Geoffrion’s proper efficiency in linear fractional vector optimization with unbounded constraint sets

Choo (Oper Res 32:216–220, 1984) has proved that any efficient solution of a linear fractional vector optimization problem with a bounded constraint set is properly efficient in the sense of Geoffrion. This paper studies Geoffrion’s properness of the efficient solutions of linear fractional vector optimization problems with unbounded constraint sets. By examples, we show that there exist linear fractional vector optimization problems with the efficient solution set being a proper subset of the unbounded constraint set, which have improperly efficient solutions. Then, we establish verifiable sufficient conditions for an efficient solution of a linear fractional vector optimization to be a Geoffrion properly efficient solution by using the recession cone of the constraint set. For bicriteria problems, it is enough to employ a system of two regularity conditions. If the number of criteria exceeds two, a third regularity condition must be added to the system. The obtained results complement the above-mentioned remarkable theorem of Choo and are analyzed through several interesting examples, including those given by Hoa et al. (J Ind Manag Optim 1:477–486, 2005). © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.