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This article puts forward a decision model for solving a supplier selection problem in a food industry by considering multiple objectives that influence the decision-making process. In times of increasing competitiveness, companies strive hard to improve their profitability, and selection of supply sources may help if an appropriate decision is made through a well-structured decisionmaking process. Preference modeling is conducted in a flexible and interactive elicitation manner with the decision-maker (DM), aided by FITradeoff method. Partial information is gathered about the DM's preferences in such a way that less effort is spent on finding a final solution for the problem.

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The Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff) method is a multicriteria decision making/aiding (MCDM/A) method that uses partial information about the decision maker's (DM's) preferences in order to build a recommendation. This method preserves the strong axiomatic structure of the traditional tradeoff procedure, with an interactive and flexible process that demands less cognitive effort from the DM. Although FITradeoff has already been applied for aiding several practical decision situations, there is no previous study that tests the performance of this method with respect to expected theoretical benefits such as time and effort reduction. In this context, this paper presents the results of a simulation experiment that aims to analyze the behavior of FITradeoff in a wide range of scenarios. Computational constraints were identified in the simulation process, such as the number of simulations for each iteration. Despite the memory limitation of the software used, the number of total simulations performed was greater than what is commonly found in literature. We investigate how the performance of FITradeoff can be affected by changes in number of criteria, number of alternatives and weight pattern, and therefore it is possible to have a deeper understanding of the method and its main features. Therefore, this work focuses on studying, through simulations, the behavior of the multicriteria method FITradeoff, developed by De Almeida et al. (2016), filling a lack in the literature by analyzing said method in a wide array of scenarios by a simulation process in order to bring a better understanding of the method, as well as to validate it in a simulation study.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impacts of Portfolio size effect due to scaling issues in the outcome obtained in a project portfolio selection for an electricity company in Brazil, focusing on improving business strategic performance. Design/methodology/approach-The study uses a web-based decision support system (DSS), in which scaling issues are considered, incorporating results of previous work. The study evaluates 32 projects from the electricity company and compared the possible results when considering different scales. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the robustness of the case, using the web-based DSS. Findings-The results for an interval scale context showed a portfolio with 21 projects, contrasting with the correct solution of a portfolio containing 23 projects. The latter is related to a ratio scale context, with the proper transformation of weights, which was found to be robust with a sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation. This demonstrates that only appropriate models for selecting projects can improve the contribution to the company's permanent strategies of increasing productivity, considering its constraints to achieve optimal results. Originality/value-Additive value functions approach imposes certain requirements on the measurement scales used for the items in a portfolio that should not be ignored, once they have significant impact on the general portfolio results, which are directly related to the business strategic performance and the facilities of doing that with a web-based DSS.