A Balance Model for Evaluating Subsets of Multiattributed Items

There are numerous situations in management and elsewhere in which an individual decision maker chooses subsets of multiattributed items. The specification of a measure of goodness for selecting subsets may differ from one situation to the next. In this paper, a model is developed for evaluating subsets where the choice criterion is one of balance among the attributes of items in the subset chosen. A method for determining the parameters of the model from a small number of judgments on subsets using linear programming is discussed. The model is applied to the problem of evaluating subsets of television shows and of choosing the most balanced subset of shows. Several extensions of the model and potential applications are also given.