A novel neutrosophical approach in stakeholder analysis for sustainable fashion supply chains

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is proposing a novel neutrosophical stakeholders' analysis approach for sustainable fashion supply chain (SFSC), presenting a supply chain members and objectives in order to conduct a sustainable business, investigating the roles and positions of these stakeholders, determining the contribution levels of these stakeholders to the sustainability objectives, and accordingly identifying the convergence and divergence among the stakeholders in terms of realization of the objectives. Design/methodology/approach A novel neutrosophic set-based stakeholders' analysis Method of ACTors, Objectives, strength Reports (MACTOR) approach is proposed considering the uncertain and indeterminate opinions of decision-makers. In order to obtain the mutual opinions of decision-makers, Delphi technique is employed. Findings The analysis results of this research emphasizes that although the manufacturers can be thought as the foremost actor is SFSC by producing the main product, they have no superior power on conducting the business. Besides, the government, customer and fashion firms are the key players shaping the fashion industry. Retailers and distribution centers can be interpreted as an intermediary in between the other stakeholders. Moreover, the eco-friendly packaging providers have not gained an important role that they were supposed to in terms of the sustainability objectives. Research limitations/implications The application phase of the research includes the possibility of subjective judgments of the participants as a limitation. Therefore, Delphi technique is applied to overcome this challenge by multiple rounds of interviews for panel of participants in order to combine the benefits with elements of the wisdom of people. Practical implications Examining a multi-echelon supply chain is a practical implication providing the mutual opinions of experts such as designers, stylists, journalists, consultants, procurement managers, entrepreneurs, activists etc. for sustainability in the fashion industry. One can derive from the findings to determine which sub-echelon requires more attention, or which business is more important to focus on most, or which branch of activity influences others most. Originality/value This is one of the few articles that focuses on the sustainability objective and highlights the active roles of all members of the supply chain. Besides, this is the first study deploying neutrosophic sets for MACTOR analysis.

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