Functional analysis model for selecting leading industry under grey information

Purpose – This paper attempts to select the leading industry concerning uncertain information and grey interval numbers.Design/methodology/approach – This paper combines grey system theory and the input‐output method, which describe uncertain information as interval numbers in the input‐output table. Additionally, in transforming the grey interval numbers to functions with time, the original input‐output table can be considered as a function of functions, in which functional analysis can be employed to determine important parameters. Neumann series is utilized to reverse the Leontief matrix having grey interval numbers. Based on the result, one can calculate the influence and induced coefficients of industries, which can help the decision maker to select the leading industry by comparing the overall effects of industries. A case in Wuxi city is conducted to show the feasibility of the above method.Findings – The results of this paper show that selecting the leading industry is not only based on regional t...