Selection of Brokerage Firms for E-Services Using Fuzzy Decision-Making Process with AHP and MARCOS Approaches

Abstract

Financial e-services revolutionize brokerage firms in today’s world, enabling clients to manage investments, conduct trades, and access real-time market data seamlessly online. With intuitive platforms and robust security measures, investors can monitor portfolios, execute transactions, and stay informed anytime, anywhere, fostering greater autonomy and efficiency in their financial endeavours. The main objectives of this study are to make a comparative analysis among the features of the e-services and find out the ranking of the brokerage firms from best to least good, for better decision making. The development of criteria and sub-criteria for ranking of brokerage firms according to their financial e-services was rooted in a thorough examination of existing literature and the insights of experts. Assigning weights to these criteria and sub-criteria was crucial in the assessment process. There are three decision makers and who have chosen factor and sub-factor ratings according to their choice and the values of the three decision makers have been averaged according to the rules of vague numbers. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to organize the problem hierarchy and establish comparison matrices, enabling subjective evaluations of the pivotal factors. The components weights and sub-factors were then extracted using Fuzzy AHP, then calculation was done for the secondary weights that would help in the ranking and Fuzzy Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (MARCOS), a well-known method for ranking was used. The Fuzzy MARCOS approach indicates that Groww ranks highest, followed by Zerodha and Angel One in second and third place, respectively. According to the Fuzzy VIKOR method, Zerodha and Groww rank as the first- and second-best broking firms, respectively, while Angel One is the third favoured option.