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The hospitality industry has been highlighted as an important economic sector that is vulnerable to climate change. However, this industry is also considered to have a substantial contribution to the degradation of the environment by consuming excessive quantities of energy, producing approximately 8% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Previous studies have proposed the circular economy as an optimal concept to address this issue by eliminating waste and maximizing resource utilization. In light of that, many hotels are striving to shift the traditional linear economy into a circular economy by adopting green marketing into their business operations. However, they still face many obstacles in making an effective transition to a circular‐style economy due to the lack of an appropriate approach. To fill this gap, this study aims to develop a framework to give insights on which aspects can foster the circular economy transition process through green marketing implementation. Therefore, this study proposes a hybrid method that integrates an exploratory factor analysis with a fuzzy synthetic method and a decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory to structure the hierarchical model and provide guidance to decision‐makers for future improvements under resource constraints. The results reveal that advantage acquisition and behavior transition are the most influential aspects in accelerating the transition to the circular economy in the hospitality industry. The crucial theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Developing wind and solar photovoltaics on a large scale requires substantial financial investments, making it crucial to identify the most suitable locations beforehand. To address this issue, a spatial analysis is carried out to determine the most potential sites for hosting large‐scale solar photovoltaic and wind systems in the region of Kasserine, central‐western Tunisia. To this end, an integrated model based on Step‐wise Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA), Decision‐Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and Geographic Information System is proposed. An extensive literature survey is conducted to establish suitability criteria and constraints. The SWARA‐DEMATEL is used to assign weights and capture the interdependencies among the considered criteria, while the raster calculator tool from the ArcGis 10.8 software is utilized to extract the final suitability maps. The obtained results indicate that the region of Kasserine exhibits great solar and wind potential, with areas of 635 and 467 km2 extremely fit for installing solar and wind systems, respectively. Furthermore, 349 km2 are identified as potential locations for hosting solar‐wind hybrid systems. Considering these outcomes, policymakers can take the initiative to accelerate the deployment of these facilities, which would assist the country in achieving its plans by 2030.

Electric vehicles (EVs) have achieved a great deal of success, indicating that the motor industry will soon be emission-free. They run on electricity stored in batteries, which their drivers can recharge using an external source of electricity. Therefore, the development of an infrastructure for charging EVs has become a necessity. In this paper, a real case study in Zagazig, Egypt, for evaluating, operating, and determining the most sustainable location for an EV charging station is presented. Identifying such a location is a complex task that requires considering many influencing factors and their sub-factors. Consequently, a general evaluation system that includes six key factors, in addition to nineteen sub-factors, has been developed. A multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is applied to deal with this problem. The neutrosophic theory with type-2 neutrosophic numbers (T2NNs) and a type-2 neutrosophic number weighted averaging (T2NNWA) operator are used to combine expert and specialized views since they are ambiguous and uncertain. Firstly, the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is applied to prioritize key factors and sub-factors. Then, the Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) technique selects six sustainable sites for EV charging stations. Also, comparison and sensitivity evaluations verify the approach's reliability, strength, stability, and performance. Finally, this article provides good information for policymakers and the results of the case study indicate that the economic factor is the most important factor in selecting the optimal location followed by the technical factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire outbreaks in urban complexes are a major safety concern worldwide. Therefore, this study aims to examine the critical factors that influence fire accidents and their interaction mechanisms in urban settings. A (software factors, hardware factors, environmental factors, parties and other factors, SHEL) model is developed to identify 15 risk factors in four categories affecting fire incidents in urban complexes. The Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method (DEMATEL) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) are employed to identify the key factors and their interrelationships, using the evaluation metrics of degree of influence, affected degree, centrality, and hierarchical structure. The results show that lack of safety management rules and regulations (S13), poor security awareness (S1), and uncorrected hidden dangers (S11) are the top three critical factors. Based on the hierarchical structure and centrality values, eight critical paths with the highest impact on fires are identified; for instance, Path 39 (comprising, lack of safety management rules and regulations (S13) → lack of fire training and drills (S12) → insufficient security knowledge (S2) → poor security awareness (S1) → poor sense of security responsibility (S3) → uncorrected hidden danger (S11) → inadequate maintenance of fire-fighting facilities (S14) → Accident), which, among all disaster impact paths, has the highest centrality value of 21.8796 (out of a total of 15 factors and total centrality value of 42.9226; Path 39 involves seven factors, but its centrality value accounts for 50.97% of the total). Finally, based on the factor analysis results, suggestions for fire control measures are provided to prevent fire accidents and ensure the safety of people and property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing wind and solar photovoltaics on a large scale requires substantial financial investments, making it crucial to identify the most suitable locations beforehand. To address this issue, a spatial analysis is carried out to determine the most potential sites for hosting large‐scale solar photovoltaic and wind systems in the region of Kasserine, central‐western Tunisia. To this end, an integrated model based on Step‐wise Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA), Decision‐Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and Geographic Information System is proposed. An extensive literature survey is conducted to establish suitability criteria and constraints. The SWARA‐DEMATEL is used to assign weights and capture the interdependencies among the considered criteria, while the raster calculator tool from the ArcGis 10.8 software is utilized to extract the final suitability maps. The obtained results indicate that the region of Kasserine exhibits great solar and wind potential, with areas of 635 and 467 km2 extremely fit for installing solar and wind systems, respectively. Furthermore, 349 km2 are identified as potential locations for hosting solar‐wind hybrid systems. Considering these outcomes, policymakers can take the initiative to accelerate the deployment of these facilities, which would assist the country in achieving its plans by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Standardized Plant Analysis Risk-Human Reliability Analysis (SPAR-H) method is a widely used method in human reliability analysis (HRA). Performance shaping factors (PSFs) refer to the factors that may influence human performance and are used to adjust nominal human error probabilities (HEPs) in SPAR-H. However, the PSFs are assumed to be independent, which is unrealistic and can lead to unreasonable estimation of HEPs. In this paper, a new method is proposed to handle the dependencies among PSFs in SPAR-H to obtain more reasonable results. Firstly, the dependencies among PSFs are analyzed by using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. Then, PSFs are assigned different weights according to their dependent relationships. Finally, multipliers of PSFs are modified based on the relative weights of PSFs. A case study is illustrated that the proposed method is effective in handling the dependent PSFs in SPAR-H, where the duplicate calculations of the dependent part can be reduced. The proposed method can deal with a more general situation that PSFs are dependent, and can provide more reasonable results.

