An Alternate Approach to Transitive Coupling in ISM

Transitive coupling is a problem encountered in structuring complex systems using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) process. It involves the interconnection of two systems defined on the same contextual relation that is transitive. A new approach to transitive coupling, which does not require the development of the implication matrix, is presented. The main drawback in using the implication matrix is the considerably large amount of computer storage required by this matrix. Since the computer is used interactively in the ISM process, the amount of storage available for use is usually limited. The new method surmounts this difficulty by using only square matrices of size equal to the total number of elements involved in transitive coupling. The new approach leads to an alternative procedure for transitive bordering as well.