The analytic hierarchy process and analytic network process: an overview of applications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed literature review of the recent applications of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and analytic network process (ANP) group decision‐making methodologies. Design/methodology/approach Among more than 600 related papers published in the period 2005‐2009, a total of 232 application articles published in highly reputed international academic journals were selected and referenced in this paper. Papers were categorized according to application areas, subject titles, publication date, country of origin, academic journals, and integrated methodologies, and are summarized herein by various tables and charts. Findings The findings show that during the years 2005‐2009, use of the AHP technique has continued to increase exponentially. Moreover, it is expected that ANP will gain more popularity in the future, as the benefits of ANP become better understood. Applications of AHP have been dominant in manufacturing, followed by the environmental management and agriculture field, power and energy industry, transportation industry, construction industry, and healthcare. Other remarkable application fields include education, logistics, e‐business, IT, R&D, telecommunication industry, finance and banking, urban management, defense industry and military, government, marketing, tourism and leisure, archaeology, auditing, and the mining industry. Research limitations/implications The study does not consider theoretical based AHP or ANP articles. Also the search excluded conference proceedings, masters' theses, and doctoral dissertations. Practical implications It is hoped that this study will guide practitioners in future work towards advancement of these techniques and will help the managers to select better decisions by making use of these methodologies. Originality/value The paper presents a comprehensive literature review of recent applications of AHP, and also ANP decision tools over the period 2005‐2009. Furthermore, the paper covers fuzzy AHP and fuzzy ANP extensions that are becoming popular methods in some application areas of traditional AHP and ANP.