Benchmarking supply chains by analyzing technology transfer critical barriers using AHP approach

Supply chain risk factor assessment of Indian pharmaceutical industry for performance improvement

Purpose

The purpose of the present work is to improve the industry performance by identifying and quantifying the risks faced by the Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI). The risk values for the prominent risks and overall industry are determined based on the four risk parameters, which would help determine the most contributive risks for mitigation.

Design/methodology/approach

An extensive literature survey was done to identify the risks, which were also validated by industry experts. The finalized risks were then evaluated using the fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) method, which is the most suitable approach for the risk assessment with parameters having a set of different risk levels.

Findings

The three most contributive sub-risks are counterfeit drugs, demand fluctuations and loss of customers due to partners' poor service performance, while the main risks obtained are demand, financial and logistics. Also, the overall risk value indicates that the industry faces medium to high risk.

Practical implications

The study identifies the critical risks which need to be mitigated for an efficient industry. The industry is most vulnerable to the demand risk category. Therefore, the managers should minimize this risk by mitigating its sub-risks, like demand fluctuations, bullwhip effect, etc. Another critical sub-risk, the counterfeit risk, should be managed by adopting advanced technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc.

Originality/value

There is insufficient literature focusing on risk quantification. Therefore, this work addresses this gap and obtains the industry's most critical risks. It also discusses suitable mitigation strategies for better industry performance.

A Theoretical Framework for Analysing Technology Transfer Processes Using Agent-Based Modelling: A Case Study on Massive Technology Adoption (AMTEC) Program on Rice Production

The technology transfer (TT) process has been studied from different approaches to improve productivity and competitiveness in agricultural chains. However, the process is not always presented successfully due to heterogeneity and inequality in the technological capacities (TC) of the agents that are part of the transfer process, in addition to the geographical context, the interaction networks and decision rules, which are key factors to understand the TT phenomenon. In this context and as a case study, the Colombian National Federation of rice growers promoted the development and adoption of technology that increased crop competitiveness and sustainability by implementing a technology transfer program known as the Massive Technology Adoption Program (AMTEC—Adopción Masiva de Tecnología) on rice. With the AMTEC program, average production costs were reduced by 26% (USD 119 per hectare), and it increased average yields by 23% (1.27 tonnes per hectare), which shows the importance of introducing technologies in productive chains in developing countries. This research provides a better understanding of the TT processes, based on the analysis of the interaction dynamics and behaviour patterns between the agents (i.e., generators, intermediaries, or users) in the TT processes. As an analysis tool, the agent-based modelling paradigm (ABM) was proposed to study the emergence at the macro-level of behaviour patterns of a system from the interactions of semi-intelligent agents at the micro-level, using experiments.

Analyzing the operational barriers of government-supported healthcare supply chain

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for the identification, categorization and prioritization of operational government-supported healthcare supply chain barriers (GHSCBs).

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops a theoretical background for identifying and segregating relevant GHSCBs and proposes a 5W2H (a Toyota production system) with fuzzy DEcision MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) embedded approach to quantify the causal–effect relationships among the identified operational GHSCBs.

Findings

Seven GHSCBs (i.e. uncertainty of demand management, lack of continuous improvement and learning, lack of deadline management, lack of social audit, warehousing equipment unavailability, human resource shortage and inadequate top level monitoring) were identified as significant cause group where the government, top management and decision-makers of government-supported healthcare supply chain (GHSC) have to put efforts.

Research limitations/implications

The results obtained are specific to the GHSC of Indian perspective, which could be extended to global context. However, the proposed approach can be a base and provide a platform to understand and analyze the interactions among GHSCBs.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology will show the appropriate areas for allocating efforts and resources to mitigate the impact of GHSCBs for successful implementation of healthcare supply chain.

Originality/value

According to best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of operational barrier for GHSC in India in specific. The use of 5W2H embedded fuzzy DEMATEL approach for the development and analysis of the theoretical framework of Indian GHSCBs is unique in barrier literature.

Benchmarking the barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour

Purpose

The earth is under massive stress due to current level of consumption which has crossed the sustaining capacity of our planet. Thus, the need of the hour is to promote sustainable production and consumption. The purpose of this study is to identify the basic barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour which are hindering the adoption of sustainable consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a literature review based on 128 articles (1995 to 2020), which are spread over a period of 25 years. Based on the literature review, nine barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour were identified and put into three categories. In the second part, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process has been used to know about the relative weight of each barrier so that benchmarking/prioritising of basic barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour can be done.

