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The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank the influential social marketing factors for physical activity promotion.

A descriptive-survey approach is used in this study. First, the influential social marketing factors for physical activity promotion were determined through the review of theoretical foundations and literature. The factors with a >0.7 content validity index (CVI) value, based on the experts' opinion, were selected. A total of 23 individuals participated in the study, including sports marketing experts and members of physical activity committees of Iranian sports federations, and they were selected purposively. The study data were collected using a pairwise comparison questionnaire and analyzed using the DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP) method.

In this study, a total of 17 influential social marketing factors were identified and categorized in 5 dimensions: product, price, place, promotion and partnership. Based on DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP) results, the “promotion” with the weight of 0.212 was the most important dimension and “providing inexpensive sports services” with the weight of 0.096 was the most important social marketing factor influencing the promotion of the physical activity.

The results highlight the importance of sport for all services expenses and costs in promoting physical activity. Thus, the results can be the basis for policies regarding social marketing to promote physical activity.

Corporate social responsibility has gradually become an essential enterprise responsibility under stakeholders’ expectations. Employee care strategies involve both qualitative and quantitative factors and are receiving special attention with the advent of the information age. In previous studies, a company’s policy of employee care may not fit with the needs of the employees. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to investigate enterprises’ employee care from the employee’s perspective by adopting a hybrid multiple attribute decision making (MADM) model.

This study is based on 159 interviews with senior employees and/or department managers using a survey questionnaire. This study uses the MADM model to conduct the analysis. First, this research study used Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to construct an influential network relations map of the 4 dimensions and 13 criteria of employee care. Second, this study uses DEMATEL-based Analytic Network Process to conduct a weight analysis for each dimension and criterion. Third, this study uses VIKOR to calculate employees’ level of satisfaction as well as the gap from the “aspired level.”

The results of the study revealed the critical factors influencing employee care and proposed a systematic plan to be used as a reference for improvement. The improvement sequence revealed the following order: Equal employment opportunities→Good industrial relations and benefits→Responsibility to train and educate employees→Occupational health and safety. The empirical results showed there was still 35 percent room for improvement in the enterprises’ implementation policy of employee care.

The implementation of employee care has become an important issue for corporations since it helps to sustain and to increase an enterprise’s competitiveness in the business environment. However, the extant literature on employee care comes from enterprises’ perspectives instead of from employees’ perspectives. This research investigates the key factors of employee care and successfully shows MADM to be an effective model for the planning and implementation of corporate social responsibilities’ employee care from the perspective of employees.

The decision to become international is a highlighted organisational decision that affects all dimensions at all firm levels. Human resources are also among the parts of the organisation affected by this decision. Paying attention to employees can speed up and facilitate this process. Organisational integrity is one of the most significant issues that must be considered. In this regard, identifying, investigating and planning to deal with the destructive effects that may influence the employees of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) in internationalisation, are among the subjects that have so far received less attention and should be studied more. The present study explores the destructive influences of internationalisation on the employees of SMEs by a hybrid multi-layer decision-making model-psychological solution. First, by reviewing the literature, the destructive impacts of internationalisation on employees are extracted. In the next stage, these factors are screened according to the condition of the SMEs in an emerging economy by interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy Delphi (IVIHF-Delphi). The impact of these factors on each other is then evaluated applying interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy DEMATEL-based ANP (IVIHF-DANP). Consequently, the highlighted destructive impacts are determined and the psychological solutions to face them are provided.

The invention and use of mobile commerce (m-commerce) technology have progressed in recent years. In small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the decision to implement business-to-business m-commerce is a multiple-criteria decision analysis problem that involves both qualitative and quantitative factors, and its evaluation may be based on imprecise information or uncertain data. Furthermore, there may be significant dependences or important feedback among different levels of criteria or alternatives. However, most conventional decision models cannot capture these complex interrelationships. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a new hybrid multiple attribute decision model (MADM) model to evaluate the implementation of business-to-business m-commerce by SMEs in Taiwan to enhance the thinking of management and improve decision gaps.

In this study, the authors present the use of a new hybrid MADM combined with a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to construct an influential network relationship map (INRM) and find the influential weights of DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP) in criteria from the influential relationship matrix, and the modified VIKOR method using influential weights to evaluate and integrate the criteria performance in the gaps and to analyze how to reduce the gaps to evaluate the decision to implement business-to-business m-commerce by SMEs based on INRM.

The findings of using the new hybrid MADM model can efficiently and successfully be applied to the business-to-business m-commerce of SMEs to improve and reduce the performance gaps among each criterion/aspect when setting improvement strategies for achieving an aspiration level based on INRM.

This study achieves the following: successfully building a decision network (called an influential network relation map (INRM)) of the technological advances and implementations of business-to-business m-commerce for solving the inter-dependence and feedback of criteria/aspects in the real world problem; how changing effective solutions from existing performance of situations/alternatives into aspiration levels to fit the current competitive markets in the business-to-business m-commerce of SMEs; and efficiently shifting from ranking and selection when determining the most preferable approaches to performance improvement by modified VIKOR methods.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to evaluate distribution strategies for an e-tailer. An application of MCDM method, the hybrid DANP–VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) model, is used for e-tailers’ distribution strategy evaluation. The choice of distribution strategies under various dimensions is evaluated.

The authors used a hybrid MCDM model to solve the decision-making framework, which combines Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR method. Data were collected from the experts (e-tail manager, logistics manager, operations manager and distribution center (DC) manager) using two questionnaires, first for the influential relationship among the criteria and dimensions and second for a performance rating of each alternative (distribution strategies) against each criterion.

DANP with VIKOR method prioritizes the distribution strategies in the following order: DC shipment, drop shipment, click and collect, store shipment and click and reserve. Performance gap was calculated based on the VIKOR method to provide distribution strategies to an e-tailer under different situations. The authors infer that in developing country, product characteristics and transportation have a major influence on deciding the distribution strategy.

Decision-making framework will provide e-tail mangers a knowledge-based understanding to select the distribution strategy under the different situations related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics for smooth order fulfillment process. The insights developed by this research provide a framework for rational decision making in distribution strategy selection in e-business.

This is the first kind of a study which offers a decision framework for e-tail managers on how to choose distribution strategies under different situations which are related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore key factors or criteria of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) influencing Indonesian coal companies, using “adoption, implementation, and performance” (A-I-P) of SSCM, thru three means: first, to investigate which criteria have higher weight to achieve SSCM in Indonesia; second, to see whether there are any differences between the Indonesia case and existing literature of SSCM; third, to highlight any causal relationships between the Indonesia case and the SSCM theory.

DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP) questionnaire survey with a theoretical SSCM model is applied to conduct an empirical test for the coal production and supply chain companies in Indonesia.

The “performance” dimension out of the A-I-P of the SSCM is the most important one, while the “adoption” dimension is the least. Out of the 12 criteria under the three dimensions, the “operational, economic, environmental, and social” factors under the category of the performance dimension and the “ISO 14001 certification” criteria belonging to the dimension of “implementation” are the top five key factors in the SSCM.

There are some limitations in this study. First and foremost is the relatively small sample size with a limited geographic area, although they are unavoidable owing to one country case study.

The test results are helpful to draw guidance for sustainable supply chain managers in implementing efficient SSCM in the wave of tough competition and changing marketplace.

This study contributes first to developing a theoretical framework for SSCM under the A-I-P model and second, to applying DANP to an empirical case of SSCM of the coal industry in Indonesia. As a result, the authors draw helpful guidelines and policy implications for SSCM of the coal industry, referring to the A-I-P dimension as drivers and enablers for the SSCM performances of the industry.

E-fulfillment has a significant role to play within e-tailing, which provides products to a customer, comprising primarily of five components: website quality, customization strategy, distribution strategy, last mile delivery and return management. The purpose of this paper is to provide an e-fulfillment performance evaluation framework for an e-tailer, considering the different performance aspects of information systems (IS), marketing and operations for e-tailers.

Since quite a few performance aspects (i.e. IS, marketing system and operations) need to be factored in while evaluating the e-fulfillment performance, it may be considered as a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem. This study used decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) based analytic network process (DANP) to investigate the relationship between performance class and performance aspects, and calculated their weights. These designated weights of performance aspects help managers to find the important aspects needing improvement. The understanding of the interrelationship among the performance aspects enables managers to improve the efficiency of an e-tailing system.

This study provides the e-fulfillment performance evaluation framework to find the important aspects requiring improvement. The results of this study reveal that the important performance aspects of e-fulfillment performance are return policy, pickup method, innovativeness, assortment type, assortment width, trust (privacy and security) and promised delivery date.

This e-fulfillment performance evaluation could be used by an e-tailer to assess the e-fulfillment performance, and identify areas of improvement.

This study makes a contribution to the present body of knowledge by considering operations related performance aspects except the IS and marketing to evaluate the e-fulfillment performance.

The purpose of this study was to identify the excellence criteria of services supply chain (SSC) in Iran and the relationship between them and the importance of each criterion.

