Methodology Literature Review

This research methodology would use the following methods such as Survey, and AHP approach for the development of analysis about the effect and cause produce by the Cross Strait Air Transportation Policy on Taiwanese aviation industries. Following, brief description and use of each method that would be used in this research:

2.5.1. Survey

The survey is a non-experimental and descriptive research technique. It is useful when a researcher wants to collect data on a particular situation or phenomenon that cannot be directly observed.²⁶ Survey collect quantitative information about the population is sampling.

The author Basha and Harter (1980) state that "a population is any set of persons or objects that possesses at least one common characteristic." The purpose of a survey is to gather data on the sampling population attitudes, impressions, opinion, satisfaction level, and others.²⁷ As survey research is always based on a sample of the population, and the success of the research is dependent on the representativeness of the population of concern.

Typically, survey data are collected through the use of questionnaires, while sometimes researchers directly interview their target population. Surveys can use qualitative or quantitative measures. This mean survey can use ask open-ended questions or use forced-choice questions.

Before designing questionnaire, there are some steps to follow such as:

1. Pick up carefully the research criteria 2. Select sample stakeholder targeting 3. Decide on survey response format

Busha and Harter suggest the use an attractive questionnaire format that conveys a professional image.

4. Design the survey question

Some authors recommend for the designer of survey questionnaire the following suggestion such as: Babbie suggestions are: to make items clear, make sure the question asks only one clear thing, don't ask questions that the respondent won't accurately be able to answer and any questions should be relevant

26 http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/survey.html

27 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/survey.html

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Busha and Harter recommended: to avoid slang, jargon, and technical terms, make sequence questions from the general to the specific and to make the questions as easy to answer as possible.

5. Choice the mode of data collection

As many other research method, survey also has their benefit and weakness in their procedure and developing step. A continuation, a list of advantage and disadvantage that could be found in doing survey is listed below.

Advantage of using survey method:

1. Surveys are flexible in the sense that a wide range of information can be collected.

2. They can be administered from remote locations using mail, email or telephone.

3. Consequently, very large samples are feasible, making the results statistically significant even when analyzing multiple variables.

4. Many questions can be asked about a given topic giving considerable flexibility to the analysis.

5. Only questions of interest to the researcher are asked, recorded, codified, and analyzed.

Disadvantage of using survey method:

1. Question answer-choices could lead to vague data sets

2. Those with closed ended questions may have low validity when researching affective variables.

3. Stakeholder may not be motivated to give accurate answer

2.5.2. Analytic Hierarchy Process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process was developed at the Wharton School of Business by Dr. Thomas Saaty in 1970s. Since then, AHP has been successfully used in thousands of organizations around the world. Many years of deployments has shown the effectiveness of AHP in business and governmental decision making.

The AHP is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions.

The AHP helps decision makers discover the choice that best suits their goal. It has particular application in group decision making, and is used in fields such as government, business, industry, healthcare, and education.

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Analytic hierarchy process is a methodological approach which implies structuring criteria of multiple options into a system hierarchy, including relative values of all criteria, comparing alternatives for each particular criterion and defining average importance of alternatives.²⁸ It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions.

Figure 27. A simple AHP structure

Source: Wikipedia (2012)

AHP lets you organize criteria in the form of hierarchy - from the most general to the specific ones. This allows you to better organize the factors influencing the decision. Other multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods typically are based on the list of criteria.The main purpose of the Analytic Hierarchy Process is to obtain the weight of the criteria and evaluate the set of alternative that best fix the problem. An interesting feature of this technique is that it allows users to assess the relative weight of multiple criteria or multiple options against given criteria (Nadja Kasperczyk and Karlheinz Knickel).

The Analytic Hierarchy Process has some step to follow such as descriptive below:

1. To structure the hierarchy process to generate the criteria 2. To do the pair comparison between criteria

3. To compute the weights

28 Ivan Pogarcic, Miro Francic, Vlatka Davidovic, Application of the AHP method in Traffic Planning, 2008.

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5. Sensitivity Analysis

Firstly, users of the AHP decompose their decision problem into a hierarchy of more easily comprehended sub-problems, each of which can be analyzed independently.

Then, when the hierarchy is built, the users can systematically assess its elements by comparing them to one another two at a time, with respect to their impact on an element above them in the hierarchy.

Following, the AHP converts those evaluations to numerical values that can be processed and compared over the entire range of the problem. A numerical weight or priority is derived for each element of the hierarchy, allowing diverse and often incommensurable elements to be compared to one another in a rational and consistent way. AHP allows you to enter information about your preferences in a very intuitive way. It involves comparing elements in pairs: identifying the dominant one and determining the degree of dominance in the nine point scale (other MCDM methods often require support from the specialized decision analyst).

Table 29. AHP verbal scale-Saaty scale Intensity of

importance Definition Explanation

1 Equal importance Two elements contribute equally to the objective

3 Weak importance Experience and judgment slightly favor one element over another

5 Essential

importance

Experience and judgment strongly favor one element over another

7 Very importance One element is favored very strongly over another; its dominance is demonstrated in practice

9 Absolute

importance Extreme importance

Intensities of 2, 4, 6, and 8 can be used to express intermediate values.

Source: Adapted from Saaty

In the final step of the process, numerical priorities are calculated for each of the decision alternatives. These numbers represent the alternatives' relative ability to achieve the decision goal, so they allow a straightforward consideration of the various courses of action.

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There are many researchers that have been subject about some weakness and strengthen of the AHP method. Below, some researcher opinion about this technique:

Advantage of AHP model:

1. AHP has flexibility, intuitive appeal to the decision makers and its ability to check inconsistencies (Ramanathan 2001).

2. Users can find the pairwise comparison form of data input straightforward and convenient.

3. AHP method can decomposes a decision problem into its constituent parts and builds hierarchies of criteria (Macharis et al. 2004).

4. AHP reduces bias in decision making.

5. The AHP method supports group decision−making through consensus by calculating the geometric mean of the individual pairwise comparisons (Zahir 1999).

Disadvantage of AHP model:

1. Ranking irregularities when some variants are used.

2. Detailed and important information can be lost by such aggregation.

3. Artificial limitation of the use of the 9 point scale.

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