Findings

This article identifies critical barriers affecting the acceptance of sustainable electronic products. High price, a perception of no environmental impact, no benefit in personal image, lesser use by family and friends, lack of awareness about the products etc. emerged as the potential barriers which need prime attention. The relative weight of each of these barriers has also been arrived at in this article which is expected to be beneficial for policymakers to focus upon important barriers. Impact of many of these barriers can be reduced through innovative approaches and solutions.

Research limitations/implications

This article will be helpful in future research in the field of sustainable consumer behaviour. Through the understanding of the barriers of sustainable consumer behaviour, companies, governments and industries can take suitable initiatives by modifying the policies and practices to reduce the impact of these barriers so that consumer behaviour can be made more sustainable.

Originality/value

The current article tries to identify the critical barriers to adoption of sustainable electronic products by the consumers. An extensive literature review, expert suggestions and consumer survey have been adopted to identify nine barriers. Although, multiple researches have been done in the field of sustainable consumer behaviour and adoption of sustainable electronic products, there is no research article which solely focuses on implementing Fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach to rank the barriers faced by consumers for adoption of sustainable electronic products. It has been concluded that high price of sustainable electronic products is the most critical barrier in adoption of sustainable consumer behaviour. Moreover, the relative ranking obtained with the help of Fuzzy AHP can be used by policymakers and organisations to promote and implement sustainability in consumer behaviour.

People-process-performance benchmarking technique in cloud computing environment

Purpose

Cloud computing is relatively a new type of technology demanding a new method of management techniques to attain security and privacy leading to customer satisfaction regarding “Business Protection” measure. As cloud computing businesses are usually composed of multiple colocation sites/departments, the purpose of this paper is to propose a benchmark operation to measure and compare the overall integrated people-process-performance (PPP) among different departments within cloud computing organization. The purpose of this paper is to motivate staff/units to improve the process performance and meet the standards in a competitive approach among business units.

Design/methodology/approach

The research method was conducted at Cirrus Ltd, which is a cloud computing service provider where a focus group consists of six IT professionals/managers. The objective of the focus group was to investigate the proposed technique by selecting the best practices relevant criteria, with the relevant sub-criteria as a benchmarking performance tool to measure PPP via an analytic hierarchy processing (AHP) approach. The standard pairwise comparative AHP scale was used to measure the performance of three different teams defined as production team, user acceptance testing team and the development team.

Findings

Based on best practice performance measurement (reviewed in this paper) of cloud computing, the proposed AHP model was implemented in a local medium-sized cloud service provider named “Cirrus” with their single site data center. The actual criteria relevant to Cirrus was an adaptation of the “Best practice” described in the literature. The main reason for the adaptation of criteria was that the principle of PPP assumes multiple departments/datacenters located in a different geographical area in large service providers. As Cirrus is a type of SMEs, the adaptation of performance measurement was based on teams within the same data center location. Irrelevant of this adaptation, the objective of measuring vendors KPI using the AHP technique as a specific output of PPP is also a valid situation.

Practical implications

This study provides guidance for achieving cloud computing performance measurement using the AHP technique. Hence, the proposed technique is an integrated model to measure the PPP under monitored cloud environment.

Originality/value

The proposed technique measures and manages the performance of cloud service providers that also implicitly act as a catalyst to attain trust in such high information-sensitive environment leading to organizational effectiveness of managing cloud organizations.

Technology forecasting (TF) and technology assessment (TA) methodologies: a conceptual review

Purpose

Technology forecasting (TF) and assessment (TA), all in all, apply to any intentional and deliberate endeavours to forecast and view the potential heading, rate, attributes and impacts of technological change, especially for development, advancement, selection and utilisation of resources, which ultimately helps in the benchmarking. A vast variety of methods are available for TF and TA. Till now, practically, no exertion has been made to choose proper, satisfactory innovation methods or technology. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, there is an endeavour to summarise the vast field of TF and TA, through its evolution, functions, applications and techniques. This paper provides the in-depth review of the utilisation of TF and TA methodologies and its improvement, which helps the users in selecting the appropriate method of TF and TA for a specific situation.

