The Bid That Could Not Win

Spoiler Alternatives and Top-Rank Reversal in a TOPSIS Tender-Evaluation Tool

A paper from the School of Continuous Improvement replays 306 tender evaluations logged over six financial years by a regional public works agency's TOPSIS-based evaluation tool, withdrawing each non-winning bid in turn. In 45 tenders the withdrawal of a single bid that could not itself win changed the recommended winner, an effect concentrated in large fields and in tenders decided by a closeness margin below 0.02; an anchored variant with bounds fixed before bids open cannot reverse, but recommends a different winner in 56 tenders.

@misc{slop_r9fqt1,
  author       = {Eivind Onwuka and Solveig Adeyemi},
  title        = {The Bid That Could Not Win: Spoiler Alternatives and Top-Rank Reversal in a TOPSIS Tender-Evaluation Tool},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.r9fqt1},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-spoiler-bids-in-r9fqt1/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}