Sustainable purchasing criteria importance rank determination with fuzzy cognitive mapping and max diff analysis

Abstract

Sustainability has emerged as a paramount concern in contemporary business and supply chain management, necessitating the adoption of sustainable practices throughout the procurement process. Sustainable purchasing involves integrating environmental, social, and economic considerations into procurement decisions, with the aim of minimizing negative impacts on the environment and society while maximizing value for the organization and its stakeholders. The development and implementation of sustainable purchasing criteria are crucial for guiding procurement decisions and promoting sustainability within supply chains. These criteria encompass various factors, including but not limited to energy efficiency, waste reduction, fair labor practices, supplier diversity, and the use of environmentally friendly materials. By incorporating these criteria, organizations can prioritize sustainability goals and contribute to broader sustainable development objectives. Determining the importance ranks of sustainable purchasing criteria is essential for effective decision-making and resource allocation. Several methods, such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), can be employed to assess the relative significance of different criteria. Ranking sustainable purchasing criteria allows organizations to identify priority areas and make informed procurement decisions that align with their sustainability objectives. Moreover, it facilitates the implementation of sustainability initiatives, enabling organizations to reduce their ecological footprint and foster responsible business practices. In this paper, sustainable purchasing criteria will be examined under three main headings: economic, environmental and social. There are seven criteria under these main headings. Sustainable purchasing criteria will be ranked according to their importance with Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) and Max Diff Analysis methods. With this study, it is aimed to determine the importance levels of sustainable purchasing criteria, obtained by the participation of surveys of expert buyers in Turkey, by FCM and Max-Diff Analysis. A web-based survey was conducted to start these analyses. The data was obtained through the survey. It was desired to obtain meaningful quantitative information with the help of qualitative data and analyzes obtained by the questionnaire. With the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping method, the criteria under each subheading were ranked according to their importance. It was requested from the participants to enter the effect of each criterion on the other criteria with the help of matrices, and with the help of iteration with the activation matrix, the importance levels of the criteria were determined according to the effect relations with each other. In Max Diff analysis, on the other hand, the participants were asked to choose the sustainable purchasing criteria as the least effective - the most effective in groups among themselves, and the importance levels of these criteria were determined accordingly. According to analyses, importance ranks are given below: For economic criteria, in both analyses, E2 – Quality of Service/Products is the most important criteria among other economic criteria, E1 – Competitive Price follows it. Rank results are very parallel. For environmental criteria, in both analyses, EN1 – Environmental Management System Compliance is the most important criteria among other environmental criteria. In Max Diff analysis, EN2 – Production Input Management Competency Level comes second where in Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, EN3 – Recycling Management Competency Level follows EN1. For Social Criteria, in Max Diff Analysis, S3 – Product/Service Responsibility Level is the most important and S5 – Compliance with Ethical Issues is the second most important criteria. In Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, S5 – Compliance with Ethical Issues is the most important where S2 – Human Rights Compliance Level is the second important criteria. In the future, all large, medium and small sized companies will need to adapt to sustainable purchasing criteria. And with this study, in the period when the concept of sustainability gains importance in the future, it is tried to determine how the importance levels of purchasing criteria are relative to each other.