1. Introduction
In view of the merits of the VIKOR model in considering the compromise between group utility maximization and individual regret minimization, in recent years, it has been recognized as a meaningful tool that can be applied to many decision areas. In previous literature, some traditional decision models have been applied to MADM problems, such as the ELECTRE model [
1,
2,
3,
4], the MABAC model [
5,
6,
7], the COPRAS model [
8,
9], the TOPSIS model [
10,
11,
12], The TODIM model [
13,
14,
15], and the GRA model [
16,
17,
18]. Compared with the above methods, the VIKOR model not only considers the objectivity of the decision maker and the complexity of the decision-making environment, but also considers the conflict criteria, so as to obtain more effective and accurate evaluation results. Du and Liu [
19] developed the traditional VIKOR model into intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy environment. Park, et al. [
20] established the IVIF-VIKOR model for MADM problems. Qin, et al. [
21] came up with an extension of VIKOR model on the basis of interval type-2 fuzzy information. Ghadikolaei, et al. [
22] extended the VIKOR model from the real number environment to the hesitating fuzzy linguistic environment, so it can better reflect the fuzziness of decision makers in making decisions in MADM problems. Wang, et al. [
23] tried to expand the VIKOR model to the neutrosophic environment of triangular fuzzy, and applied it to evaluate the potential commercialization of emerging technologies. In order to select industrial robots more effectively, Narayanamoorthy, et al. [
24] used an expanding VIKOR model on the foundation of interval intuitionistic hesitating fuzzy entropy. Later, some scholars Yang, et al. [
25] determined the VIKOR model of language hesitation intuition to deal with the problem of MADM. Wang, et al. [
26] established a VIKOR model based on projection in the context of picture fuzzy environment and used it in the risk assessment of construction projects. Wu, et al. [
27] created the HFLTS-VIKOR model with possibility distributions.
Because of the uncertainty and decision problem of decision support system (DSS), in the practical DSS problem, we often cannot give the accurate evaluation value of the alternative to choose the best one. To overcome this problem, in 1965, the fuzzy set theory defined by Zadeh [
28], initially applied membership functions instead of precise real numbers to describe the estimation results. Atanassov [
29,
30] added another metric that complements non-membership functions. In recent years, the proposed Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) [
31,
32] further expanded the scope of IFS, making the sum of squares of its membership degree and non-membership degree less than or equal to 1. Obviously, PFS is more extensive than IFS and can express more decision-making information, and the decision problems of IFS are special cases of PFS decision problems. In the previous literature, a great deal of research has been done on PFS. For example, Zhang and Xu [
33] presented a combination of PFS and TOPSIS models to deal with MADM problems. In order to better understand the new fuzzy set of PFS, Peng and Yang [
34] primarily put forward the division and subtraction operations of PFS. Reformat and Yager [
35] applied Pythagorean fuzzy information to collaborative recommendation systems. Gou, et al. [
36] studied some precious properties of continuous PFS. Garg [
37] defined some new aggregation operators of PFS on the foundation of Einstein operations. Wu and Wei [
38] came out some Hamacher aggregation operators of PFS to merge fuzzy information. Zeng, et al. [
39] utilized the PFOWAWAD operator to study MADM issues under the context of PFS. Ren, et al. [
40] established the PF-TODIM model. Combining with Pythagorean fuzzy environment, Wei and Lu [
41] proposed a new MSM [
42] operator. Wei [
43] innovated some fuzzy interactive aggregation operators for arithmetic and geometric operations based on PFS. Wei and Lu [
44] proposed some fuzzy power aggregation operators in the Pythagorean theorem. Wei and Wei [
45] created ten cosine similarity measures in the fuzzy context of the Pythagorean theorem. Liang, et al. [
46] studied some Bonferroni mean operators using Pythagorean fuzzy information. Liang, et al. [
47] presented the PFGA operation based on Bonferroni mean aggregation operator. Combining the PFSs [
31,
32] and DHFSs [
48,
49], Wei and Lu [
50] brought in the definition of the DHPFSs and proposed some DHPF-Hamacher aggregation operators. Peng, et al. [
51] created some new PF information measures of MADM problems.