In this paper, after reviewing the principles and evaluating models of SSCs, using the fuzzy Delphi method, the criteria for excellence in the supply chain processes were identified. Then, the relationships between these criteria and their significance were evaluated using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and DEMATEL-based analytic network process methods.

The results show that 19 evaluation criteria have been identified in Iran in accordance with the SSC process. These criteria were classified according to their nature and based on the Deming Excellence Model and ISO 9004 standards in four areas: Plan, Do, Check and Act. In addition, the Act dimension with the weight of 0.275 has the highest importance and the Plan dimension with the weight of 0.219 has the lowest importance.

This study attempted to identify appropriate criteria for SSC processes in management consulting firms by examining supply chain assessment models to provide the managers with the right understanding of this industry for performance assessment so that they have a better knowledge of supply chain processes.

The results will be useful for managers to understand the SSC and the ways of SSC excellence in a service organization. This research is a first step for evaluating SSC performance of management consultancy institutes. In fact, after the identification of SSC processes and evaluation criteria, designing a mechanism for the evaluation of the performance of SSCs can be a subject for future research.

Many organizations failed to generate profits after investing considerable money and time in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This study, therefore, sought to identify the challenges encountered by pharmaceutical firms during the post-implementation of ERP systems.

A case-based study followed by general survey-based research was carried out in pharmaceutical firms to determine the critical post-implementation challenges of ERP systems. DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP) and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were used to find the causal/critical challenges and rank them.

After analyzing a pharmaceutical case company and conducting a general survey among pharmaceutical companies, statistical analysis was performed to identify the most significant challenges, namely, “Inefficient troubleshooting mechanism”, “Lack of training during post-implementation stage” and “Difficulty in identifying invalid data when entered into the ERP system”. Furthermore, organization-wide challenges are considered to be the most important.

The paper identifies the challenges faced during the post-implementation phase of ERP systems. This work brings out the issues with ERP systems' performance after their implementation, which is related to the quality of the ERP systems. This work will support the risk identification and mitigation during ERP implementation to eradicate the problems after its implementation. This work may trigger the ERP system developers to improve its features and performance for better manufacturing and supply chain management system in pharmaceutical firms.

This study is uniquely conducted in pharmaceutical firms to study the benefits and challenges of adopted ERP systems. A pilot case study served as the foundation for the generalizability of other pharmaceutical firms' findings through a non-parametric test.

Based on generic reviews of research on school leadership, this study aims to conceptualize an emerging leadership competence model for further prioritizing school leadership training needs by decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-based analytic network process (ANP). Targeting at a specific group of junior high school principals in Taiwan, the synthesized prioritization of core competences and competence indicators computed by DEMATEL-based ANP can be used as a blueprint for systematically developing school principal preparation programs elsewhere based on contextually specific needs and concerns.

For the purpose of detecting the priority of competences extracted from a plethora of literature in relation to school leaders’ skills, abilities and knowledge, a hybrid MCDM model, known as DEMATEL-based ANP, is used to snapshot critical leadership competences for tailoring the intended junior high school principal preparation program.

Results of global weight computations by DEMATEL-based ANP show that the overall prioritization of the five dimensions in ranking order are “Redesigning the organization,” “Related leadership practices,” “Setting Directions,” “Personal Characteristics” and “Developing People.” Factor-level analysis indicated that “Legality,” “Consensus Building,” “Shared Vision,” “Strategic Management,” “Authoritarianism,” “Modeling Behavior” and “High Performance Emphasis” were prioritized factors to be included in developing the intended school principal preparation program.

Contextually based findings yielded from DEMATEL-based ANP would only be applicable to the target context under investigation. Generalizing the findings to junior high school principals elsewhere might not be appropriate. Methods introduced in this study are extensible to further studies aiming at shaping leadership trainings in other school settings to achieve maximum impact based on contextually specific needs. Limitations associated with sophisticated mathematical computations involved in performing high-leverage MCDM models would shed light on the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations between scholars, practitioners and methodologists.

To efficiently deliver training for junior high school principals, the prioritization of core competences and competence indicators solicited by DEMATEL-based ANP can be used as a scenario-based reference for planning the intended school principal preparation program planning, as well as a mechanism for selecting and evaluating potential and incumbent school principals with desired leadership competences.

This study has used DELATEL-based ANP as a decision-making tool to disclose a plethora of competences extracted from different threads in the literature into a prioritized competence framework that differs from past one-size-fit-all approach to design and plan school principal preparation programs.