Abstract
Quantitative and qualitative fuzzy information measures have been proposed to solve multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problems with interval–valued hesitant fuzzy information from different points. We analyse the existing fuzzy information measures of the interval-valued hesitant fuzzy sets (IVHFSs) in detail and classify them into two categories. One is based on the closeness of the data, such as the distance, and the other is based on the linear relationship or variation tendency, such as the correlation coefficient. These two kinds of information measures are actually partial measures which pay attention to only one factor of the data. Therefore, we construct a novel synthetic grey relational degree by considering both the closeness and the variation tendency factors of the data to improve the existing information measures and enhance the grey relational analysis (GRA) theory for IVHFSs. However, the notion of the synthetic grey relational degree is not only restricted to the IVHFSs but can be extended to other sets. Furthermore, we employ two practical MADM examples about emergency management evaluation and pattern recognition to validate and compare the proposed synthetic grey relational degree with other information measures, which demonstrate its superiorities in discrimination and accuracy.