Use of exact penalty functions to determine efficient decisions

Abstract In solution methods for vector optimization problems in general, substitute scalar problems are used for the determination of efficient decisions. These scalar problems often contain parameters (weights or levels for the objective functions), whose values are to be specified by the decision maker. Mainly for interactive solution methods it is important to investigate, which efficient decisions can be determined as solutions of the scalar problems obtained for different choices of these parameters. In connection with a special scalarization, our investigations show that with respect to the vector optimization problem more useful information can be obtained if the solution algorithm for the scalar problems is based on exact penalty functions.