Eco-innovation practices are critical to achieve the supply chain management of the textile and clothing industry. Prior research has not identified which eco-innovations are more important in circular supply chain management. To guide the effective implementation of eco-innovation practices in CSCM, this study initially established an eco-innovation framework for CSCM articulated along five main aspects. Then, fuzzy set theory was integrated with the decision-making trials and evaluation laboratory method to identify the critical eco-innovation practices in CSCM. Empirical results indicate that life-cycle assessment, the establishment of an eco-innovation strategy, knowledge sharing of eco-innovation information, environmental monitoring, and the control of capital efficiency are critical eco-innovation practices for the CSCM of the textile and clothing industry. More in detail, life-cycle assessment is the most important to improve CSCM performance, while the establishment of an eco-innovation strategy has a greater impact on other eco-innovation practices. This study proposed an eco-innovation decision-making framework that may help enhance the effectiveness of CSCM in the textile and clothing industry. The identification of important eco-innovation drivers may help organisations prioritise CSCM techniques when resources are limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study contributes to visualizing the complicated interrelationships among the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Taiwanese cities' resource investment and performance under uncertainties. Taiwan faces bottlenecks and uncertainties in pursuing the SDGs due to the complex interrelationships among the SDGs. In particular, the lack of a comprehensive approach causes problems for governments in identifying whether resource investment and performance reach a coherent situation. To address this issue, this study proposes to use secondary data normalization, factor analysis and reliability testing for the validity and reliability of measures, performance‐resource analysis and the fuzzy synthetic method to translate qualitative information, as well as the decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory to visualize the relationships. The study (1) establishes validation measures for resource investment and performance; (2) combines qualitative information and secondary data to understand the causal effects of the SDGs; and (3) provides directions for the government to improve the coherence of resource investment and performance. The findings show that SDG 3 has a strong effect on SDGs 11 and 9 and a moderate effect on SDG 8 to achieve the agenda. Guidelines are provided for resource‐poor counties/regions that could invest resources to achieve SDG 3. Many cities and counties are underperforming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming, climate change, and social problems are the worst human-induced sustainability issues that economies across the globe have witnessed. Water pollution, greenhouse effect, poor working conditions, child labour and lack of coordination among channel partners have caused the considerable interruptions in the supply chain network. The purpose of the paper is to identify critical factors affecting behavioural and sustainable supply chain coordination and evaluate strategies for risk reduction in the supply chain coordination in the context of digitization. This study purposes a novel supply chain coordination framework which consists of four themes such as system, actor, objective and action on which the success or the failure of supply chain can be contingent. Our study integrates multi-criteria decision approach using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) and Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy-DEMATEL) to investigate factors that affected the behavioural and sustainable supply chain coordination in the context of digitization. The Fuzzy-AHP method qualified to hierarchically rank the factors based on the relative fuzzy weightage while Fuzzy-DEMATEL established the inter-relationships among the factors and classified them into cause and effect groups. The findings of our study identified the Environmental performance and decarbonization as the most significant factor and the speed to market as the least important factor in developing behavioural and sustainable supply chain coordination in the context of digitization. Our analysis from Fuzzy AHP-DEMATEL approach reveal that the social preferences (power balance, reciprocity, fairness) is a significant causal factor which can effectively abolish the issues plaguing behavioural and sustainable supply chain coordination in the context of digitization. The results from our study aim to facilitate decision makers in cultivating a sustainable supply chain framework that can boost trust among the channel partners environmental performance, social performance and channel efficiency of the supply chain, thereby ensuring sustainability and socio welfare of all the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large increase in the wastes and emissions from the Indonesian fashion industry under economic and population growth. To address this issue, the sustainable circular economy is proposed to reach the goal of sustainable development and zero waste. Previous studies neglect to provide a specific interrelationship model to guide practice to reach a sustainable circular economy. This study proposes a hybrid method integrating exploratory factor analysis, the fuzzy synthetic method and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach to overcome these shortcomings. It contributes to enhancing the understanding of theory through visual diagrams. The hybrid method makes it possible to interpret complex interrelationships and leads to improvements under resource limitations based on the model. The results reveal that emission reduction and welfare improvement are the causal aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of poverty traps can reinforce each other, and consequently, multiple traps pose challenges for poverty alleviation, especially in rural areas. There remains a lack of understanding of social and ecological poverty traps and their relationship with one another. We considered the Selinco area in the Tibetan highlands of China and investigated social and ecological poverty, for an understanding of the poverty trap through the land‐human relationship lens. We found that ecological and social poverty differ between various townships due to their poor ecological and social environs. We affirmed reinforcing feedback between ecological and social poverty, and that the relative importance of social and ecological poverty differs at various thresholds. These results advance our understanding of different poverty traps and their feedback process. The findings inform the policy‐making process when addressing the land‐human relationship to improve ecosystem stability and promote social equity to foster sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability and efficiency of the waste supply chain (WSC) is related to the urban environment. This study constructed a framework of barriers to coordinating the WSC based on four perspectives: the costs and benefits, mechanisms involved, behaviors of the subjects, and technologies and standards used. We used an analytic network process based on the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory to calculate the centrality and weight of each barrier factor, and we determined the critical barriers to coordination by combining their results. A causality diagram of the barriers was drawn, and a scheme of coordination of the WSC was designed based on a closed-loop supply chain around the critical barriers. The results show that contradictions in benefits between subjects, contradictions between economic and social benefits, excessive subsidies, the failure of the market mechanism, the lack of a mechanism for supervision, and blocked information and distrust among the subjects are the five most critical barriers to the coordination of the WSC, with excessive subsidies the root cause of the lack of coordination. The subsidy for direct waste disposal should be used to reduce the cost of the operation of the WSC, waste recycling should be improved, an information-sharing platform should be built, and the cost of recyclable waste for manufacturers should be reduced to improve the efficiency of the WSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal dumping behavior widely exists in the construction industry and is difficult to manage. What factors and how they influence the illegal dumping behavior of construction and demolition waste remains to be clarified. Specifically, this study employs an ISM-DEMATEL approach to investigate the critical factors that influence the illegal dumping behavior. It is found that the factors, ‘capital investment of enterprises’ and “stakeholders' willingness and attitude”, are vital to tackle the illegal dumping behavior of construction and demolition waste. Yet, compared with business-level factors, the macro-level factors such as ‘social norms and culture’ and ‘government incentive policies’ tend to be less influential. Moreover, enhancing the industry-wise administration system and practitioners' dedication to the issue can be an option to avoid illegal construction waste dumping. The results of this study serve to elucidate the influential factors and offer practical implications for addressing the issue of illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste.

Build–operate–transfer (BOT) is a public–private partnership (PPP) model in which the government commissions private enterprises to develop large‐scale public infrastructure. Owing to the large scale and long duration of BOT projects, BOT companies have diverse stakeholders and assume more social responsibility than ordinary companies do. Although studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) are plentiful, most of them have examined CSR from the perspective of consumers or private‐ or state‐owned enterprises. Few studies have investigated BOT and CSR from a holistic perspective. Therefore, we adopted systems thinking to examine multistakeholder and multicriteria scenarios for investigating the CSR of BOT companies. This study established a research framework through the Delphi method. Subsequently, the decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory and an analytic network process were used to identify causality among these criteria. Finally, the results are discussed from a systemic perspective, and suggestions for future strategies are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To further study the mechanism of unsafe behavior of construction workers from the perspective of an individual worker, a structural equation model was constructed by analyzing the existing literature and questionnaire survey data. Based on the structural equation model, decision-making trial, and evaluation laboratory, the critical path mechanism model was determined, and targeted intervention measures were put forward. The results show that safety ability was the most comprehensive factor affecting unsafe behaviors. Improving safety ability and improving safety participation ability can significantly reduce unsafe behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of pharmaceutical cold chain logistics (PCCL) service quality can provide timely scientific and valid rectification suggestions for enterprises and promote the continuous development and improvement of PCCL systems. PCCL service quality evaluation can be seen as a multi-expert, multi-criteria decision-making process with significant uncertainty and ambiguity. Accordingly, this paper propounds an innovative q-rung orthopair fuzzy (q-ROF) assessment framework based on the improved decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique and Taxonomy approach. Firstly, a novel distance measure considering both the influence of interactions and the volatility of information is presented to distinguish between q-ROF sets. Then, the q-ROF-DEMATEL technique is proffered to estimate the subjective weights of assessment criteria. A comprehensive criteria weight technique based on game theory is developed by integrating the subjective weights obtained using the q-ROF-DEMATEL method with objective weights derived using a combination of two optimizations. Furthermore, based upon the combinative weight model, a multi-stage assessment framework is designed by fusing the combination weight model and a distance-measure-based Taxonomy approach. An empirical concerning the PCCL service quality assessment of enterprises for the medicine management department is implemented to verify the practicability of the designed evaluation framework. The comparison discussion with sensitivity analysis is implemented to exemplify that the proffered framework is a valid, feasible, and stable method for PCCL service quality assessment. • Propose a unique q-rung orthopair fuzzy distance measure. • Present a novel synthetic model to deduce the weight of assessment criteria. • Develop and evaluate a novel q-rung orthopair fuzzy taxonomy. • Introduce an integrated q-rung orthopair fuzzy DEMATEL-Taxonomy approach. • Assess the robustness of the proposed method through sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry is the lifeblood of the national economy, and it is the inevitable course of sustainability for China to promote the high-quality development of industry. A theoretical framework of industrial development quality (IDQ) was constructed, and 32 influencing factors were selected based on complex system theory. The IDQ in Xi'an from 2004 to 2019 was evaluated, and the influencing mechanisms of each IDQ factor were analyzed through an integrated maximum generalized information entropy (MGIE)-self-organizing feature mapping (SOFM) neural network-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. The results show that the IDQ in Xi'an is on the rise, but the development of internal subsystems is uneven, with the technology subsystem contributing the most and the social subsystem contributing the least. There is a multi-layer hierarchical structure among the influencing factors of IDQ, and the multi-layer structure model can be divided into 10 layers. The first layer is the investment intensity of industrial pollution control, which is the most direct factor that affects IDQ. The tenth layer is the industrial wastewater discharge intensity, industrial waste gas emission intensity, water consumption per unit of industrial added value, highway density, and energy consumption per unit of industrial added value, which are the root factors affecting IDQ. This study can provide a theoretical basis and reference for the promotion of high-quality industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of regenerative medicine, cell therapy is often used to regenerate organs or tissue that can be widely applied to several diseases. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has listed the biotechnology industry as a key developmental objective and has enacted laws to regulate cell therapy. This has led to substantial change and has necessitated a reliable direction of management in the cell therapy industry. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new method to explore the key success factors in three dimensions of relevant biotechnology company management. It adopts a qualitative method combined with a quantitative analysis method. The study uses Gwo Xi Stem Cell Company, a qualified cell therapy company in Taiwan, as a case study. It adopts a literature analysis method and conducts interviews with cell therapy experts to develop an innovative assessment framework. The analytic hierarchy process is combined with decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory to establish the key success factors in the management of the cell therapy industry. Thus, the study offers strategic recommendations for the development of domestic stem-cell-related industries. The results demonstrate technical characteristics as the most important direction for successful management. Moreover, due to the substantial change in Taiwan's cell therapy industry, technical characteristic-related key success factors, including product development strategy (technical characteristic 1) and technological mastery (technical characteristic 2), are currently considered to be crucial key success factors in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic is the worst humanitarian crisis that economies across the globe have witnessed. Forced lockdowns, social distancing, and restricted mobility have contributed to large scale disruptions in the supply chain network. The purpose of the paper is to identify critical factors affecting global supply chain and evaluate strategies for risk reduction in the supply chain network by making it resilient. Our study incorporates multi-criteria decision approach using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to analyze factors that affected the supply chain networks with the onset of COVID-19. The AHP method enabled to hierarchically rank the factors based on the relative weightage while DEMATEL ascertained the inter-relationships among the factors and classified them into cause and effect groups. The findings of our study identified the cost–optimization as the most significant factor and the human resource management as the least important factor in reducing vulnerabilities of the supply chain network. Our analysis from DEMATEL approach indicate that government support is a significant causal factor which can effectively eliminate the issues plaguing supply chains during this pandemic. The results from our study aim to help policymakers in developing a risk resilient framework that can enhance performance and operational capability of the supply chain, thereby ensuring sustainability and socio-economic well-being of all the stakeholders involved in the entire network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Global transportation systems (GTS) resiliency factors have been extracted by SLR. • A conceptual framework of 12 factors and 22 subfactors of GTS resiliency. • A novel spherical fuzzy (SF) Delphi has been developed to screen critical factors. • A novel SF-DEMATEL-ANP approach has been designed to analyse screened factors. • A critical analysis of the policies of an emerging economy toward GTS resiliency. Although transportation systems play a critical role in the global socio-economic facets, they are acknowledged as vulnerable systems directly impacted by unexpected events, e.g., natural calamities, war, traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, and public health. In this respect, improving the resiliency of transportation systems under uncertainty is a controversial global challenge that this study could underpin. To do so, a systematic literature review (SLR) extracted a list of resiliency factors for resilient transportation systems. Next, a novel version of spherical fuzzy Delphi (SFD) screened factors, considering the case of Iran's international maritime transportation system. Moreover, the causal network relationship of the finalised factors was analysed by a novel hybrid spherical fuzzy approach, including a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and the analytic network process (ANP). Later, the unexpected events that occurred after 2000 were investigated. The SLR deeply investigated 51 of the top relevant articles. As a result, 12 factors and 22 subfactors that affect transportation systems resiliency were extracted. Notably, the rest of the findings primarily apply to the Iranian context. By implementing the SFD, ten factors were screened for Iran's international maritime transportation system and then analysed by SF-DEMATEL. After, the analysed factors were weighted by SFANP, where "recoverability" was selected as the most critical factor, and the "technological and communicational" factor was chosen as the least critical factor. Furthermore, the results provide a critical analysis of the policies adopted by Iran's international maritime transportation system to enhance resiliency under disruptive events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term development in computer manufacturing is crucial to satisfying the demands for the software and hardware needed for artificial intelligence (AI) computation. However, the computer manufacturing sector is highly energy-intensive and resource-consuming, making company sustainability an issue. The framework developed in this study incorporates 15 sustainability criteria focusing predominantly on the economy, society, environment, and risk perspectives. A novel hybrid approach that integrates the ISVTNN (interval single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic number), DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory), and PGRA (probability-based grey relational analysis) techniques is proposed. This approach is applied to evaluate the interdependent weights of the criteria for a comprehensive calculation of the performance of the evaluated companies based on