Do distance-based multi-criteria decision analysis methods create similar rankings?

Abstract

The TOPSIS method is widely used to support multi-criteria decision-making processes. In this method, one of the most important challenges is to choose an appropriate method for standardizing the decision matrix. There is a problem with determining the impact of standardization on the final result. Additionally, a significant problem is how to identify the criterion weighting vector. In this paper, we present a solution to the problem taken from the literature using four different methods of normalization. Next, we present how to calculate the final ranking without identifying the weights using the COMET method. The most important contribution is to confirm that basically, each normalization method has returned a different ranking order. The real ranking order can only be one. So when it comes to the accuracy of the results, it is essential to compare the extent to which the ranking pairs are similar to each other. The obtained results were compared using three ranking similarity coefficients.