Integration of SWOT and ANP for effective strategic planning in the cosmetic industry.

Typically, the decision making processes in cosmetics firms are greatly affected by internal and external factors, which as a result affect firms' success. In this research, the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) analysis was used to identify those factors that affect a cosmetics firm's success and consequently lists the feasible strategy alternatives. The analytic network process (ANP) was adopted for calculating the relative importance for each SWOT factors and sub-factors, while taking into consideration the dependency among SWOT factors, as well as among sub-factors. Utilizing the importance values in the super-matrix, the most preferred strategy in a cosmetic industry is identified, which is to open-up new markets on European market. In conclusion, the SWOT and ANP integration may provide great assistance to strategic planners in determining the best strategy alternative that fulfils the firm's desired objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]