UTA methodsUTA methods Κεφάλαιο σε Βιβλίο Book Chapter 2018-11-012016enUTA methods refer to the philosophy of assessing a set of value or utility functions, assuming the axiomatic basis of MAUT and adopting the preference disaggregation principle. UTA methodology uses linear programming techniques in order to optimally infer additive value/utility functions, so that these functions are as consistent as possible with the global decision-maker’s preferences (inference principle). The main objective of this chapter is to analytically present the UTA method and its variants and to summarize the progress made in this field. The historical background and the philosophy of the aggregation-disaggregation approach are firstly given. The detailed presentation of the basic UTA algorithm is presented, including discussion on the stability and sensitivity analyses. Several variants of the UTA method, which incorporate different forms of optimality criteria, are also discussed. The implementation of the UTA methods is illustrated by a general overview of UTA-based DSSs, as well as real-world decision-making applications. Finally, several potential future research developments are discussed.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/International Series in Operations Research & Management ScienceMultiple Criteria Decision Analysis Siskos, Yannis Grigoroudis Evaggelos Γρηγορουδης Ευαγγελος Matsatsinis Nikolaos Ματσατσινης Νικολαος Springer Verlag Additive utility Multicriteria analysis Ordinal regression Preference disaggregation UTA methods