On Attribute Weighting in Value Trees

Preface The work for this thesis has been carried out at Systems Analysis Laboratory at Helsinki University of Technology. I want to express my warmest thanks to my thesis supervisor, professor Raimo P. Hämäläinen, for his dynamic way to supervise me. I learned a lot during these years. It was a great pleasure to collaborate with Dr. Ahti Salo and Dr. Hans C. Vrolijk. Ahti provided me a good start in this work by telling me what I should read and learn. With Hans it was fun to study mysteries of human behavior. I am greatly indebted to preliminary examinators, professor Jyrki Wallenius and professor Valerie Belton, for their efforts to go through my thesis and for their invaluable comments. Jyrki together with professor Pekka Korhonen have kindly encouraged me to follow the research activities at Helsinki School of Economics. Our inter-university graduate school led by Raimo, Pekka, and Jyrki has provided me countless opportunities for interesting discussions with people such as Dr. Johanna Bragge and Ms. Tarja Joro. Systems Analysis Laboratory is a great place to study and work. All the courses there with their excellent teachers, such as Dr. Harri Ehtamo, Dr. Pertti Laininen, and Dr. Jukka Ruusunen, gave me a set of tools and a way to think that will follow me the rest of my life. All the people who worked there during these years created an atmosphere where it was fun to work and air was full of brilliant thoughts. As well as inspired by the colleagues, I was inspired by students who I had a privilege to teach, discuss with, and who helped me in my work. I feel that often I learned more from their questions compared to what they learned from my answers. The list of people who have contributed to this thesis would be too long to be presented here. I want to express my deepest gratitude to all friends and family who have supported me during these years. It is a privilege to have friends like Eetu, Minna, Pauli, and Tuula. Without them I would have completed the thesis but I would have been very unhappy person. My mother has taught me to appreciate knowledge in all forms and I greatly appreciate this lesson. Ritva and Heikki have kindly supported me through my study years in all possible ways and they gave me their most precious property, their son. Kari …