{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,16]],"date-time":"2026-04-16T18:47:01Z","timestamp":1776365221594,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]],"date-time":"2025-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1755561600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Bialystok University of Technology","award":["WZ\/WI-IIT\/2\/25"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["WZ\/WI-IIT\/2\/25"]}]},{"name":"Ministry of Science and Higher Education","award":["WZ\/WI-IIT\/2\/25"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["WZ\/WI-IIT\/2\/25"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In the era of digital interconnectivity, user-generated reviews on platforms such as TripAdvisor have become a valuable source of social feedback, reflecting collective experiences and perceptions of airline services. However, aggregating such feedback presents several challenges: evaluations are typically expressed using linguistic ordinal scales, are subjective, often incomplete, and influenced by opinion dynamics within social networks. To effectively deal with these complexities and extract meaningful insights, this study proposes an information-driven decision-making framework that integrates Fuzzy Belief Structures with the TOPSIS method. To handle the uncertainty and imprecision of linguistic ratings, user opinions are modeled as fuzzy belief distributions over satisfaction levels. Rankings are then derived using TOPSIS by comparing each airline\u2019s aggregated profile to ideal satisfaction benchmarks via a belief-based distance measure. This framework presents a novel solution for measuring synthetic satisfaction in complex social feedback systems, thereby contributing to the understanding of information flow, belief aggregation, and emergent order in digital opinion networks. The methodology is demonstrated using a real-world dataset of TripAdvisor airline reviews, providing a robust and interpretable benchmark for service quality. Moreover, this study applies Shannon entropy to classify and interpret the consistency of customer satisfaction ratings among Star Alliance airlines. The results confirm the stability of the Airline Satisfaction Index (ASI), with extremely high correlations among the five rankings generated using different fuzzy utility function models. The methodology reveals that airlines such as Singapore Airlines, ANA, EVA Air, and Air New Zealand consistently achieve high satisfaction scores across all fuzzy model configurations, highlighting their strong and stable performance regardless of model variation. These airlines also show both low entropy and high average scores, confirming their consistent excellence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e27080879","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,20]],"date-time":"2025-08-20T07:50:46Z","timestamp":1755676246000},"page":"879","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Airline Ranking Using Social Feedback and Adapted Fuzzy Belief TOPSIS"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2249-7217","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ewa","family":"Roszkowska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Computer Science, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A, 15-351 Bia\u0142ystok, Poland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3041-4063","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marzena","family":"Filipowicz-Chomko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Computer Science, Bialystok University of Technology, Wiejska 45A, 15-351 Bia\u0142ystok, Poland"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3003","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer16070164","article-title":"Consumer Marketing Strategy and E-Commerce in the Last Decade: A Literature Review","volume":"16","author":"Raimundo","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"46","DOI":"10.1016\/j.annals.2015.12.019","article-title":"What Makes an Online Consumer Review Trustworthy?","volume":"58","author":"Filieri","year":"2016","journal-title":"Ann. Tour. Res."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1177\/0047287513481274","article-title":"E-WOM and Accommodation: An Analysis of the Factors That Influence Travelers\u2019 Adoption of Information from Online Reviews","volume":"53","author":"Filieri","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Travel Res."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"42","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2010.12.008","article-title":"Electronic Word-of-Mouth: Challenges and Opportunities","volume":"3","author":"Jalilvand","year":"2011","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"330","DOI":"10.1007\/s13198-024-02618-y","article-title":"Unraveling the Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Consumer Buying Behavior","volume":"16","author":"Katyal","year":"2025","journal-title":"Int. J. Syst. Assur. Eng. Manag."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106527","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2020.106527","article-title":"The Impact of Service Attributes and Category on eWOM Helpfulness: An Investigation of Extremely Negative and Positive Ratings Using Latent Semantic Analytics and Regression Analysis","volume":"114","author":"Filieri","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Hum. Behav."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"229","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2007.04.001","article-title":"Expectations and Perceptions in Airline Services: An Analysis Using Weighted SERVQUAL Scores","volume":"13","author":"Pakdil","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2014.11.005","article-title":"A Cross Cultural Investigation of Airlines Service Quality through Integration of Servqual and the Kano Model","volume":"42","author":"Basfirinci","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1016\/S0261-5177(01)00050-4","article-title":"The Evaluation of Airline Service Quality by Fuzzy MCDM","volume":"23","author":"Tsaur","year":"2002","journal-title":"Tour. Manag."