probabilities. The inclusion of ISVTNNs allows not only for the broader consideration of information uncertainty but also for more effective integration of experts' judgments. To verify the robustness of the proposed model, three sensitivity analyses were conducted. The results show no significant changes in the rankings of the evaluated companies, demonstrating the stability and reliability of the model. The proposed framework and methodology can serve as the foundation for assessing the sustainable performance of companies in the electronics manufacturing industry. This study indirectly strengthens the backbone of the AI system, by improving sustainability assessment in the computer manufacturing sector (which is integral to the foundation for AI computation). In the AI-driven era, it can be expected that hardware demands will skyrocket, making sustainable manufacturing the linchpin for long-term operational success, resilience, and industry growth. • Developed a novel group decision-making approach for assessing corporate sustainability performance. • Integrated ISVTNN to measure uncertainty and effectively amalgamate expert opinions. • The proposed ISVTNN PGRA retains fuzziness, calculating through probabilistic means. • Demonstrated approach efficacy across six electronics manufacturing enterprises. • Sensitivity analysis underscores the approach's robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) fail to address collaboration in the supply chain and lean management in conjunction with economic benefits. Collaboration in the supply chain and lean management have to integrate into SSCM, which involves social, economic and environmental aspects. This study aims to establish a framework to understand the seafood industry in Vietnam and to enhance its performance. This framework proposes 5 aspects and 21 criteria, and these aspects involve qualitative information. Fuzzy set theory is applied to deal with the complexity of and uncertainty in the linguistic preferences. The fuzzy Delphi method is employed to test the reliability and validity attributes. A decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is to assess the interrelationships among the attributes. Sensitivity analysis is adopted to address subjective robustness and objective perceptions. The results show that the aspects of collaboration in the supply chain and lean management drive economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to classify a set of circular supply chain collaboration attributes and propose a cause-and-effect framework in the Vietnamese healthcare industry. A circular supply chain is argued to better retrieve value from end of life products to create zero waste, the collaboration within the value chain is seen as a critical facilitator for the transition process and the attributes for bringing this collaboration into practice still need to be discovered. The five aspects suggest as vision and learning in circularity, connection in a circular supply chain, circularity in business model, reverse logistics policies and enabling collaboration by information technology. Fuzzy Delphi method is applied to eliminate unnecessary criteria; decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytical network process are employed to prioritize attributes and identify the interrelationships. Results illustrate that vision and learning in circularity, reverse logistics policies and enabling collaboration by information technology belong to causal group, whereas connection in a circular supply chain and circularity in business model are members of effect group. The top criteria are shared vision guidance on collaboration, a shift in problems framing in supply chain, a shift in problems solving in supply chain collaboration and information technology competency in circular supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development of the agricultural waste power generation industry (AWPGI) can reduce environmental pollutants' emissions and ameliorate energy shortage. However, the current development of AWPGI lacks sustainability. Hence, to address this issue, a Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) model considering relative index weight is utilized, and the fuzzy composite DEMATEL model is employed to identify the interrelationship of the internal system criteria. According to the obtained results, the system's cause factors include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, investment costs, and management costs, and improving technology maturity, energy conversion efficiency, technical complexity, safety and reliability. The effect factors include the non-renewable energy utilization, reduction of agricultural waste and production costs, competitiveness, social acceptability, regional development contribution, government support degree, water use, sound pollution, and job production. The internal relationships between the mentioned two factors are further verified, indicating that diverse cause factors can affect different effect factors. Moreover, systematic policies are designed to improve the power generation industry's sustainability based on the obtained results. The findings can help power generation companies and government decision-makers to make effective decisions to promote the sustainability of the AWPGI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify teachers' accountability in the context of higher educational institutions (HEIs). Most of the literature has used student-oriented outcomes as basic building blocks of accountability. This article contributes to the literature by gauging teachers' perceptions in conceptualising accountability in the HEIs. Indicators of accountability have been identified from the literature. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method has been used to explore the nature of interrelationships among these indicators. Results reveal that accountability indicators have varying impact and some of these indicators have cause and effect type of relationship among them. The article underscores the role of performance-based accountability system (PBAS) which will help in assessing and evaluating teachers in the HEIs. It is argued that accountability strengthens the autopoietic nature of the HEIs and enables underlying knowledge generation and dissemination processes. Using accountability indicators, teachers can self-assess their performance and adapt to evolving needs of students, businesses, and societal stakeholders. The relationships among accountability indicators can be used by policymakers to steer the HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of regenerative medicine, cell therapy is often used to regenerate organs or tissue that can be widely applied to several diseases. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has listed the biotechnology industry as a key developmental objective and has enacted laws to regulate cell therapy. This has led to substantial change and has necessitated a reliable direction of management in the cell therapy industry. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new method to explore the key success factors in three dimensions of relevant biotechnology company management. It adopts a qualitative method combined with a quantitative analysis method. The study uses Gwo Xi Stem Cell Company, a qualified cell therapy company in Taiwan, as a case study. It adopts a literature analysis method and conducts interviews with cell therapy experts to develop an innovative assessment framework. The analytic hierarchy process is combined with decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory to establish the key success factors in the management of the cell therapy industry. Thus, the study offers strategic recommendations for the development of domestic stem-cell-related industries. The results demonstrate technical characteristics as the most important direction for successful management. Moreover, due to the substantial change in Taiwan's cell therapy industry, technical characteristic-related key success factors, including product development strategy (technical characteristic 1) and technological mastery (technical characteristic 2), are currently considered to be crucial key success factors in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of regenerative medicine, cell therapy is often used to regenerate organs or tissue that can be widely applied to several diseases. In recent years, the Taiwanese government has listed the biotechnology industry as a key developmental objective and has enacted laws to regulate cell therapy. This has led to substantial change and has necessitated a reliable direction of management in the cell therapy industry. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new method to explore the key success factors in three dimensions of relevant biotechnology company management. It adopts a qualitative method combined with a quantitative analysis method. The study uses Gwo Xi Stem Cell Company, a qualified cell therapy company in Taiwan, as a case study. It adopts a literature analysis method and conducts interviews with cell therapy experts to develop an innovative assessment framework. The analytic hierarchy process is combined with decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory to establish the key success factors in the management of the cell therapy industry. Thus, the study offers strategic recommendations for the development of domestic stem-cell-related industries. The results demonstrate technical characteristics as the most important direction for successful management. Moreover, due to the substantial change in Taiwan's cell therapy industry, technical characteristic-related key success factors, including product development strategy (technical characteristic 1) and technological mastery (technical characteristic 2), are currently considered to be crucial key success factors in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is widely recognized as an effective way to identify the key elements of a complex system and establish a causal relationship between the criteria. To extend the effective use of the DEMATEL method in multicriteria group decision making problems, we propose some improvements for traditional DEMATEL. The direct‐influence matrix is a pairwise comparison matrix of the influence level between criteria, which is the basis of the DEMATEL method. Instead of utilizing crisp numbers to assess the level of direct‐influence, each expert provides evaluation with hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs) based on an individual linguistic term set, that is, multigranular hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets. To obtain a reasonable and satisfying collective DIM, we propose the expert weights model based on the similarity and entropy of HFLTSs and introduce the consensus reach process that is an iterative and dynamic process of modifying experts' opinions more similar or closer to obtain the satisfying group solution. Considering the increasing complexity of the decision environment and the intricate relationship between the criteria, the Otsu method is applied to determine the threshold value of the total‐influence matrix that is the sum of the direct influence and indirect influence and thus eliminate some unnecessary influence. Finally, the feasibility of the improved method is illustrated by an example of information warfare and analysis. Comparative results are presented to show the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigation of intertwined faults that tarnish the quality and quantity of production and lead to the failures of production process. • Identification of production line faults that make the industry incur severe financial as well as reputational losses. • Not only unveils the faults plaguing the production process but also determines their interdependence and significance. • Bridges the gap of the existing researches that overlook the interplay of intermingling faults in manufacturing industry. • Identification, ranking and investigation of interdependencies of the faults that impede the efficiency and make failures inevitable. Although Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is a common method for identifying and mitigating potential problems in various manufacturing processes, its usefulness is questionable unless it is extended to cope with complex problems. Moreover, it is also widely accepted that the faults plaguing manufacturing processes are intertwined in such a way that they cannot be considered as independent of each other. Instead, they have intermingling impacts and by not paying due heed to such interrelationships, research may tarnish the authenticity of its outcomes. Therefore, it is pertinent to identify not only the prominence but also the nature of these faults. In order to cater to such needs of industry and to overcome the limitations of traditional methods, the proposed approach integrates the applications of cloud model theory and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method. Three contributions of this approach are: First, the cloud model theory is applied to handle the problem of processing random and uncertain judgements. Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method is expanded to take into account the cloud model setting in order to allow for unveiling the crucial faults. Third, a case study is offered which demonstrates the benefits and usefulness of the approach. The combination of Cloud model theory and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method to expand traditional Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and to realize its applicability in production processes underscore the novelty of this research. This is how this approach makes managers cognizant of the most vulnerable areas, allowing them to come up with pre-emptive measure. Consequently, the manufacturing process witnesses efficiency and effectiveness owing to significant reduction in the losses it incurs due to interrelated faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with the smooth implementation of apron control transfer at Chinese airports, two new departments were established, namely apron tower and airport operation command center. Therefore, based on interview texts of controllers and commanders of these two departments, this paper uses text mining and Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Interpretative Structural Modeling Method methods to determine key influence factors and factor hierarchy that affect communication and collaboration in their daily work. The results show that for controllers, key influence factors are mainly personnel development and professional abilities. These factors are located at the bottom of the factor hierarchy and are the basis for ensuring smooth communication and collaboration. For commanders, key influence factors are mainly personnel professional abilities and flight status. These factors are at the top of the factor hierarchy and are focus points that affect communication and collaboration. Hence, the case analysis results show the application potential of these three methods in the field of civil aviation. The combined use of these three methods can enable airport managers to clearly understand the degree of influence between factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty and risk are inevitable issues in decision making in supply chain systems. In knowledge-based communities, uncertain conditions are recognized, analyzed and eliminated using wide range of concepts and approaches. One intelligent tool to aid in decreasing impreciseness and in delivering an acceptable level of accuracy is fuzzy logic. This study reports a new version of the fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making family. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is extended for the first time with interval fuzzy values and then integrated as an input for the quality function deployment (QFD) mechanism. Although the application of decision-making tools in the supply chain and its sustainable development is undeniable, the implementation of fuzzy decision support systems in sustainable supply chains still demands more research work. This study develops an IT2F DEMATEL-QFD model to evaluate and rank sustainable supply chain drivers in a group decision-making environment. The proposed fuzzy decision model is connected to a real research project for eliminating risks in the supply chain related to agricultural production systems. Sensitivity analysis confirms the stability of the model. It is concluded that the outcomes and advantages of the newly developed model will profit academic and non-academic partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multi-attribute two-sided matching (MATSM) problems, the attribute weights play an important role. The existing methods usually neglect the interaction and the effect among multiple attributes, resulting in irrational matching results. This paper takes this interaction into consideration. With the complexity of the matching environment, the uncertainties of agents should be considered. The probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) is a useful tool to describe the uncertainty and the limited cognition of agents. Thus, this paper aims to provide a novel MATSM method under the probabilistic linguistic environment with unknown attribute weights. Firstly, the attribute weights are determined by providing the probabilistic linguistic decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (PL-DEMATEL) method. Besides, this paper constructs the gain and loss (GL) matrices and calculates the agents' perceived values (PVs) by introducing prospect theory (PT). Then, the PVs are aggregated into the comprehensive PVs (CPVs) based on the obtained attribute weights. Next, this paper also proposes a ranking method, called probabilistic linguistic multi-attribute border approximation area comparison (PL-MABAC) method, to rank the multiple agents, which lay a solid foundation for stable matching constraint of the programming model. The matching results are obtained by solving the programming model. Finally, a case study of matching medical treatment service providers and demanders is presented to validate the proposed method. The comparative analyses and discussions are also provided to demonstrate its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-supply chains (CSCs), possessing complexity and uncertainties, constitute a dilemma impeding the achievement of cosmetics firms in their efforts to create a sustainable circular economy (SCE). To address this dilemma, this study adopts a data-driven approach, embracing different data types by performing an exploratory factor analysis and reliability test (EFA&RT, and integrating the fuzzy synthetic method (FSM) with the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to develop an influential model for these practices. This study therefore contributes to the literature by (1) strengthening its theoretical basis, promoting this understanding by bridging the SCE with cosmetic cross-supply chains (CCSCs); (2) proposing a hybrid method for overcoming the dilemma among cross-supply chains; and (3) providing a visual and data-driven analysis that offers a precise direction for making improvements toward the SCE. Specifically, the results show that co-benefit exploration in recycling collaboration, natural resource dependence reduction, and cross-supply chain synchronization via digital technology sharing are the main causal aspects influencing the achievement of a SCE. In practice, material and waste recycling, cost savings, knowledge and information sharing, and sustainable resource management are therefore the driving factors in addressing the cosmetic cross-supply chain dilemma. [Display omitted] • A data-driven influential model bridges the cross-cosmetic SC and SCE. • Integrating qualitative, quantitative, and social media data for the stakeholders in the SC. • Co-benefit exploration in recycling collaboration is the influential aspect for achieving the SCE. • Materials and waste recycling is for co-benefit exploration in recycling collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government resource allocation practices for achieving carbon neutrality need to be guided by dynamic system theory to identify potential dynamics in China. In particular, dynamic system theory addresses the complex interrelationships and identifies the changes in dynamics to support the decision-making process in pursuing carbon neutrality among international trade, transportation, industrial demand and dynamic control. However, carbon neutrality involves various activities to better understand the complex activity interrelationships. The data are collected from four major databases including 30 Chinese provinces/cities covering a six-year period with the accumulated frequency in the Baidu Index. This study proposes a hybrid system approach to dynamic resource analysis. The results showed that carbon intensity control dynamics impose a greater influence on the other dynamics toward carbon neutrality. Many provinces can achieve carbon neutrality by regulating the electronics and telecommunications equipment industry. