Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH)

Measuring Attractiveness through a Category Based Evaluation Technique is the goal of the MACBETH approach that was designed by Carlos António Bana e Costa, from the University of Lisbon, in cooperation with Professor Jean-Claude Vansnick and Dr. Jean-Marie De Corte, from the Université de Mons.

MACBETH permits the evaluation of options against multiple criteria. The key distinction between MACBETH and other Multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods is that it needs only qualitative judgements about the difference of attractiveness between two elements at a time, in order to generate numerical scores for the options in each criterion and to weight the criteria. The seven MACBETH semantic categories are: no, very weak, weak, moderate, strong, very strong, and extreme difference of attractiveness.

Uses and applications

MACBETH has been extensively applied in various evaluation contexts, namely:

Agriculture, Manufacturing & Services

  • Finance
  • Information systems
  • Performance measurement
  • Production & service planning
  • Quality management
  • R&D project selection
  • Risk management
  • Strategy & resource allocation
  • Supply chain and logistics

Energy

  • Project prioritization and selection
  • Technology choice

Environment

  • Landscape management
  • Climate change
  • Risk management
  • Sustainable development
  • Water resource management

Medical

  • Medical

Military

  • Military

Public Sector

  • Conflict analysis and management
  • Project prioritization & resource allocation
  • Procurement
  • Project prioritization & resource allocation
  • Strategic planning & development

Others

  • Human resource management
  • Job selection
  • Sports

Decision Suppot Systems

Several DSS implement the MACBETH approach, namely: