Shahryar Sorooshian

Expanded DEMATEL for Determining Cause and Effect Group in Bidirectional Relations

Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methodology has been proposed to solve complex and intertwined problem groups in many situations such as developing the capabilities, complex group decision making, security problems, marketing approaches, global managers, and control systems. DEMATEL is able to realize casual relationships by dividing important issues into cause and effect group as well as making it possible to visualize the casual relationships of subcriteria and systems in the course of casual diagram that it may demonstrate communication network or a little control relationships between individuals. Despite of its ability to visualize cause and effect inside a network, the original DEMATEL has not been able to find the cause and effect group between different networks. Therefore, the aim of this study is proposing the expanded DEMATEL to cover this deficiency by new formulations to determine cause and effect factors between separate networks that have bidirectional direct impact on each other. At the end, the feasibility of new extra formulations is validated by case study in three numerical examples of green supply chain networks for an automotive company.

Modeling for Green Supply Chain Evaluation

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has become a practical approach to develop environmental performance. Under strict regulations and stakeholder pressures, enterprises need to enhance and improve GSCM practices, which are influenced by both traditional and green factors. This study developed a causal evaluation model to guide selection of qualified suppliers by prioritizing various criteria and mapping causal relationships to find effective criteria to improve green supply chain. The aim of the case study was to model and examine the influential and important main GSCM practices, namely, green logistics, organizational performance, green organizational activities, environmental protection, and green supplier evaluation. In the case study, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory technique is applied to test the developed model. The result of the case study shows only “green supplier evaluation” and “green organizational activities” criteria of the model are in the cause group and the other criteria are in the effect group.

A Multicriteria Framework to Evaluate Supplier’s Greenness

Environmental protection is becoming more and more important for enterprises because of stronger public awareness, competitors and communities, and government regulations. For this purpose, some programs have become more popular for raising environmental awareness including total quality environmental management and green supply chain management. Reducing the environmental pollution from upstream to downstream during procuring raw materials, producing, distribution, selling products, and products depreciation is the most important goal of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM). The main contribution of this study is introducing the main factors in green supply chain management that are very important in environmental attributes by providing an evaluation framework to select the most eligible green suppliers by examining the influential and important criteria and subcriteria among ten elements of two main GSCM practices, namely, green logistics and environmental protection. First, these factors are divided into two groups, that is, green logistics and environmental protection, and then by applying DEMATEL technique, the complex causal relationship between all factors dependencies and feedbacks among them is examined. Finally, by drawing the impact relationship map the most important and influential factors are determined for improving green supply chain environmental aspects.

Linguistic Extension for Group Multicriteria Project Manager Selection

Qualified human resource selection is one of the organizational key success factors. Since choosing the best candidate to fill the defined vacancy in a company is a complex task, intelligence analytical methods would be required to deal with this important issue. Regarding the vagueness and uncertainty of human resource selection process, it requires the linguistic extension of multicriteria decision making (MCDM) models for robust recruitment. This research is aimed to develop a fuzzy MCDM model for linguistic reasoning under new fuzzy group decision making. The new linguistic reasoning for group decision making is able to aggregate subjective evaluation of the decision makers and hence create an opportunity to perform more robust human resource selection procedures. A numerical example demonstrates possibilities for the improvement of human resource management and any other business decision areas through applying the proposed model.

Scholarly Black Market

Fake and unethical publishers’ activities are known by most of the readers of Science and Engineering Ethics. This letter tries to draw the readers’ attention to the hidden side of some of these publishers’ business. Here the black market of scholarly articles, which negatively affects the validity and reliability of research in higher education, as well as science and engineering, will be introduced.

Conference Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

In some cases, organizing a conference resembles a high-profit business. Some of these conferences are wolves in sheep’s clothing. This article draws readers’ attention to current examples of such unethical business conferences.

Predictors for the Success and Survival of Entrepreneurs in the Construction Industry

A review of entrepreneurship literature suggests that entrepreneurial activities are the most important drivers for economic growth and corporate success, regardless of size, age or industry. Nevertheless, so far, only a few studies, if any, have considered entrepreneurship as a success factor for construction enterprises, although the importance of the construction industry to the nations economic growth is significant. This paper reports a conceptual framework for formulating the success and survival factors of entrepreneurs in the construction industry. It also integrates four major perspectives in entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial organization, entrepreneurial competencies and entrepreneurial environment.

Application Of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Topsis Model For Troubleshooting An Offshore Patrol Boat Engine

Abstract In this paper, an Intuitionistic Fuzzy TOPSIS model which is based on a score function is proposed for detecting the root cause of failure in an Offshore Boat engine, using groups of expert’s opinions. The study which has provided an alternative approach for failure mode identification and analysis in machines, addresses the machine component interaction failures which is a limitation in existing methods. The results from the study show that although early detection of failures in engines is quite difficult to identify due to the dependency of their systems from each other. However, with the Intuitionistic Fuzzy TOPSIS model which is based on an improved score function such faults/failures are easily detected using expert’s based opinions.

Case Study on Logistics Performance

The paper presents research carried out at a medium-size manufacturing organization in east Asia. The study tries to highlight the importance of supply chain management; specifically, our aim for this study is to understand logistics and performance measurement in the logistics and supply chain, and we include a theoretical discussion of online data collected and a case study of the logistic performance of a real organization. The study also examines the performance of the selected company, identifies the problems and provides recommendations for improvements. This study can be a guide for business advisers and those interested in analysing company performance, especially from a logistics viewpoint. We also suggest the methodology of this case study for those who want to have a better understanding of a business environment before starting their own business, or for benchmarking practice during strategic planning.

Business Ethics for Mobile Network Operators

The letter is highlighting a case of Business Ethics for Mobile Network Operators based on the recent news.