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2017.06.001","article-title":"Evaluating Service Quality of Airline Industry Using Hybrid Best Worst Method and VIKOR","volume":"68","author":"Gupta","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"61","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2017.09.010","article-title":"A Multiple Criteria Approach for Airline Passenger Satisfaction Measurement and Service Quality Improvement","volume":"68","author":"Tsafarakis","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"221","article-title":"A Synthetic Measure for Ranking Overall Satisfaction Based on Multidimensional Ordinal Data. The Case of Airlines on the TripAdvisor Website","volume":"34","author":"Roszkowska","year":"2024","journal-title":"Oper. Res. Decis."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2019.04.001","article-title":"Voice of Airline Passenger: A Text Mining Approach to Understand Customer Satisfaction","volume":"77","author":"Sezgen","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103587","DOI":"10.1016\/j.im.2021.103587","article-title":"Predicting Aspect-Based Sentiment Using Deep Learning and Information Visualization: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Airline Industry","volume":"59","author":"Chang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Inf. Manag."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tourman.2003.08.019","article-title":"The US Airlines Relative Positioning Based on Attributes of Service Quality","volume":"26","author":"Gursoy","year":"2005","journal-title":"Tour. Manag."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102466","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhm.2020.102466","article-title":"Evaluating Domestic Bias on Airline Passengers\u2019 Ratings: The Moderating Effect of Cultural Value Orientation","volume":"87","author":"Stamolampros","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Hosp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"359","DOI":"10.1007\/s11633-010-0515-7","article-title":"TOPSIS with Belief Structure for Group Belief Multiple Criteria Decision Making","volume":"7","author":"Jiang","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Autom. Comput."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roszkowska, E. (2025). Improving Survey Data Interpretation: A Novel Approach to Analyze Single-Item Ordinal Responses with Non-Response Categories. Information, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/info16070546"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9400","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2011.01.128","article-title":"TOPSIS with Fuzzy Belief Structure for Group Belief Multiple Criteria Decision Making","volume":"38","author":"Jiang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x","article-title":"A Mathematical Theory of Communication","volume":"27","author":"Shannon","year":"1948","journal-title":"Bell Syst. Tech. J."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"264","DOI":"10.3390\/encyclopedia2010018","article-title":"Entropy","volume":"2","author":"Tsallis","year":"2022","journal-title":"Encyclopedia"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jakimowicz, A. (2020). The Role of Entropy in the Development of Economics. Entropy, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/e22040452"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Olbry\u015b, J. (2022). Entropy-Based Applications in Economics, Finance, and Management, MDPI AG.","DOI":"10.3390\/books978-3-0365-5806-6"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4909","DOI":"10.3390\/e15114909","article-title":"Applications of Entropy in Finance: A Review","volume":"15","author":"Zhou","year":"2013","journal-title":"Entropy"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sep\u00falveda-Fontaine, S.A., and Amig\u00f3, J.M. (2024). Applications of Entropy in Data Analysis and Machine Learning: A Review. Entropy, 26.","DOI":"10.20944\/preprints202410.0213.v1"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Kumar, N., Dixit, A., and Vijay, V. (2025). Entropy Measures and Their Applications: A Comprehensive Review. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"350","DOI":"10.1108\/09604520910955348","article-title":"Service Quality, Satisfaction, and Behavioural Intentions: A Study of Low-Cost Airline Carriers in Thailand","volume":"19","author":"Saha","year":"2009","journal-title":"Manag. Serv. Qual. Int. J."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101760","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jairtraman.2019.101760","article-title":"Text Mining Approach to Explore Dimensions of Airline Customer Satisfaction Using Online Customer Reviews","volume":"83","author":"Lucini","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Air Transp. Manag."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbusres.2020.08.025","article-title":"Who Will Be Your next Customer: A Machine Learning Approach to Customer Return Visits in Airline Services","volume":"121","author":"Hwang","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Bus. Res."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"472","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2018.09.037","article-title":"Measuring Service Quality from Unstructured Data: A Topic Modeling Application on Airline Passengers\u2019 Online Reviews","volume":"116","author":"Korfiatis","year":"2019","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kwon, H.-J., Ban, H.-J., Jun, J.-K., and Kim, H.-S. (2021). Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis of Online Review for Airlines. Information, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/info12020078"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ban, H.-J., and Kim, H.-S. (2019). Understanding Customer Experience and Satisfaction through Airline Passengers\u2019 Online Review. Sustainability, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/su11154066"},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2025, July 12). What Is Star Alliance. Available online: https:\/\/www.staralliance.com\/en\/about."