Theoretical justifications for the empirically successful VIKOR approach to multi-criteria decision making

In many practical applications, we have several different criteria for making a decision. In such situations, we need to take all these criteria into account. One of the most widely used approaches for solving such multi-criteria decision making problems was proposed in 1979 by S. Opricovic; it is known as VIKOR. This approach has been widely and successfully used—to the extent that the corresponding 2004 paper became, in 2009, the most cited paper in the field of economics. However, this approach is largely empirical; as a result, it is not clear why this approach has been so successful. In this paper, we provide theoretical justifications for the VIKOR approach and thus explain its empirical success.