Findings

This study concludes that the quest for a single strategy for doing forecast and assessment is a misconception. This neglects to perceive that forecast and assessment oblige a suitable blend of strategies and methods drawn from a variety of fields. Researchers and practitioners must be innovative, imperative and specialised in choosing TF and TA methodologies, and cannot be programmed.

Practical implications

The technology seems to be the most significant driver of the present day global developments. Some technologies have far-reaching implications, and the authors need to understand these issues regarding its’ forecasting and its assessment.

Originality/value

The decision of proper worthy procedure amid a circumstance may have an impact on the exactness and reliability of the forecast and assessment. Significant observations regarding learning, action/s, actor/s and expected outcomes are discussed.

An integrated neutrosophic AHP and SWOT method for strategic planning methodology selection

Purpose

Strategic planning is an organization’s process of describing its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to track this strategy. SWOT analysis is one of the most commonly used techniques for strategic planning. SWOT examines the strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) agents of the community together with opportunities (O) and threats (T), for selecting and implementing the best strategy which helps in achieving its goals. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the performance of SWOT analysis regarding the quantitative side of strategies, select the best strategy from different strategies and deal effectively with vague and incompatible information, which occurs usually in actual life.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process (AHP) incorporated with SWOT analysis.

Findings

By adding the neutrosophic AHP to SWOT analysis, the performance of SWOT analysis is enhanced through determining the quantitative values and dealing with vague and inconsistent information effectively leading to improved decisions.

Research limitations/implications

The developed integrated methodology is validated in a real-life case of Starbucks company. For the case study of Starbucks company, the proposed model helps in determining different strategic plans and, further, ranking these plans effectively, which will help the company to compete with its competitors and develop itself by obtaining a competitive advantage over its competitors in an uncertain business environment.

Practical implications

In the case study of Starbucks company, the proposed model helps to determine the different strategic plans, rank these plans which help the company compete with its competitors, develop itself and grow.

Originality/value

This research is the first to address SWOT analysis with neutrosophic AHP.

Analyzing enablers of sustainable supply chain: ISM and fuzzy AHP approach

Purpose

This paper aims to intend to help focal firms which are keen to develop a sustainable supply chain by identifying enablers, in knowing the interrelationships involved and in ranking the enablers.

Design/methodology/approach

Interpretive structural modeling and fuzzy MICMAC were used for the modeling and clustering of the enablers and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process has been used for the ranking purpose.

Findings

Awareness about sustainability incentives, pressure from stakeholders, support from supply chain partners and demand from customer for sustainable products were found very important for developing a sustainable supply chain.

Research limitations/implications

This research will help practitioners to appreciate the importance of the enablers to focus on the making sustainability adoption feasible across the supply chain. This would also facilitate focal firm management to develop a sustainability culture across the supply chain.

Originality/value

Similar work has not been carried before in which interaction among enablers and their priorities were analyzed using hybrid methodologies in developing country context.

A framework for benchmarking the strategic position of bond markets in the competing environment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a benchmarking framework for identifying different indicators and their importance in forming the strategic position of Thai bond markets in competitive economies using Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) matrix framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The Delphi approach is deployed for indicator selection and the framework validation. A questionnaire survey is then used to assess the importance of different factors determining the strategic bond market development and competitiveness using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model.

Findings

A group of experienced bond market experts assign different levels of importance for each key factor under a given dimension to reach consensus. The results reveal that there are 17 factors affecting the strategic development and competitiveness of the bond market. Among four aspects under the framework, the financial strength dimension is considered by the experts as the most dominant aspect to strategic bond market development, followed by competitive advantage, industry strength, and environment stability, respectively.

Practical implications

The benchmarking framework developed in this study is useful for guiding measurement and assessment of the strategic position of bond markets in the competing environment.

Originality/value

The author proposes for the first time a conceptual framework based on macro-level data to assess the strategic bond market development and competitiveness using SPACE matrix method. The study employs the Delphi’s technique and in-depth interview with bond market experts to build indicators for each dimension under the framework. Second, this paper also applies the AHP to discover the order of relative importance for the indicators identified by the experts through pairwise comparison to reach consensus, which has never been conducted before.