this purpose, the main prior...

The social impact assessment of large-scale projects could help effectively control, prevent, or mitigate possible negative impacts caused by such projects, and thus has been gradually developed nationally and internationally. However, due to some inherent problems, conventional index assessment system could not accurately measure and evaluate the social impact over local communities. As a new ...

Due to the increasing size of the population, society faces several challenges for sustainable and adequate agricultural production, quality, distribution, and food safety in the strategic project portfolio selection (SPPS). The initial adaptation of strategic portfolio management of genetically modified (GM) Agro by-products (Ab-Ps) is a huge challenge in terms of processing the agro food prod...

Energy efficiency is one of the most practical ways for China to simultaneously tackle environmental issues and achieve sustainable development. However, the issue of inadequate capital inflows is a bottleneck in energy efficiency projects, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study focuses on the complicated financial barriers to effectively promoting such projects fo...

Any selection decision of supply chain coordination schemes (SCCS) is essentially affected by the environment where the schemes are to be implemented, the necessary conditions required for their implementation, the risk associated with the implementation, and the impact on the performance of the supply chain. Because of the multi-dimensional characteristics; the selection of appropriate SCCS in...

High ambient interstellar pressure is suggested as a possible factor to explain the ubiquitous observed growth-rate discrepancy for supernova-driven superbubbles and stellar wind bubbles. Pressures of P/k ∼ 10 cm K are plausible for regions with high star formation rates, and these values are intermediate between the estimated Galactic mid-plane pressure and those observed in starburst galaxies...

The maximal entropy ordered weighted averaging (ME-OWA)-based decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method for reliability allocation has been examined. The assessment results show that most conventional reliability allocation methods have five fundamental problems. The first problem is the measurement scale; while the second problem is that the system allocation factors are...