Decisional Processes Project

Objective of the study

The purpose of this study was to provide an insight in the most important factors that
people take into consideration when choosing a particular car brand over another one. The survey
provides an explanation of how certain characteristics of a car can influence a customers final
decision. These particular criteria have been taken into consideration by researching upon the
most influential factors that usually affects the buying decision. The objective of the study is to
identify the most powerful criteria that people in general take into account when taking a
decision.
I have considered that the goal of a person when buying a car is to get the best deal taking
into account all the criteria for the sum of money he has to invest.
In order to conduct this survey and get to a result I have considered the following criteria:
C1: Price - Total buying price of the car (taxes included)
C2: Design - Interior & Exterior design features (variety of colors, extras and accessories
available)
C3: Maintenance Cost - Cost of spare parts, fuel consumption, cost of revisions.
These criteria are characteristics of the following car brand alternatives, noted as A1, A2,
A3 and A4 having the following values:
A1: VW
A2: Ford
A3: Opel
A4: Kia
On a linguistic scale, from equally important to extremely more important, the
respondents had to answer how much they preferred the alternative they chose over the other
one. These questions lead to the calculus of a vector of priorities using the Saaty numerical scale
and the Ma-Zheng scale, among the criterions considered, showing not only the order of
preferences but also the intensity of preferences. This method had the purpose of removing
subjectivity across different decision makers, making the answers much more reliable.

After presented the problem in question, the criterions and the alternatives, the
hierarchy scheme could be made, as seen below:
Getting the best deal

Price

Design

VW

Maintenance Cost

FORD

OPEL

KIA

After the hierarchy was done, the questionnaire was devised. A sample from the
questionnaire can be see bellow and a short guide on how it should have been answered to:
I.
1.

Comparison of the Criteria in regard of getting the best price . Please Circle the answer.
Compare criteria PRICE and DESIGN:
a. Which of the two do you consider to be more important?
Price
Design
b. How much more important is the previously chosen Criteria with regard to the other criteria?

Equally
important

Weakly
more
important

Moderately
more
important

Moderately
plus more
important

Strongly
more
important

Strongly
plus more
important

Demonstratedly
more important

Very, very
strongly
more
important

Extremely
more
important

After analyzing the alternatives, the respondent should choose one taking into consideration
the criteria involved and then fill in with an X the box best representing how much that chosen
alternative was more important than the other one.
The questionnaire was filled in by two respondents. Before introducing the values to the
Gauss program the corresponding matrices were made both in Saaty scale and Ma-Zheng scale.
3

The resulting matrices are the following:

Saaty Scale
Respondent 1

DM_C =

1
9 2
1/9 1 8
1/2 1/ 8 1

DM_C2=

1
8 1/ 2 1/ 5
1/8 1
5
2
2 1/5 1 1/ 5
5 1/ 2 5
1

DM_C1=

DM_C3=

1
5
8
1/5 1
2
1/8 1/2 1
1/9 1/5 1/2

1
8
9
1/8 1
8
1/9 1/ 8 1
1/9 1/ 2 1/ 5

9
2
5
1

9
5
2
1

Respondent 2

DM_C_1=

1 1/2 4
2
1 1
1/4 1 1

DM_C2_1=

1 1/ 6 1/ 5
6 1
6
5 1/ 6 1
1 1/ 7 1 / 4

DM_C_2=

1
7
4
1

DM_C3_1=

1 1/6 1/5
6
1
6
1 1/6 1
1/8 1/4 1/2

1
1/3
5
7

3 1/ 5 1/7
1 1/ 6 1/3
6 1
6
3 1/ 6 1

1
7
2
1

Ma-Zheng scale
Respondent 1

DM_C =

DM_C2 =

1
9 9/8
1/9 1 9 /2
8 /9 2/9 1

DM_C1 =

1 9 /2 8 /9 5 /9
2/9 1 9 /5 9 /8
9 /8 5 /9 1 5 /9
9 /5 8 /9 9 /5 1

DM_C3

1 9 /5 9 /2 9
5/ 9 1 9/ 8 9 /5
2/ 9 8/ 9 1 9/ 8
1/ 9 5/ 9 8/ 9 1

1 9 /2 9
9
2 /9 1 9 /2 9 /8
1 /9 2/9 1 5/9
1 /9 8 /9 9 /5 1

Respondent 2

DM_C_1 =

DM_C2_1 =

1 8 /9 9 /6
9 /8 1
1
6 /9 1
1

DM_C1_1 =

1 4 /9 5/9 1
9 /4 1 9/4 9 /3
9/5 4 /9 1 9 /6
1 3 /9 6/9 1

1 4 / 9 1 9/ 2
9 / 4 1 9/ 4 9 / 6
1 4 /9 1 9/8
2/ 9 6 / 9 8/ 9 1

DM_C3_1 =

1 9/7 5 /9 3/ 9
7 /9 1 4 /9 7/ 9
9 /5 9 /4 1 9/ 4
9 /3 9/7 4 /9 1

The next step was to introduce the values from the matrices, in a decimal format, into the
Gauss program to get to the final priority vector for both scales. Here you can see the results:
The program produced the following priority vector in the Saaty scale:

Considering the results of the survey processed into the data shown above we can
draw some conclusions. The data shows that the car brand VW and Ford are the best alternatives
when it comes to purchasing a new car, they have scored the highest values: 0.36657350 and
0.34336341 respectively. The third place would be attributed to the Opel car brand with the
associated priority vector of 0.17151844 and the least important alternative would be the Kia car
brand with 0.11854465.

The

priority

vector

in

Ma-Zheng

scale

is:

In the case of Ma-Zheng scale, the interpretation can be formulated as follows: in the
view of the respondents who answered the survey, the predominant alternative that the
respondents feel will provide the best alternative as well as in the Saaty case, is the VW car
brand corresponding to A1, having the highest value of 0.33358100. The second place is held
again by the Ford brand corresponding to A2 with the value of 0.27878899. The alternative that
came in the third place (A4) has a very close value to the fourth placed alternative, but still with
a little difference in the decimals, in the associated vector of priorities of 0.19536135. The fourth
one would be corresponding to A3 Opel Brand- having the value of 0.19226865.
In conclusion, taking into consideration all the alternatives and the interpretation of their
meanings, we could deduce that the best alternative in the decision making process of purchasing
a new car would be the acquisition of a VW car and the least desired one would be the Kia
model.