A combined approach using AHP and DEMATEL for evaluating success factors in implementation of green supply chain management in Indian manufacturing industries

Decision making in human resource management: a systematic review of the applications of analytic hierarchy process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP), and Analytic Network Process (ANP) methods are widely used for decision-making across various fields, and have shown success in numerous applications within human resource management (HRM). The purpose of this study is to present a systematic literature review on the applications of AHP, FAHP, and ANP in human resource management. The search process encompassed two main online databases, Scopus and Web of Science. This research covers a total of 180 application papers. To help readers extract quick and meaningful information, references are summarized in tabular format. The results showed that these methods have been applied in various domains of HRM such as performance management and appraisal, selecting human resources, talent attraction and retention, intellectual capital, workplace safety, reward management, e-HRM, green HRM, etc. To the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive research review has yet been conducted on the applications of AHP in HRM.

Exploring factors of the sustainable supply chain in the post-COVID-19 pandemic: SWARA approach

The present research aimed to provide a mechanism for enhancing sustainable supply chain survivability (SSCS) during and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Logistical and manufacturing operations have been restricted due to the severe lockdown, which significantly impacts the demand and supply of various items. COVID-19 has a massive effect on a multitude of units of various sectors. This research emphasized the important elements that must be considered to adapt the sustainable supply chain (SSC) practices. As a result, businesses are now attempting to improve the system for SSC. The stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) approach is used in this research to classify dynamic aspects for improving SSC survival in an epidemic condition. The results reveal that the viability of the supply chain network is the essential criteria for managing the relationships of suppliers and buyers and maximizing SSCS during and after COVID-19. This research will help businesses, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to concentrate on the described factors to achieve a brighter environment.

Blockchain technology for viable circular digital supplychains: an integrated approach for evaluating the implementation barriers

Purpose

Blockchain technology (BT) is creating a new standard for all business operations. It can assist businesses in handling the complexity of circular digital supply chain (DCM) management. Despite this optimistic view, several barriers hinder its implementation. In this regard, this study contributes to Industry 4.0, circular economy (CE), the viability with a critical emphasis on its potential ramifications and influence on the future agenda while using BT technology in the supply chain (SC). In addition, the research reduces the knowledge gap by investigating and ranking the key barriers to the deployment of BT in viable circular digital supply chains (VCDSCs) and studies their interdependencies and causal relationships. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The barriers to BT adoption in the VCDSC are identified through a thorough literature review and considering viability performance. These barriers are then classified using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is then employed to examine the cause/effect, correlation, and connection among the 14 barriers selected barriers from the AHP classification to estimate each barrier's overall degree of impact over the others.

Findings

This paper identifies and analyzes the BT adoption barriers in the VCDSC as well as examines how the key barriers interact. As a result, according to the AHP/DEMATEL method, the most prominent influencing barriers to the BT implementation in the VCDSC are “Data transparency,” “Market competition,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Lack of standardization,” “Complex protocol,” “Lack of industry involvement,” “Financial constraints,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Data transparency” and “Interoperability.” The outcomes offer a potential path for identifying important barriers as well as insight into the implementation of BT in the SC while integrating different capabilities such as viability, sustainability and CE principles.

Practical implications

Managers and researchers will benefit from this research by gaining an understanding of the challenges that must be prioritized and examined for BT to be implemented successfully in the VCDSC.

Originality/value

The use and implementation of blockchain-enabled VCDSC continue to face challenges despite an increase in relevant practice and research. Despite the benefits of BT, managers struggle to apply such technology in the context of their company. In this respect, this paper uses an integrated AHP–DEMATEL for categorizing the BT barriers as well as the interrelationship between them. In this respect, this paper presents the BT barriers studied are those related to the use of BT in the SC while integrating different paradigms such as viability, digitalization and CE. While many studies look at the barriers to BT adoption; none of them has ever included the viable capability, which means the ability to “react agilely to positive changes, be resilient to absorb negative events and re-cover after disruptions and survive at long-term periods.” The study concludes with insightful comments based on the findings and suggestions for eradicating those obstacles and their associated effects.

Social sustainable supply chain performance assessment using hybrid fuzzy-AHP-DEMATEL-VIKOR: a case study in manufacturing enterprises

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has received extensive attention by academia and industries recently. However, there are increasing yet still scarce studies measuring the social sustainability performance of supply chain and discussing the interrelationship between social and economic sustainability. Further, the measurement does not fully utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) attributing to the lack of understanding of precise quantitative gauge of the supply chain social sustainable performance. To bridge this gap, this study analyses the social and economic sustainability performance in terms of demand planning, innovation, manufacturing, finance, sales and customer relationship, distribution and delivery and compliance. A framework is proposed to locate key metrics to evaluate the social sustainable supply chain (SSC) performance. A hybrid fuzzy-AHP-DEMATEL-VIKOR method is designed to investigate the social sustainability of supply chain. Data analysis and a case study are given to validate and support the feasibility and potency of the proposed approach. The robustness of our proposed model is executed via sensitivity analysis. From the proposed framework, demand planning and distribution and delivery are found to be the most critical criteria in economic and social dimension, respectively.

A Novel Integrating Data Envelopment Analysis and Spherical Fuzzy MCDM Approach for Sustainable Supplier Selection in Steel Industry

Supply chain sustainability, which takes environmental, economic, and social factors into account, was recently recognized as a critical component of the supply chain (SC) management evaluation process and known as a multi-criteria decision-making problem (MCDM) that is heavily influenced by the decision-makers. While some criteria can be analyzed numerically, a large number of qualitative criteria require expert review in linguistic terms. This study proposes an integration of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), spherical fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (SF-AHP), and spherical fuzzy weighted aggregated sum product assessment (SF-WASPAS) to identify a sustainable supplier for the steel manufacturing industry in Vietnam. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative factors are considered through a comprehensive literature review and expert interviews. The first step employs DEA to validate high-efficiency suppliers based on a variety of quantifiable criteria. The second step evaluates these suppliers further on qualitative criteria, such as economic, environmental, and social factors. The SF-AHP was applied to obtain the criteria’s significance, whereas the SF-WASPAS was adopted to identify sustainable suppliers. The sensitivity analysis and comparative results demonstrate that the decision framework is feasible and robust. The findings of this study can assist steel industry executives in resolving the macrolevel supplier selection problem. Moreover, the proposed method can assist managers in selecting and evaluating suppliers more successfully in other industries.

An integrated DEMATEL-ANP approach for identification and prioritization of factors affecting falls from height accidents in construction industry

BACKGROUND

Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique, integrated with the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is used for determination and prioritization of cause-effect relationships among factors affecting construction falls.

METHODS

Considering the 135 fall accidents collected between 2013 and 2018 from fifteen residential construction projects, 70 factors and sub-factors affecting the occurrence of construction falls were determined based on the safety experts' opinions. Then, questionnaires based on the former and the latter were distributed among 10 occupational health and safety specialists to determine the effectiveness of the factors. The interactions and important degree of each factor are specified, using DEMATEL-ANP approach.

RESULTS

Findings showed that organizational factors and their sub-factors have the greatest impact on construction falls and were considered as causal variables (D-R>0), while individual and environmental factors were considered as the effect variables (D-R<0). The results of prioritization using the ANP method showed that the work platform altitude, psychological/occupational stresses, and interactions were ranked as the first through third priorities affecting the falls, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

It is necessary to implement a systematic strategy to reduce the unsafe conditions in construction projects and to pay more attention to organizational factors.

Analysis and Evaluation of Barriers Influencing Blockchain Implementation in Moroccan Sustainable Supply Chain Management: An Integrated IFAHP-DEMATEL Framework

Blockchain technology has received wide attention during recent years, and has huge potential to transform and improve supply chain management. However, its implementation in the SSCM (Sustainable Supply Chain Management) strategy is sophisticated, and the challenges are not explored very well, especially in the Moroccan context. To this end, the chief objective of the current endeavor is to investigate the barriers that hinder the adoption of blockchain technology in SSCM from the Moroccan industry and service sectors’ perspective. Based on a comprehensive literature search and the use of experts’ viewpoints, the barriers affecting the successful implementation of blockchain are classified into three categories called TEO: technological and system, environmental, and intra-organizational dimensions. In this context, a fuzzy group decision-making framework is organized by combining DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and IFAHP (Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process). The IFAHP technique helps to determine the importance/priorities of barriers affecting blockchain adoption, while the DEMATEL technique forms the cause–effect interconnections between these barriers and classifies them concerning the degree of importance and relationships. The results reveal that ‘government policy and support’ and ‘challenges in integrating sustainable practices and blockchain technology through SCM’ are significant adoption barriers of blockchain in Moroccan SSCM. The proposed solution can support industrial decision makers to form flexible short- and long-term decision-making strategies to efficiently manage a sustainable supply chain.

A hybrid Pythagorean fuzzy AHP - CoCoSo framework to rank the performance outcomes of circular supply chain due to adoption of its enablers

In the last few years, the Circular Supply Chain (CSC) has gained considerable attention among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. It offers immense opportunities to embrace supply chain operations in three dimensions of sustainability. This study aims to identify and rank the performance outcomes (POs) realized due to CSC enablers (CSCEs) adoption. The study proposes a hybrid framework of the Pythagorean fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (PF-AHP) and Pythagorean fuzzy combined compromised solution (PF-CoCoSo) to achieve the objectives of this research. PF-AHP is used to obtain the CSCEs relative weights while PF-CoCoSo is used to ranks the POs concerning the CSCEs. An empirical case study is conducted for an Indian manufacturing organization to demonstrate the proposed framework's applicability. The result reveals that 'global climate pressure and ecological scarcity of resources' is the most significant CSCE to achieve the sustainability in the supply chain, followed by 'government rules, legislations and directives for CSC adoption', 'environment management certifications and systems', whereas, 'reduces waste and promotes green development' is the most critical PO realized due to adoption of CSCEs in CSC implementation process. The proposed framework is a systematic, more comprehensive, accurate, and structured approach to the business organization to improve its POs in a step-wise manner by implementing CSCEs. Sensitivity analysis is performed to check the effectiveness of the proposed framework. This research provides substantial contributions to sustainable development in the society as well as in the industry, and it will help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working in the domain of CSC.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods: A Systematic Review

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are smart tools to deal with numerous criteria in decision-making. These methods have been widely applied in the area of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) because of their computational capabilities. This paper conducts a systematic literature review on MCDM methods applied in different areas of SSCM. From the literature search, a total of 106 published journal articles have been selected and analyzed. Both individual and integrated MCDM methods applied in SSCM are reviewed and summarized. In addition, contributions, methodological focuses, and findings of the reviewed articles are discussed. It is observed that MCDM methods are widely used for analyzing barriers, challenges, drivers, enablers, criteria, performances, and practices of SSCM. In recent years, studies have focused on integrating more than one MCDM method to highlight methodological contributions in SSCM; however, in the literature, limited research papers integrate multiple MCDM methods in the area of SSCM. Most of the published articles integrate only two MCDM methods, and integration with other methods, such as optimization and simulation techniques, is missing in the literature. This review paper contributes to the literature by analyzing existing research, identifying research gaps, and proposing new future research opportunities in the area of sustainable supply chain management applying MCDM methods.

Supply chain vulnerability assessment for manufacturing industry

In today's business, environment natural and manmade disasters like recent event (Covid 19) have increased the attention of practitioners and researchers to Supply chain vulnerability. Purpose of this paper is to investigate and prioritize the factors that are responsible for supply chain vulnerability. Extant literature review and interviews with the experts helped to extract 26 supply chain vulnerability factors. Further, the relative criticality of vulnerability factors is assessed by analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Critical part supplier; location of supplier; long supply chain lead times; Fixing process owners and mis-aligned incentives in supply chain are identified as the most critical factors among twenty-six vulnerability factors. Research concludes that not only long and complex supply chain but supply chain practices adopted by firms also increase supply chain vulnerability. Relative assessment of vulnerability factors enables professionals to take appropriate mitigation strategies to make the supply chains more robust. This research adds in building a model for vulnerability factors that are internal to supply chain & controllable.

