Comparison of Two Different Judgment Scales With the Ahp GSM Operator Preference of University Students

Abstract

The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a method with elegant mathematical features that is widely used in multi-criteria decision making. One of the main applications of this method, which is frequently preferred by decision makers due to its systematic and understandable structure, includes addressing inadequacies in terms of numerical scales that are generally used in pairwise comparisons. Therefore, this study includes two different judgment scales, Saaty’s fundamental scale and the Balanced scale, which were used in the pairwise comparison stage. After the comparisons were made, the variance related to the consistency ratios and the range of the sensitivity was also observed. In the study, we discuss the use of both judgment scales in a real problem and their effects on priority estimation in the AHP. The study's goal is to evaluate the outcomes of Saaty’s fundamental scale and the Balanced scale in the AHP technique for the two current operators in Kosovo's GSM sector, VALA and IPKO, and assess the preference of students in Kosovo. The required data were obtained through a questionnaire and the importance weights of the decision criteria were calculated separately for each scale and compared. The preference order of the GSM operators was discovered according to each decision criterion and all criteria. The ranking of the weights obtained with both scales resulted in IPKO first, followed by VALA. The Balanced scale made the results lighter in the weight distribution. Another important result is that the pairwise comparisons made with the Balanced scale yielded results that are more sensitive. In addition, the closeness of the priority vectors obtained with both scales according to Saaty’s compatibility index and Garuti’s compatibility index was examined.