Which of these is NOT an example of a decision alternative?

In decision-making scenarios, decision alternatives represent the various courses of action that a decision-maker can choose from in order to achieve certain objectives. These alternatives are tangible options that can be evaluated based on their potential outcomes, costs, benefits, and risks.

Investing in new equipment, increasing marketing efforts, and cutting operational costs are all concrete actions that a business might consider when trying to improve its performance or achieve growth. Each of these alternatives has identifiable costs and anticipated results, making them suitable for analysis in a linear programming context.

On the other hand, explicitly defined probabilities are not decision alternatives, but rather tools used in decision analysis. They provide a way to quantify uncertainties associated with the outcomes of different decision alternatives. Probabilities help in assessing the likelihood of various scenarios happening, but they do not represent a course of action on their own. Instead, they support the evaluation of the alternatives once they have been identified. Therefore, explicitly defined probabilities are not a decision alternative but rather a component of decision analysis methodology.