Analysing the critical success factors and the risks associated with third-party logistics in the food supply chain: a case of coffee industry

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse various risks associated with third-party logistics (3PL) in the coffee supply chain and to present a framework that computes the influence of these risks on the critical success factors of the coffee supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

The risks have been identified through a comprehensive literature review and validation by industry experts. The paper utilises an interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology for developing a hierarchical relationship among the CSFs. Furthermore, fuzzy MICMAC analysis is carried out to categorise these CSFs based on their driving power and dependence value. The fuzzy technique for order preferences by the similarity of an ideal solution (fuzzy-TOPSIS) approach has been applied to prioritise the risks associated with 3PL based on their ability to influence the CSFs of the coffee SC. Furthermore, we performed a sensitivity analysis to analyse the stability of the results obtained in this study.

Findings

This study illustrates ten risks associated with 3PL and five CSFs in the coffee supply chain. The analysis revealed that coffee enterprises need to develop a balanced pricing strategy to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage, whereas the lack of direct customer communication is the most dominant 3PL risk affecting the CSFs.

Practical implications

This research provides coffee enterprises with a generalised framework with set parameters that can be used to attain a successful coffee supply chain in any developing nation.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the literature by being the first kind of study, which has used fuzzy ISM-MICMAC to analyse the CSFs of the coffee supply chain and fuzzy-TOPSIS for analysing the impact of various risks associated with the 3PL in the coffee supply chain. Thus, this work can be considered a benchmark for future research and advancement in the coffee business field.

Apply DEMATEL to Analyzing Key Barriers to Implementing the Circular Economy: An Application for the Textile Sector

Continuous improvement and innovation are solid foundations for the textile sector to maintain excellent growth and active sustainability. As the limited resources possessed by textile companies generally result in the incapability of implementing circular economy (CE) strategies simultaneously, recently, researchers advocate that organizations should analyze the influential inter-relationship between key barriers to explore the more dominant determinants for designing improved actions for implementing CE in the textile sector. CE implementation in the textile sector appears to be in its infancy. Although much attention has been paid to CE implementation barriers, the present study tries to fill this research gap by analyzing the causal relationships among the CE barriers in the textile sector. Therefore, the twelve barriers are identified by an extensive literature review, and the application of the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) based on the expert options from the textile sector. Subsequently, the causal inter-relationship among the key CE barriers is based on expert opinions using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The results of this study indicate that three key barriers require quick action: “consumers lack knowledge and awareness about reused/recycle (B1)”, “lack of successful business models and frameworks to implement CE (B3)”, and “lack of an information exchange system between different stakeholders (B8)”. In addition, the results provide significant managerial implications, including implementations of CE in the textile sector. Not only should the government build regulations and friendly laws and encourage environmentally-friendly materials but the textile companies should also focus or monitor the recycling methods and quality to overcome the CE implementation issues. In addition, this study contributes to the textile sector transition toward CE by using the novel methodology for determining and prioritizing the key barriers. Finally, this work would help top management and the practitioners to better design effective infrastructural strategies for the textile sector transition towards CE.

An integrated framework for analysing performance indicators of Indian microfinance institutions: a multi-stakeholder perspective

Purpose

An amalgamation of Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) has been performed to develop a decision-making framework for improving the overall performance of the microfinance institutions. A primary survey was conducted to collect real-time data from the heterogeneous stakeholders of microfinance institutions across India. The validation of the proposed framework is performed by comparing the results against the conventional method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP).

Design/methodology/approach

This study identifies various dimensions and indicators for measuring the performance of Indian microfinance institutions. Additionally, the ranking and prioritisation of the performance dimensions and indicators is obtained by considering the mutual interrelation between them.

Findings

The study indicates that there exists a significant dyadic relationship between financial performance and social performance for improving the overall performance of the microfinance institutions. Governance is found to unidirectionally influence both financial and social performance. Among all the considered dimensions, financial performance of a microfinance institution is the most critical dimension for improving the overall performance. The top five performance indicators of the Indian microfinance institutions are funding source, borrowing and overhead cost, size of the firm, end-use of the money and depth of outreach.

Research limitations/implications

The study was conducted in the context of Indian microfinance institutions; hence the scope of generalisation of the results is limited. This research considers both subjective and objective aspect of the performance dimensions and indicators from the perspective of multiple stakeholders (i.e. firm, society and regulator). The integrated framework is expected to aid in improving overall performance of microfinance institutions by focusing on the most critical (high prioritised) performance indicators.

