Title: Analytic network process - an overview of applications in research and practice

Authors: Judith Hülle; Ralf Kaspar; Klaus Möller

Addresses: Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, Göttingen D-37073, Germany ' University of Osnabrück, Rolandstraße 8, Osnabrück D-49069, Germany ' Institute of Accounting, Control and Auditing, University of St. Gallen, Rosenbergstrasse 52, St. Gallen CH-9000, Switzerland; CEPRA, Center for Performance Research and Analytics, Augsburg, Germany

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of analytic network process (ANP)'s applications in research and practice. We conducted an extensive bibliometric analysis covering all available ANP publications in two prominent databases. A total of 283 application papers are referred in this paper. The publications are categorised according to their overall themes, application areas, publication dates, countries of origin and journals. Various tables and charts summarise these publications and their categories. The results indicate that the ANP is predominantly used for selection and evaluation. The majority of publications deal with the ANP as a decision-making tool in the areas of politics, engineering and manufacturing. More specifically, most of the publications can be found in a combination of politics and selection, engineering and evaluation as well as manufacturing and evaluation topic. This paper is an informative summary of the ANP's applications for researchers and practitioners to support their future work by making use of the ANP.

Keywords: ANP; analytical network process; AHP; analytical hierarchy process; bibliometric study; MCDM; multicriteria decision making; application overview; operational research; literature review; politics; engineering; manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2013.051788

International Journal of Operational Research, 2013 Vol.16 No.2, pp.172 - 213

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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