Nevertheless, to describe more decision information, Yager [
52] later defined q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (q-ROFSs), and based on PFS, the condition that the square sum of its membership and non-membership is less than or equal to 1 becomes that the sum of the
power of the two is less than or equal to 1. Obviously, compared to IFS, q-ROFSs is more general, and PFS is a special case. Liu and Wang [
53] put forward the q-ROFWA operator and the q-ROFWG operator. Wei, et al. [
54] defined some q-rung orthopair fuzzy MSM operators including q-ROFMSM operator, q-ROFWMSM operator, q-ROFDMSM operator, q-ROFWDMSM operator. Wei, et al. [
55] gave some q-ROF Heronian mean operators. Yang and Pang [
56] provided some new definition of partitioned Bonferroni mean operators under q-ROFS. Wang, et al. [
57] came up with some q-rung interval-valued fuzzy Hamy mean operators including q-RIVOFHM operator, q-RIVOFWHM operator, q-RIVOFDHM operator and q-RIVOFWDHM operator. Liu and Liu [
58] offered some power Bonferroni mean operators with linguistic q-rung orthopair fuzzy information. Xu, et al. [
59] gave the definition of q-RDHOFS and presented some q-RDHOF Heronian mean operators.
However, to date, it is clear that the VIKOR model with q-RIVOFNs information has not been studied. Therefore, it’s essential to take q-RIVOF-VIKOR model into consideration. The aim of our manuscript is to create an enlarged VIKOR model with the original VIKOR method and q-RIVOF information to settle MADM problems more effectively. Our manuscript is structured as: the definition, score function, accuracy function, operation rules, and some aggregation operators of q-RIVOFSs are briefly given in
Section 2. The calculation process of traditional VIKOR model is briefly depicted in
Section 3. Integrating the original VIKOR model with q-RIVOFNs information, the q-RIVOF-VIKOR technique is built and the calculation processes are simply shown in
Section 4. An example of a vendor selection of healthcare consumer products has been illustrated by this new model and some comparisons between the q-RIVOF-VIKOR model and two q-RIVOFNs aggregation operators—including q-RIVOFWA and q-RIVOFWG operators—are also carried out to further explain merit of the new method in
Section 5. Some conclusions of our manuscript are made in
Section 6.
3. Traditional VIKOR Model
The VIKOR model, which firstly define by Opricovic and Tzeng [
60], is a meaningful tool to investigate MADM problems and has been broadly applied to in the fields of industry, business economy and management in recent years. Assume that there are
alternatives
,
attributes
with weighting vector
which meets the condition of
and
experts with weighting vector
, respectively, satisfies
. Set up the matrix
which is used to evaluate each alternative on each indicator, then the traditional VIKOR model can be presented as below.
Step 1. Establish the decision matrixes based on expert’s decision making results, and fuse all the evaluation information by using some aggregation operators such as WA operator and WG operator to get fused results matrix ;
Step 2. Calculate PIS
and NIS
Step 3. According to the Formula (7) and the attribute weighting vector
, the results of
and
which represents the mean and worst group scores of the alternatives
can be obtained as follows.
where
indicates the weighting vector of attributes which satisfies
and
denotes the q-rung orthopair fuzzy distance measures.
Step 4. Calculate the results of
by following the Equation:
where
where
denotes the coefficient of decision making strategic.
means “the maximum group utility”,
means equality degree and
means the minimum regret degree.
Step 5. Then according to to select the best alternative, obviously, the smaller the , the best alternative is.
4. The VIKOR Model for q-RIVOFNs MAGDM Problems
Assume that there are alternatives , projects with weighting vector which meets the condition of and experts with weighting vector , respectively, the conditions are satisfied . Construct the q-RIVOF evaluation matrix , where indicates the q-RIVOF information of the alternative on account of the indicators by expert . denotes the membership degree of alternatives satisfies the attribute and is the membership degree of alternatives and it indicates that the attribute given by the decision maker is not satisfied, respectively, then, based on q-RIVOFSs and traditional VIKOR model, the q-RIVOF-VIKOR model is established to settle MADM problems more reasonably and effectively, the computing steps are simply depicted as follows.
Step 1. Give the q-RIVOFNs decision making matrixes based on expert’s evaluation results, and fuse all the evaluation information by utilizing q-RIVOFWA or q-RIVOFWG operators to obtain the fused matrix ;
Step 2. Calculate PIS
and NIS
by following the Equation:
Step 3. On the basis of the Equations (17) and (18) and
, the results of
and
which represents the mean and worst group scores of the alternatives
can be obtained as follows.
where
indicates the weighting vector of attributes which satisfies
and
denotes the q-rung orthopair fuzzy distance measures. For the traditional normalized Hamming distance (HD) measures or Euclidean distance measures (ED) are limited to deal with some special situations, thus, we shall use the combination form of three distance measures mentioned as follows.
where
indicates the weighting vector of distance measures
and
Step 4. Calculate the results of
by following the Equation:
where
where
denotes the coefficient of decision making strategic.
means “the maximum group utility”,
means equality degree and
means the minimum regret degree.
Step 5. According to to select the best alternative, obviously, the smaller the , the best alternative is.