How Much of a Multicriteria Ranking Is the Data and How Much Is the Arithmetic? A Neutrosophic Stress Test on Stakeholder Perception Data

Authors

• Leili Genoveva Lopezdominguez Rivas, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Sol David Lopezdominguez Rivas, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Dixie Marisol Lopezdominguez Rivas, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Franklin Parrales-Bravo, Universidad Bolivariana del Ecuador, Duran, Ecuador

Abstract

Multicriteria rankings computed on aggregated survey means are routinely used to allocate improvement budgets in higher education, and they are read as if the closeness coefficients were ratios of need. This paper shows, on real data, that a large part of what such a ranking reports is arithmetic rather than evidence. Using doctoral survey data on university-society engagement from two state universities in Guayaquil, Ecuador, we compare a crisp entropy-TOPSIS treatment with a single-valued neutrosophic treatment in which the indeterminacy component is measured from inter-stakeholder dissent. We report that the fine order of the ranking is not identifiable from these data and conclude that the defensible output is a compressed priority band rather than a strict ordering.

Recommended Citation

Lopezdominguez Rivas, Leili Genoveva; Sol David Lopezdominguez Rivas; Dixie Marisol Lopezdominguez Rivas; and Franklin Parrales-Bravo. "How Much of a Multicriteria Ranking Is the Data and How Much Is the Arithmetic? A Neutrosophic Stress Test on Stakeholder Perception Data." Neutrosophic Sets and Systems 101, 1 (2026). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nss_journal/vol101/iss1/16