Since AHP is explained clearly, the management decision model is not hard to understand. Before everything, the alternatives and decision criteria must be determined first. Then collect information for each alternative according to each criterion and analyze the information carefully. Feed the information into the AHP and decide the priorities for the alternatives according to each criterion and the priorities for the criteria according to their importance to the goal. These two sets of priorities are combined to give the final priorities for the alternatives. A decision based the final priorities is made.
- Model Assumption
AHP has strict assumptions (Kim et al, 2005). One of them is that the objects involved in comparisons must be independent. To be more specific, the five criteria must be independent from each other and the three alternatives must be independent from each other. In practice, this may be hard. Take the criteria Reputation and Campus for example. Universities with higher reputation usually share more resources than universities with lower reputation, thus, the facilities for universities with lower reputation are usually inferior compared with those for universities with higher reputation.
Another assumption is that the weights of the nodes of a layer with respect to a node of the layer just above them sum up to 1 (Zhao and Liang, 2008).
- Analysis of alternative site locations using Model
Assume an overseas student who is looking for a valued postgraduate program which is career-oriented in computer science among the three universities in this case study.
Results for university ranking, research quality, teaching standards, fees, location, facility, student satisfaction, career service (including resume service, mock interview, career fair hosted, industry connection, etc.) and placement are obtained from survey and reading. These factors are summarized into five criteria – reputation, fees, campus, student satisfaction and career service.
