Hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods of evaluating alternatives: application in financial calculations

The basis of managerial decision-making is the identification of alternatives, their evaluation and the choice of the best alternative as a solution to the problem. The evaluation carried out by formalized methods has become quantitatively widespread in economic problems, especially in the field of finance, where the monetary meter dominates and the consequences of management decisions are financial in nature. The purpose of the work was to substantiate and describe approaches to evaluating possible options for managerial solutions to the problem. As a basis for the classification of such approaches, the criterion of the ordering of alternatives was chosen, according to which one-stage (non-hierarchical) and multi-stage (hierarchical) approaches to the evaluation of solutions were identified. The classification base is justified by the methods of choosing solutions used by managers of different levels of management - single-level and multi-level. The paper considers the features of each of these two proposed approaches to evaluation (up to the level of methods), and also describes the specifics of the application of each method, including for the monetary meter of the final evaluation of alternatives. Then the article provides model examples of each of the two approaches (based on credit scoring), as well as recommendations on the organization of these evaluation procedures. In general, the methods are universal for different sectors of the economy.