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"(2025, July 12). Singapore Airlines Flights and Reviews (with Photos)\u2014Tripadvisor. Available online: https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Airline_Review-d8729151-Reviews-Singapore-Airlines."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"(2025, July 12). Browse All Airlines and Airline Reviews\u2014Tripadvisor. Available online: https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Airlines."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejor.2004.09.017","article-title":"The Evidential Reasoning Approach for MADA under Both Probabilistic and Fuzzy Uncertainties","volume":"171","author":"Yang","year":"2006","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"289","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMCA.2002.802746","article-title":"On the Evidential Reasoning Algorithm for Multiple Attribute Decision Analysis under Uncertainty","volume":"32","author":"Yang","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern.\u2014Part A Syst. Hum."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1458","DOI":"10.1109\/21.310529","article-title":"A General Multi-Level Evaluation Process for Hybrid MADM with Uncertainty","volume":"24","author":"Yang","year":"1994","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"357","DOI":"10.1007\/s00170-014-6466-3","article-title":"A New FMEA Method by Integrating Fuzzy Belief Structure and TOPSIS to Improve Risk Evaluation Process","volume":"77","author":"Vahdani","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_40","first-page":"171","article-title":"A TOPSIS, VIKOR and DEA Integrated Evaluation Method with Belief Structure under Uncertainty to Rank Alternatives","volume":"11","author":"Amini","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Oper. Manag."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.3846\/16484142.2016.1133454","article-title":"Fuzzy Belief Structure Based Vikor Method: An Application for Ranking Delay Causes of Tehran Metro System by FMEA Criteria","volume":"31","author":"Hajiagha","year":"2016","journal-title":"Transport"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roszkowska, E., and Wachowicz, T. (2024). Smart Cities and Resident Well-Being: Using the BTOPSIS Method to Assess Citizen Life Satisfaction in European Cities. Appl. Sci., 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/app142311051"},{"key":"ref_43","first-page":"382","article-title":"Computing with Words in Decision Support Systems: An Overview on Models and Applications","volume":"3","author":"Martinez","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Intell. Syst."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"337","DOI":"10.1007\/s10700-009-9065-2","article-title":"Computing with Words in Decision Making: Foundations, Trends and Prospects","volume":"8","author":"Herrera","year":"2009","journal-title":"Fuzzy Optim. Decis. Mak."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"354","DOI":"10.1109\/TFUZZ.2007.896353","article-title":"A Fuzzy Linguistic Methodology to Deal with Unbalanced Linguistic Term Sets","volume":"16","author":"Herrera","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"191","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMC.2020.3043016","article-title":"Revisiting Fuzzy and Linguistic Decision Making: Scenarios and Challenges for Making Wiser Decisions in a Better Way","volume":"51","author":"Palomares","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xu, Z. (2012). Linguistic Decision Making: Theory and Methods, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-29440-2"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"687","DOI":"10.1142\/S0218488502001739","article-title":"Facility Location Selection Using Fuzzy Topsis under Group Decisions","volume":"10","author":"Chu","year":"2002","journal-title":"Int. J. Uncertain. Fuzziness Knowl.-Based Syst."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6985","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2010.12.016","article-title":"A New Linguistic MCDM Method Based on Multiple-Criterion Data Fusion","volume":"38","author":"Deng","year":"2011","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ziemba, P. (2021). Multi-Criteria Fuzzy Evaluation of the Planned Offshore Wind Farm Investments in Poland. Energies, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/en14040978"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"289","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpe.2005.03.009","article-title":"A Fuzzy Approach for Supplier Evaluation and Selection in Supply Chain Management","volume":"102","author":"Chen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int. J. Prod. Econ."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103936","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ipm.2024.103936","article-title":"Supporting Group Cruise Decisions with Online Collective Wisdom: An Integrated Approach Combining Review Helpfulness Analysis and Consensus in Social Networks","volume":"62","author":"Ji","year":"2025","journal-title":"Inf. Process. Manag."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103107","DOI":"10.1016\/j.inffus.2025.103107","article-title":"Social Network Group Decision Making: Characterization, Taxonomy, Challenges and Future Directions from an AI and LLMs Perspective","volume":"120","author":"Cao","year":"2025","journal-title":"Inf. Fusion"}],"container-title":["Entropy"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/27\/8\/879\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T18:31:19Z","timestamp":1760034679000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/27\/8\/879"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]]},"references-count":53,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8]]}},"alternative-id":["e27080879"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/e27080879","relation":{},"ISSN":["1099-4300"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1099-4300","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]]}}}