Integrated Objective-based multiple stakeholder decision making: Application to Singapore Public Bus Provision Policy

Liu Mengyi

Abstract

Selection of public bus provision policy has always been one of the biggest challenges for policy makers internationally, a number of strategies have been proposed to evaluate and select existing public bus provision models. However, there is lack of quantitative and structural approach to evaluate such policies and there is also a tendency to neglect the opinions of multiple stakeholders during decision-making process.

This thesis proposes an objective-based multiple-stakeholder decision-making approach that takes into consideration opinions from multiple stakeholders. First of all, this approach assesses various alternatives from primary stakeholder’s perspective using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) procedure. Each alternative is evaluated based on primary stakeholder objectives to obtain preference weights. Later on, secondary stakeholder’s viewpoints will be evaluated. Secondary stakeholders’ assessment criteria are structurally devised based on corporate vision and strategic using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) framework. Existing alternatives will then be examined by the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) with respect to new evaluation criteria to obtain a different set of preference weights.

Two different sets of preference weights will be integrated into a two-dimensional (2-D) plot. Alternative that dominates in both dimensions is the dominating alternative. In the case where there is no dominating alternative, trade-offs between alternatives will be studied carefully from the 2-D plot to generate important managerial insights.

By introducing the integration of multiple stakeholders’ preference weights, the thesis aims to provide a more comprehensive and structural approach in providing decision support for decision makers. At the end of the day, this thesis aims to enhance decision-making in the Singapore public bus provision policy selection process. In this paper, the author did a comprehensive research on Singapore public bus provision system with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and bus operators being the two major groups of stakeholders. LTA Public bus provision policy alternatives and evaluation criteria are generated based on a comprehensive review on existing public bus provision models worldwide. Singapore government’s policy focus and transport priority are extensively studied to improve the accuracy of weight assignments during the policy evaluation process. In addition, the application of BSC framework to systematically translate bus operators’ strategic vision into assessment criteria also provides a thorough examination on the operators’ policy preferences.

By applying the integrated methodology to the Singapore public bus provision system, integrated result obtained is able to provide significant managerial insights for the LTA to select the most optimal public bus policy in the Singapore context.