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This research aims to model the social dimension of sustainability in construction projects. A new hybrid system dynamic (SD)–fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is proposed to analyze the various factors affecting social aspect of sustainability taking into account their complex interactions.

The various factors affecting the social dimension of sustainable development are identified based on the opinions of 12 experts with an extensive experience in highway construction projects and a thorough knowledge and/or professional experience in the sustainability area. The qualitative model of social sustainability is constructed using SD approach and the complex inter-related structure of the various influencing factors are modeled using cause and effect feedback loops. Fuzzy set theory is applied to model the uncertainty of human judgments. The importance of various influencing factors is then determined quantitatively taking account of their complex interactions using the proposed SD-fuzzy DEMATEL method. The most significant influencing factors are finally determined.

To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, it is implemented on a real highway project and the importance of various factors affecting the social sustainability is determined. A set of complex interrelated factors affecting social sustainability are divided into cause and effect groups, and the root causes affecting the social sustainability performance of the project are determined. Therefore, the required managerial actions can be taken to improve the social sustainability.

Well-qualified experts with a well-developed mental model of social sustainability are necessary to provide required input data for modeling social sustainability using the proposed approach. The absence of such experts could be a limitation for the implementation of the proposed model on a new project.

The proposed Hybrid SD-fuzzy DEMATEL method provides a practical and robust tool to analyze the various factors affecting social sustainability taking into account their complex interactions.

The proposed method offers a more precise and accurate analysis of various factors affecting social sustainability of construction projects since the complex inter-related structure of influencing factors as well as the vague and imprecise nature of experts' judgment is taken into account efficiently.

This study aims to develop a cause-effect relationship between criteria that contribute to water security using the Intuitionistic Fuzzy-Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (IF-DEMATEL) method. Differently from the typical DEMATEL which utilizes crisp numbers, this modification introduces intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs) to enhance judgments in a group decision-making environment. In particular, the linguistic variables used in IF-DEMATEL are defined using the concept of three-tuple of IFNs.

Data with the linguistic variable “influence” were collected from a group of experts in water security via personal unstructured interviews. Seven water security criteria are considered in this study. Computational software was employed to execute the computational procedures of the IF-DEMATEL method. It is anticipated that by taking into account the hesitation degree of IFNs will reflect the scenario in real life, which could lead to precise decision-making.

The results show that “Over-Abstraction”, “Saltwater Intrusion” and “Limited Infrastructures” are the cause criteria that contribute to water security. In addition, the relationship map of influence shows that “Water Pollution” and “Rapid Urbanization” are the most vulnerable criteria as these two criteria are most easily affected by other criteria in a unidirectional relation.

It is anticipated that these findings will serve as useful references for water security management and policymakers.

The present study makes a noteworthy contribution to the modification of DEMATEL where three-tuple of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers are considered in the computations. The present study also provides additional evidence with respect to factors that contribute to water security.

The purpose of this article is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of knowledge management (KM) adoption in the supply chain (SC) using the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method through an empirical case study.

The paper examines the influencing factors of KM adoption in SC which have been identified through the literature survey and expert opinion. The fuzzy DEMATEL method has been used to evaluate identified influencing factors. Considering the interdependence among factors, the fuzzy DEMATEL method forms a structural model and then visualizes the causal relationships among factors through a cause–effect relationship diagram. On the basis of the cause–effect relationship diagram, CSFs that are extraordinarily essential for KM adoption in SC are identified. Empirical case study of an Indian automobile organization presented to illustrate the fuzzy DEMATEL method and demonstrates its usefulness.

The results gathered from the implementation of the fuzzy DEMATEL method to identify CSFs of KM adoption in SC to the chosen case illustrate that factors such as top management support, employee training and education, integration of knowledge and information flow, communication among the SC members and trustworthy teamwork to exchange knowledge within SC need to be highlighted as critical factors for successful adoption of KM in SC.

The finding not only offers a meaningful base to deepen the understanding with regard to KM adoption in SC, but also provides a clue to develop an effective adoption of KM in SC in a stepwise manner.

The empirical case study contributes to the literature on KM adoption in SC, suggesting how an organization can identify CSFs of KM adoption in SC and implement them progressively to greatly improve the efficiency of the whole SC performance.

To develop a fuzzy causal model of enterprise flexibility dimensions in a case study of Indian pharmaceutical industry.

The eight dimensions of enterprise flexibility were identified based on literature review. Fermatean fuzzy decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory (FF-DEMATEL) technique is applied to develop the cause-and-effect interrelationship model among various enterprise flexibility dimensions.

