Modelling flexible decisions about sustainable supplier selection in multitier sustainable supply chain management
研究针对多层级可持续供应链中供应商选择问题，提出一种结合模糊集、权重分析和贝叶斯网络的混合模型，以应对不同供应链结构下的决策需求，并通过中国案例验证其灵活性。
Supplier selection is crucial decision for buying companies to develop sustainable supply chain strategy. Not only first-tier suppliers but also lower-tier suppliers would influence the buyer’s sustainability performance. Thus, buying companies need to consider extending their sustainable supply chain plan to multitier suppliers, and develop multitier sustainable supply chain management (MT-SSCM). Sustainable supplier selection (SSS), as an important SSCM practice, can effectively enhance the sustainable competitiveness of supply chains. However, there are few theoretical studies on SSS under MT-SSCM, which affects the decision-making efficiency of organisations. In general, there are three multitier supply chain (MTSC) structures: open MTSC, closed MTSC and transitional MTSC structures. Because some traditional decision models cannot deal with a variety of structures at the same time, this study proposes a hybrid model that integrates fuzzy set theory, stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis and a Bayesian network to evaluate the critical SSS criteria in three MTSC structures. Finally, a case of a Chinese buying company is used to verify the flexibility and applicability of the proposed model, and some suggestions are provided for the practitioners to select sustainable suppliers in different MTSC structures.