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The superiority of BWM over other weighting methods for obtaining the weight values of the attributes is that it achieves high-confidence results with a reasonable number of pairwise comparisons. Although the best-worst method (BWM) is a well-known multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method that has been successfully utilized in almost all scientific areas to solve challenging real-life problems, no research has comprehensively examined the state-of-the-art in this regard. The present study depicts a detailed overview of publications concerned with BWM during the period 2015–2022. Based on the information obtained from the Scopus database, this work presents a big picture of current research on BWM. In other words, this paper analyzes the existing literature about BWM and identifies thematic contexts, application areas, emerging trends, and remaining research gaps to shed light on future research agendas aligning with those gaps. Further, the most recent BWM research is analyzed in the top ten scientific areas, from engineering to materials science. “Engineering”, “computer science”, and “business, management, and accounting” are the hottest fields of BWM research. China is the most active country regarding “engineering” and “computer science”, whereas India is the leader in “business, management, and accounting”. The study also reveals that there are still many research gaps in BWM research. The big picture taken in this study will not only showcase the current situation of BWM research but will also positively impact the direction and quality of new research.

Economic freedom indicators create a beneficial and suitable guide and a crucial reference for investors, policymakers, lenders, and market researchers worldwide. In light of these indicators, the economic freedom performances of countries can be determined. The Heritage Foundation annually releases a ranked list of the country based on their performance in terms of fourteen economic freedom criteria with equal weights through a simple aggregation approach. According to an average-based aggregator, equal weight of economic freedom criteria and calculating rank of countries cannot be a completely reliable approach. Thus, this work establishes a composite index system in the form of a decision support system that employs the method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) and the double normalization-based multi-aggregation (DNMA) to specify the economic freedom levels of the OPEC countries. MEREC obtains the importance weights of indicators without the interference of any stakeholder or decision-makers. Afterward, DNMA, as a novel ranking multi-criteria method, is applied to sort countries based on their performance against all economic freedom criteria. This is the first attempt in the literature to calculate the index of economic freedom utilizing an integrated multi-criteria decision support model. Whereas “investment freedom” is the most significant indicator of economic freedom, the UAE is in the best position in terms of economic freedom among OPEC countries. A fourphased sensitivity control is also performed so as to verify the robustness and usefulness of the developed decision tool.

Nowadays, cities are developing differently according to their needs, limitations and certain strategic plans. Moreover, conurbation areas will be more common in so many countries like Chile when there are two or more cities developing one next to another, leaning on each other. In this atmosphere, typical residents live in a region or a neighborhood based on certain criteria, so they know how and where they are going to live. From another point of view, a newcomer is usually faced with a city full of contrasts which make things completely and surprisingly complicated. In order to illustrate this, a real case was selected based on the research field, qualitative and quantitative (real) data. The Coquimbo-La Serena conurbation and it’s regions as “Comuna (in Chile)” is a really suitable case to show the complexity of the study. In order to face the challenge, a new hybrid Multiple-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) method is introduced based on the Best-Worst Method (BWM) and Multi-Attributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis (MAIRCA). The five best different neighborhoods as Comunas of the conurbation were analyzed based on the two main scenarios: having a private car or using only public transportation. To obtain more reliable results, a sensitivity analysis was made so as to determine the behavior of the proposed model against weight changes. Besides, the final results were compared with the other MADM methods, for example: Multi-Attributive Border Approximation Area Comparison (MABAC), VIsekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR) and COmbinative Distance-based ASsessment (CODAS).

Mobile banking (M-banking) which integrates software, hardware, and human is a new platform for banks. Determining the performance of M-banking services helps bank practitioners identify better policy to improve their positions. The aim of this study is to develop an integrated model for evaluating M-banking services by two methods, namely the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) with an extent analysis approach and ARAS (Additive Ratio ASsessment). In this study, the priority weights obtained through the FAHP are combined with the ARAS method to as­sess and rank the M-banking services. Moreover, in order to verify the applicability of this proposed model, a case study in Turkey is offered. The findings indicate that facilitating conditions play the most determining role in the adoption of the M-banking, followed by self-efficacy, privacy risk, and security risk. Consequently, the proposed model helps to overcome difficulties in M-banking service evaluation process and increases the efficiency of the M-banking service activities. Besides, the case study validates that the proposed model is an effective and efficient decision making tool for the evaluation of M-banking services under fuzzy environments. First published online: 23 Apr 2017

In the global competitive environment, companies not only improve the quality of service and increase the efficiency, they also decrease the cost by means of third-party logistics (3PLs). 3PLs, therefore, is an important strategy for companies desiring to gain a competitive advantage and 3PLs provider selection plays a critical role for the success of outsourcing. Nevertheless, the level of uncer­tainty in the selection process is relatively high and need to be carefully considered. Hence, in order to select a proper 3PLs provider, integration of the Fuzzy AHP and Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) has offered a novel integrated model, in which Fuzzy AHP is used for calculating priority weights of each criteria and EDAS is employed to achieve the final ranking of 3PLs providers. Besides, in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, it is validated by a case study. Cost together with quality, and professionalism are found to be the most important factors for 3PLs provider selection. Consequently, the advantage of this model is that it is simple to apprehend and easy to apply. The use of the proposed model leads to the selection of suitable alternative successfully in other selection problems. First published online: 23 Apr 2017

The quality of websites can directly influence bank's effectiveness. Therefore, the effective evaluation of the quality of bank websites is a point of concern for customers, owners, and researchers. The primary goal of the study is to propose a hybrid model of AHP and COPRAS-G methods for evaluating the website quality of banks. Furthermore, this study sheds light on understanding weights of evaluation criteria related to quality of bank websites. In this study, the weights of the evaluation criteria are computed by AHP method. Next, COPRAS-G is used to assess the quality levels of the websites and to rank them. A case study of evaluating the quality of bank websites of seventeen banks in Turkey is used to demonstrate the applicability and the effectiveness of this model. Empirical findings show that banks in Turkey utilize the Internet to its full potential to improve their websites. Furthermore, Garanti Bankasi has the best overall performance, followed by TEB, and Ziraat Bankasi. Additionally, the top-five evaluation criteria in order of importance are relevance, richness, understandability, navigability, and response time. Overall, the results show that this model provides a comprehensive and systematic approach that quantitatively measures a website's quality. First published online: 08 May 2014