Originality/value

An integrated DEMATEL-ANP framework is used in the domain of microfinance to assess the performance dimensions. This study is unique in terms of analysing performance of microfinance institutions from the perspective of heterogeneous stakeholders.

Enhanced GMCR model for resolving conflicts in a transboundary wetland

This research proposes an enhanced Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) with application to an international wetland. The integrated model enhances GMCR using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methods to extract the relative preferences of decision-makers in conflict resolution. The Hawizeh/Hoor-Al-Azim Wetland is facing increased dust storms in recent decades which are attributed to drying up of Mesopotamian wetlands, creating the potential for conflicts among riparian countries. The proposed integrated approach was applied in the Hawizeh/Hoor-Al-Azim Wetland fed by the Tigris and Karkheh Rivers. Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria are located in the Tigris River basin, and the Karkheh River originates from the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The results indicate that the achievement of an environmental balance depends on cooperation between Iran and Iraq to persuade Turkey to release the environmental flow to the wetland. Three strong equilibrium points were identified among 15 feasible states: (a) establishing a regional agreement among Iran, Iraq, and Turkey to reduce the effects of conflicts in the Hawizeh/Hoor-Al-Azim Wetland; (b) coalition of Iran and Iraq to motivate Turkey to reduce water withdrawal from the Tigris River; and finally, (c) exchanging water release for commodity market in Iran and Iraq for Turkey. In general, the economic cooperation among countries can be used as a negotiation tool to solve water conflicts in international wetlands.

Service quality evaluation of automobile garages using a structural approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the service quality automobile garages through development of a service quality index based on the factors influencing service quality.

Design/methodology/approach

A structural methodology of graph theory and matrix approach is applied for developing the service quality index.

Findings

The automobile maintenance can be considered as a service industry and in order to sustain in the competitive business environment, the service providers must ensure quality in their services. There are several factors that influence the service quality. Each factor is comprised of several sub-factors. Moreover, the factors are interrelated with each other. Modelling of these factors and their interrelations with due consideration of their structure is accomplished through the graph theory. The directed graph (digraph) of the service quality is defined; the nodes of this symbolize the quality influencing factors, while the edges represent their degrees of interrelationships. An equivalent matrix developed from the digraph establishes a service quality function which leads to evaluation of service quality index (SQI). A greater value of the service quality index displays that the organization and functioning of the garage is adequate.

Practical implications

The methodology can be applied for evaluating as well as comparing service quality of different garages. The observations would be helpful to the managers the garages to make strategies for improving their service quality.

Originality/value

The paper establishes the interrelations among various factors that influence the service quality at automobile garages and develop a numeric index for the evaluation of the same.

Stream processing data decision model for higher environmental performance and resilience in sustainable logistics infrastructure

Purpose

As the global freight transport network has experienced high vulnerability and threats from both natural and man-made disasters, as a result, a huge amount of data is generated in freight transport system in form of continuous streams; it is becoming increasingly important to develop sustainable and resilient transport system to recover from any unforeseen circumstances quickly and efficiently. The aim of this paper is to develop a stream processing data driven decision-making model for higher environmental performance and resilience in sustainable logistics infrastructure by using fifteen dimensions with three interrelated domains.

Design/methodology/approach

A causal and hierarchical stream processing data driven decision-making model to evaluate the impact of different attributes and their interrelationships and to measure the level of environmental performance and resilience capacity of sustainable logistics infrastructure are proposed. This work uses fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) techniques. A real-life case under a disruptive event scenario is further conducted.

Findings

The result shows which attributes have a greater impact on the level of environmental performance and resilience capacity in sustainable logistics infrastructure.

Originality/value

In this paper, causal and hierarchical stream processing data decision and control system model was proposed by identified three domains and fifteen dimensions to assess the level of environmental performance and resilience in sustainable logistics infrastructure. The proposed model gives researchers and practitioners insights about sustainability trade-offs for a resilient and sustainable global transport supply chain system by enabling to model interdependencies among the decision attributes under a fuzzy environment and streaming data.

