1. 1. Motivation This book is based on the view-tx)int that both public and private decision making, in practice, can often be ilrproved upon by means of fonnal (nonnative) decision nodels and methods. To sane extent, the validity of this statement can be measured by the irrpressive number of su=esses of disciplines as operations research and management science. Hcwever, as witnessed by the many discussions in the professional journals in these fields, many rrodels and methods do not completely meet the requirements of decision making in prac tice. Of all possible origins of these clear shortcomings, we main-· ly focus on only one: the fact that nost of these nodels and methods are unsuitable for decision situations in which multiple and possi bly conflicting objectives playa role, because they are concentra ted on the (optimal) fulfilment of only one objective. The need to account for multiple goals was observed relatively early. Hoffman [1955], while describing 'what seem to be the prin cipal areas (in linear prograrrrning) where new ideas and new methods are needed' gives an exanple with conflicting goals. In this pro blem, the assignrrent of relative weights is a great problem for the planning staff and is 'probably not the province of the mathemati cian engaged in solving this problem'. These remarks were true pre cursors of later develor:nents. Nevertheless, the need for methods dealing with multiple goals was not widely recognized until much later.

Most real-life problems involve making decisions to optimally achieve a number of criteria while satisfying some hard or soft constraints. In this book several methods for solving such problems are presented by the leading experts in the area. The book also contains a number of very interesting application papers which demonstrate theoretical modelling, analysing and solution of real-life problems.

The book is dedicated to multi-objective methods in decision making. The first part which is devoted to theoretical aspects, covers a broad range of multi-objective methods such as multiple linear programming, vector optimisation, fuzzy goal programming, data envelopment analysis, game theory, and dynamic programming. The reader who is interested in practical applications, will find in the remaining parts a variety of approaches applied in numerous fields including production planning, logistics, marketing, and finance.

Goal Programming Applications in Accounting 74 Goal Programming Applications in Agriculture 76 Goal Programming Applications in Economics 78 Goal Programming Applications in Engineering 79 Goal Programming Applications in Finance 80 Goal Programming Applications in Government 83 Goal Programming Applications in an International Context 88 Goal Programming Applications in Management 90 Goal Programming Applications in Marketing 97 Summary 98 CHAPTER 5. FUTURE TRENDS IN GOAL PROORAMMING 101 GP is Positioned for Growth 101 Shifting the Life Cycle of GP Research to Growth 103 Summary 107 Reference 108 APPENDIX A TEXTBOOKS, READINGS BOOKS AND MONOORAPHS ON GOAL PROORAMMING 109 APPENDIX B. JOURNAL RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ON GOAL PROORAMMING 113 INDEX 213 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1. Summary Relationship of GP with MS/OR and MCDM Figure 1-2. Frequency Distribution for GP Journal Publications Figure 1-3. Life Cycle ofGP Research Figure 2-1. Set of GP Efficient Solutions Figure 5-1. Life Cycle of GP Research ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1. MS/OR Topics and Their Related GP Topics Table 1-2. MCDM Subareas and Their Related GP Topics Table 1-3. Frequency Listing ofGP Journal Publications and Book Titles Table 2-1. Solutions for a Dominated GP Problem Table 2-2. Conversion ofLP Constraints to Goal Constraints Table 2-3. GP Citations on Dominance, Inferiority and Inefficiency Table 2-4. GP Citations on Relative Weighting, Prioritization and Incommensurability Table 2-5. MS/OR Topics and Their Related GP Topics Table 3-1. Citations on WeightedlPreemptive GP Methodology Table 3-2. Citations on Pure/Mixed Integer GP Methodology Table 3-3.

Within the field of multiple criteria decision making, this volume covers the latest advances in multiple objective and goal programming as presented at the 2nd International Conference on Multi-Objective Programming and Goal Programming, Torremolinos, Spain, May 16 - 18, 1996. The book is an undispensable source of the latest research results, presented by the leading experts of the field.