Lamia Berrah is Assistant Professor at the University Savoie Mont Blanc, France. Her research focuses on industrial performance and decision support.Vincent Clivillé is Associate Professor at the University Savoie Mont Blanc, France. His research focuses on industrial performance aggregation and multicriteria decision support.

• Foreword ixPreface xiiiChapter 1 Decision and Decision Context 11.1 Introduction 11.2 A fleeting look at some of the great civilizations 51.2.1 Method of investigation 51.2.2 The ancient Near-East 61.2.3 Ancient Egypt 101.2.4 India 121.2.5 China 161.2.6 Ancient Greece 211.2.7 The Arab-Muslim world 251.2.8 The Western world 281.3 Conclusion 33Chapter 2 Decisions: The Process 372.1 Introduction 372.2 Why a decision process? 402.3 The notion of process 432.4 Decision-making: rationality or intuition 442.5 The classical theory of rationality 462.5.1 The search for a numerical value 462.5.2 Fundamentals 472.5.3 Operational research 482.5.4 Game theory 522.5.5 Taking account of uncertainty: towards procedural rationality 532.5.6 A return to the decision process 562.5.7 Summary and analysis 602.6 Procedural rationality theory 622.6.1 The search for a satisfactory solution 622.6.2 The basics 642.6.3 The school of Herbert Simon 662.6.4 Extensions to Simon’s process 742.6.5 Procedural rationality and artificial intelligence 832.6.6 A return to the decision process 842.6.7 Summary and analysis 872.7 Conclusion 89Chapter 3 The Decision: The Multi-criteria Universe 913.1 Introduction 913.2 Comparing to be able to choose 933.2.1 Intuitive vision 933.2.2 In a single criterion universe 943.2.3 In a multi-criteria universe 943.3 The construction of MCDA 953.4 Vocabulary 983.4.1 Solutions 983.4.2 The criteria 1013.4.3 Decision types 1073.5 Ordering for comparison 1113.5.1 Intuitive vision 1113.5.2 The notion of preferences 1123.5.3 Preferences and order relationships 1143.6 The particular case of Pareto dominance 1213.7 Summary 1243.8 Conclusion 126Chapter 4 The Decision: Methods 1274.1 Introduction 1274.2 Outranking 1294.2.1 Principles 1294.2.2 Condorcet’s method 1314.2.3 The ELECTRE III method 1344.3 Aggregation 1474.3.1 Principles 1474.3.2 The Borda count method 1504.3.3 The AHP method 1524.3.4 The MACBETH method 1684.4 Conclusion 187Conclusion 189References 193Index 207