Analysis of Evaluation Methods of Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Production Engineering Journals with High Impact

Nowadays, scholars need to know the trends for specific themes and how the main methods are applied to solve the gaps. The research problem for this work is the assessment of methods used in the sustainable supply chain, published in journals with a high impact factor and especially in the production engineering field. The methodology utilized was an adapted version of the “Methodi Ordinatio”, in structured stages to select a limited class of papers of high scientific relevance, to show how the methods are being used. The search steps included the filtering of journals in the research field with relevant impact factors and selecting databases and keywords; reading titles and abstracts; classifying the number of citations; and critical reading of all papers listed in the bibliographic portfolio. The research results and analysis of frequency of papers in the portfolio were used to identify and describe the most commonly used evaluation methods, the correlated theories, advantages, and disadvantages of each researched work.

Evaluating and Prioritizing the Green Supply Chain Management Practices in Pakistan: Based on Delphi and Fuzzy AHP Approach

Nowadays, green supply chain management (SCM) practices are increasing among firms to adopt green practices and reduce the negative effects of supply chain operations on the environment. Firms such as manufacturing, mining, and agriculture have to improve their capacity in green SCM practices because environmental regulations force them to consider these issues. However, green practices are new and require comprehensive study to determine this problem. This study has taken the case of three garment manufacturing firms for the evaluation of green SCM practices in the context of Pakistan. The green SCM requires multi-dimensional techniques; therefore, fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision analysis approaches must be adopted while assessing green SCM practices of firms. This is because fuzzy-based methods obtain a significant solution for complex, vague, and uncertain multi-attribute problems in fuzzy environment. Therefore, in this study, a hybrid decision model comprised of Delphi, and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodologies is proposed for assessing the green SCM practices of firms in terms of green design, green purchasing, green production, green warehousing, green logistics, and reverse logistics. The Fuzzy AHP method results reveal that “green purchasing,” “green design,” and “green production” are ranked the most important green indicators. Further, results reveal the ranking of manufacturing firms (alternatives) in the context of green SCM practices. This study shall help industries to focus on green SCM practices and adopt the green manufacturing process.

An integrated AHP-based scheme for performance measurement in humanitarian supply chains

Purpose

In recent years, several performance indicators have been proposed in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). Selecting the most relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) is challenging for some humanitarian organizations (HOs) because it involves a considerable amount of complexity and information overload which could lead to judgment biases in the decision-making process. Existing performance measurement studies lack critical analysis for prioritization of performance indicators. Since the process of KPIs selection and categorization is a complex, domain based and subjective process, a systematic guideline is needed. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated performance measurement scheme that can consolidate KPIs into an overall performance score based on the weighting of the performance indicators in HSCs.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collection was based on questionnaire surveys and direct interviews with practitioners from international HOs.

Findings

This paper proposes an integrated scheme based on balanced scorecard and analytic hierarchy process for performance evaluation of HOs.

Research limitations/implications

The respondents were limited to the humanitarian logistics experts from Malaysian-based international HOs.

Practical implications

The scheme enables the benchmarking of HOs’ performance that could be useful for decision makers in HSCs.

Originality/value

This paper provides the ranking and prioritization of KPIs in HSCs. The approach presented in this paper enables an effective and integrated performance measurement in HSCs.

Evaluation of barriers in the adoption of halal certification: a fuzzy DEMATEL approach

Purpose

Higher level of customer satisfaction for halal products can be achieved by the effective adoption of halal certification through assessment and accreditation (HCAA). There are certain issues that seem detrimental towards the adoption of HCAA. The purpose of this paper is to identify the major barriers towards the adoption of HCAA and evaluate inter-relationships among them for developing the strategies to mitigate these barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

The barriers towards the adoption of HCAA are identified through an integrative approach of literature review and expert’s opinion. The inter-relationship among the identified barriers is evaluated using fuzzy-based decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy DEMATEL) technique, which categorises them into influential and influenced group.

Findings

The evaluation of inter-relationship among barriers using fuzzy DEMATEL indicates four influencing barriers and six influenced barriers towards the adoption of HCAA. Further, findings suggest an extensive government, and management support is vital in terms of commitment, resources and actions to realise the benefits attributed with HCAA.

Research limitations/implications

The inter-relationship among barriers is contextual and based on the perception of experts which may be biased as per their background and area of expertise. This study pertains to a specific region and can be extended to the generalised certification system.

