I believe that we meet the minimum requirement for the constitution of a research group ­ that is, two researchers! Professor Jim Corner and I have worked together for the last nine years on a variety of research, both individually and collaboratively, in the general area of MCDA. This research has been very fruitful and has at times involved colleagues from other universities, notably Professor Mordecai Henig from Tel Aviv University. Other colleagues include Professor Craig Kirkwood from Arizona State University, Professor Lorraine Gardiner from Auburn University and Professor Daniel Vanderpooten from LAMSADE. Professor Hans Daellenbach of the University of Canterbury, who was responsible for my original interest in MCDA, has recently retired.

Our work has been somewhat eclectic, not being centred on a large research project. However, there has been a strong emphasis on behavioural decision making as we have tried to understand what decision makers actually do as a precursor to suggesting what, perhaps, they should do. We have investigated how behavioural characteristics of decision makers affect the performance of solution methods - including decision analysis, the Zionts-Wallenius method and a naïve guess method. Recently with the assistance of a doctoral student, we have been investigating the structuring of decision problems. Other current work includes the decision making of experts, a review of decision analysis applications and a project ranking exercise for a large New Zealand company.

What is the future of this "group?" We shall continue to work in the softer areas of behaviour and philosophy and welcome the opportunity to collaborate with others in this area. In the longer term it is our goal to establish a centre for decision research. Does anyone want to visit New Zealand?
 
 

1. Corner, Jim, John Buchanan and Mordecai Henig (2000), A dynamic model for structuring decision problems, Department of Management Systems, Research Report Series 2000-02.
2. Buchanan, John, Phillip Sheppard and Daniel Vanderpooten (1999), Project ranking using Electre III, Department of Management Systems, Research Report Series 1999-01.
3. Buchanan, John, Mordecai Henig and Jim Corner (1999), Comment on "Rethinking value elicitation for personal consequential decisions," by G. Wright and P. Goodwin, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 8(1), 15-17.
4. Buchanan, John T., Erez J. Henig and Mordecai I. Henig (1998), Objectivity and subjectivity in the decision making process, Annals of Operations Research, 80, 333-345.
5. Buchanan, John T. and James L. Corner (1997), The effects of anchoring in interactive MCDM solution methods, Computers and Operations Research, 24(10), 907-918.
6. Corner, James L. and John T. Buchanan (1997), Capturing decision maker preference: Experimental comparison of decision analysis and MCDM techniques, European Journal of Operational Research, 98(1), 85-97.
7. Henig, Mordechai I. and John Buchanan (1997), Tradeoff directions in multiobjective optimisation, Mathematical Programming, 78(3), 357-374.
8. Buchanan, John (1997), A naive approach for solving MCDM problems: The GUESS method, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 48(2), 202-206.
9. Henig, Mordechai I. and John T. Buchanan (1996), Solving MCDM problems: Process concepts, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 5(1), 3-12. And, Response to comments, 19-21.
10. Corner, J.L. and C.W. Kirkwood (1996), Magnitude of the errors in approximate multiattribute utility functions, Management Science, 42(7), 1033-1042.
11. Corner, J.L. and J.T. Buchanan (1995), Experimental consideration of preference in decision making under certainty, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 4(2), 107-121.
12. Corner, J.L. and P.D. Corner (1995), Characteristics of decisions in decision analysis practice, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 46, 304-314.
13. Corner, J.L. (1994), Operationalizing approximate multiattribute utility functions for use in practice, European Journal of Operational Research, 79, 73-84.
14. Buchanan, John (1994), An experimental evaluation of interactive MCDM methods and the decision making process, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45(9), 1050-1059.
15. Corner, J.L. and C.W. Kirkwood (1991), Decision analysis applications in the Operations Research literature, 1970-1989, Operations Research, 39, 206-219.