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising regulatory and public pressure to align investments with sustainability causes an increasing need to analyze how investment institutions conduct and execute investment strategies related to their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) funds. A thorough literature review shows that multiple criteria decision-making models are rarely used to discuss the relationships and weights of ESG fund indices. Furthermore, no ESG investment strategy evaluation framework has been created to deal with such funds. Therefore, a comprehensive framework is developed in this study to help select appropriate investment trust companies (ITCs). Z-numbers are incorporated into the proposed decision-making model in order to reflect information uncertainty and to assess the confidence of expert evaluations. First, a Z-based decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach is used to obtain the relationships and weights of indices to generate a causality diagram that allows decision-makers to quickly recognize the critical influencing factors in their evaluation systems. Then, a Z-based reference ideal method is applied to integrate the performance of the ITCs. The empirical application provides a demonstration of the usefulness of the proposed approach for selecting ITCs, which can aid to formulate appropriate strategies. • A comprehensive framework is proposed for selecting ITCs aligned with ESG factors for pension fund management. • Z-numbers are used to reflect information uncertainty and assess expert evaluations. • Four dimensions and 16 indices for evaluating ESG investment strategies are considered. • Key indices for selecting ITCs are identified. • The study can aid the development of ESG investment strategies in the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the widespread impact of COVID-19, mobile financial services (MFS) have experienced extensive requests due to the failure to perform physical installments and the need for secure transactions. This trend cannot end the utility of cash but it may promote portable monetary administration toward a cashless world. MFS is anticipated to have a bright future as m-commerce increasingly becomes widely known. This study proposes the choice of making a trial and assessment research facility by using a fuzzy model as the most expository device. General forms of a triangular fuzzy number are subjective categories for a linguistic variable. Linguistic variables take on values defined in their term set, that is, the set of linguistic terms. The essential components, including personal innovativeness, transaction completeness, user-friendliness, anonymity, and privacy, are causal competitive advantages of the mobile payment system framework and may play a critical part in reacting to MFS. This study shows that transaction completeness, innovative interface design, privacy, and security facilitate MFS adoption. Furthermore, reliability is necessary to enhance trust in the MFS technology. This study draws on the outcomes of administrative suggestions and recommends a few observational strategies to improve the monetary administration in the MFS industry.

This study aims towards identifying and modelling the significant factors which act as enablers for the branded content to be used strategically by marketers as a marketing tool in the COVID-19 era. A qualitative approach was adopted for this study, and significant factors associated with branded content were identified from the literature review and primary survey. The factors were then verified by the experts in the area of branding and digital marketing. Total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques were used to model the factors as per their contextual relationships. As per the model outcomes from TISM and DEMATEL approaches, branded content is an efficient marketing tool that promises value delivery to stakeholders. This, in turn, depends on the authenticity and transparency in content development and distribution. The most significant driving enablers for the system suggest efficient measurement and evaluation strategies and the customer as co-creator for the branded content.

Sustainable consumption and production have been increasingly required in the construction industry. However, previous studies have not yet comprehensively developed evaluation tools and methods to implement sustainable consumption and production. To achieve this objective, we utilized the eco-innovation, which provides effective analysis of sustainable consumption and production for the construction firms by eliminating subjectivity and ambiguity of evaluations. We adopted the fuzzy set theory to overcome the uncertainty occurring from the judgments of experts and utilized decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach to analyse the causal relationships between our methods and evaluation criteria. The results showed that environment and sustainable consumption are the key factors, while life cycle assessment, eco-labels, and environmental certification as well as improving eco-efficiency are critical to realizing sustainable consumption and production. The study enhances the understanding of the major players to achieve sustainable consumption and production, and link sustainable consumption and production with the eco-innovative practices. Our approach also improves the assessment accuracy, and the results provide viable suggestions for practical applications.

The study aims to develop a hierarchical framework for sustainable tourism considering socio-economic, socio-environmental and eco-efficiency aspects (coordinated triple bottom line). However, development of this hierarchical framework development must consider linguistic preferences and the interrelationships between the aspects and the criteria. Hence, the vague set is used to address linguistic preferences, and the interrelationships are presented with the decision-making and trial evaluation laboratory technique. Interpretive structural modeling is used to develop the sustainable tourism hierarchical framework. The results reveal that (1) socio-economics has a greater influence and (2) eco-efficiency performance does not reach the expected level because tourism firms encounter conflicts in balancing economic growth and environmental impact. This proposed hierarchical framework aims to guide the tourism industry toward sustainability. This study also proposes rewarding employees for promoting eco-processes, creating new eco-commercial links with the public and adopting an eco-organization to increase competitiveness and profitability for the practitioners. • Proposing coordinated triple bottom line (socio-economic, socio-environmental and eco-efficiency) balance the triple bottom line perspectives. • Integrating vague DEMATEL and ISM discover a sustainable tourism hierarchical framework. • Providing a hierarchical framework guides practitioner toward sustainable tourism under linguistic preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]