Originality/value

The empirical base of the research provides the inter-relationship among the barriers towards the adoption of HCAA which can be effectively used as input in the decision-making process by producers, manufacturers and distributor. The policy maker can analyse the cause group and effect group of barriers to formulate policies that would help in the adoption of HCAA.

Developing a causal model to evaluate the critical issues in reverse supply chain implementation

Purpose

Approximately, 800m tons of e-waste is generated per year in India. Reverse supply chain (RSC) is the probable strategy to cope up with the issue. Setting up a RSC process is not popular in the Indian sector. There are several factors that basically control the profitability of such kind of business. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop a causal model among the identified issues and sub-issues for setting up a RSC in an Indian semiconductor manufacturing industry and then evaluate the critical issues based on the causal relations.

Design/methodology/approach

Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method along fuzzy set theory is used to develop the causal framework among the identified strategical and tactical issues. According to the causal relations from DEMATEL, analytical network process is then used to identify the weights of the sub-issues.

Findings

The cause–effect interactions among the main issues show that legislations and regulations, market-related issues and organizational issue are the most significant strategic issues. Uncertainty in the acquisition time is the most significant tactical issue because it has a crucial impact on the quality and quantity of the used products. Based on the obtained causal relations of the main issues, it is identified that the reduction of waste, creation of new opportunity, market competition, cost reduction, change in technology and location, capacity and number of recovery facility are the major sub-issues in RSC implementation.

Practical implications

This study is conducted on the basis of the experts’ opinion from a semiconductor manufacturing industry, situated in the southern part of India. Therefore, this proves its practical implications.

Originality/value

The paper provides the detail illustration of the issues in the RSC process, and the prioritization of the issues based on the cause–effect relationships also provides some meaningful managerial insights.

Predicting changing pattern: building model for consumer decision making in digital market

Purpose

Consumers have the multiple options to choose their products and services, which have a significant impact on the pattern of consumer decision making in digital market and further increases the challenges for the service providers to predict their buying pattern. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to propose a structural hierarchy model for analyzing the changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital market by taking an Indian context.

Design/methodology/approach

To accomplish the objectives, the research is conducted in two phases. An extensive literature review is performed in the first phase to list the factors related to the changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital market and then fuzzy Delphi method is applied to finalize the factors. In the second phase, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is employed to find the priority weights of finalized factors. The fuzzy set theory allows capturing the vagueness in the data.

Findings

The findings obtained in this study shows that consumers are much conscious about innovative and trendy products as well as brand and quality; therefore, the service providers must think about these two most important factors so that they can able to retain their consumer in their online portal.

Practical implications

The analysis shows that “innovative and trendy” is the first priority factor for the consumers followed by “brand and quality” and “fulfilment and time energy.” The proposed model can help the marketers and service providers in predicting customers’ preferences and their changing pattern efficiently under vague surroundings. The outcomes of this research work not only help the service provider to update their products and services according to consumers’ needs but can also help them to increase profit and minimize their risk.

Originality/value

This work contributes to consumer research literature focusing on problem evaluation in the context of changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital era.

An empirical research on evaluating banks' credit assessment of corporate customers

Background

Under the rapid change of the global financial environment, the risk control of the credit granting is viewed as the foremost task to each bank. With the impact one by one from financial crisis and European debt crisis, the steady bank business is also facing the severe challenge. Banks approve the credits for their customers and then make money from the interest.

Case presentation

Credit granting is not only the primary job but also the main source of income. The quality of credit granting concerns not just the reclaims of creditor’s rights; it also affects the successful running of banks.

Discussion and Evaluation

To enhance the reliability and usefulness of bank credit risk assessment, we first will delve in the facets and indexes in the bank credit risk assessment. Then, we will examine the different dimensions of cause–effect relationships and correlations in the assessment process. Finally, the study focuses on how to raise the functions and benefits of the bank credit risk assessment.

Conclusions

In those five credit risk evaluation dimensions, A “optional capability” and D “competitiveness” are of high relation and high prominence among those dimensions, influencing other items obviously. By actively focusing on these two dimensions and improving their credit risk assessment ability will solve the foremost problems and also solve other facets of credit risk assessment problems at the same time.