The information technology flexibility, supply chain flexibility, technical flexibility and marketing flexibility are found to be causing/influencing other flexibilities and contributing to overall enterprise flexibilities. Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to develop and sustain them for competitive advantage.

Fermatean fuzzy sets offer more flexibility and more accurate handling complex uncertain group decision making. FF-DEMATEL is a more accurate method to develop inter-dependencies and causal model than ISM, TISM. Ratings from the limited number of decision experts (DEs) from few pharmaceutical firms were done. Future study should take bigger sample of firms and more number of DEs to generalize the findings.

The model will help managers in pharmaceutical industry to prioritize the dimensions of enterprise flexibility to achieve agility, responsiveness, resilience and competitive advantage.

To the best knowledge of the authors, causal modeling enterprise flexibility dimensions using FF-DEMATEL has been studied for the first time in a developing economy context.

Traditional risk assessment (RA) methodologies cannot model vagueness in risk and cannot prioritize corrective-preventive measures (CPMs) by considering effectiveness of those on risk types (RTs). These cannot combine and reflect accurately different subjective opinions and cannot be used in a linguistic manner. Risk factors (RFs) are assumed to have the same importance and interrelations between RFs are not considered. This study aims to overcome these disadvantages by combining fuzzy logic with multi-criteria decision-making in a dynamic manner.

This study proposes a novel three-stage fuzzy risk matrix-based RA integrating fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (F-DEMATEL) and fuzzy multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (F-MABAC). At the first stage, importance weights of RFs are computed by F-DEMATEL. At the second stage, risk degrees of RTs are computed via using fuzzy risk matrix. At the third stage, CPMs are ranked by F-MABAC. Finally, a numerical example for RA in a warehouse is given.

Results show that developing instructions for material loading or unloading is the most important CPM and severity is the most important RF for the warehouse.

This study has originality in terms of having fuzzy dynamic structure. At first, RFs are assumed to be criteria sets then, RTs are assumed to be criteria set considering their risk degrees to rank CPMs in a fuzzy manner. Risk degrees of RTs are used for weights of RTs and effectiveness of CPMs are used for performance values of CPMs.

The aim of this paper is to predict and minimize the risks of oil, gas and petrochemical projects. Besides, reducing the likelihood of occurrence and minimizing risks impact on the projects to reduce the probable costs and improve the economic situation is another purpose of this paper.

This paper provides a fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) – a technique that assist to solve decision-making problems – and IP (Impact & Probability) table methods to identify and analyze critical risks in energy projects, and then fuzzy Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) in order to predict the probability of each level of risk for more efficient risk management in projects. Furthermore, in this paper, the fuzzy BLR (FBLR) is optimized such that the probability of a high level of risk for the implementation of the project has been minimized using meta-heuristic algorithm.

The results from the point of view of experts show that combination of fuzzy DEMATEL with FBLR approach as well as using SA algorithm, in order to optimize the high level of risks, can provide a smart approach to managing risks with more success.

The application of the proposed method is illustrated via a real data set from energy projects.

We propose combined fuzzy DEMATEL and FBLR methods to predict and optimize the risks of the energy projects, which is the innovation of this paper.

This paper aims to investigate an integrated approach that aims at enhancing the application process of value stream mapping (VSM) method. It also proposes an extended VSM called Economic and Environmental VSM(E-EVSM). The proposed approach highlights the improvement of economic and environmental performances.

The proposed approach has studied the integration of VSM, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) to improve the economic and environmental performances of manufacturing processes. The VSM method is used for data collection and manufacturing process assessment, whereas fuzzy DEMATEL is used to analyse the current state map. Finally, fuzzy QFD is used to organize the improvement phase of VSM method.

The clear findings of this research prove the effectiveness of VSM method on the environmental and economic performances of manufacturing processes. In addition, the proposed approach will show the advantages of fuzzy DEMATEL and fuzzy QFD approaches in improving the application of the VSM method.

The limitation of this study includes the lack of consideration of other dimensions such as social, technological and managerial. In addition, the proposed approach studied an average set of environmental and economic indicators.

The novelty of the proposed approach is proved by the development of an extended VSM method (E-EVSM). Also, the proposed approach contributes by a new methodology for analysing and improving the current state map of manufacturing processes.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the strategy map (SM) of an Iranian automotive industry and the causal and effects relations of the SM’s variables though fourth generation of balanced scorecard (BSC) and fuzzy DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) technique.

This research has employed a fuzzy DEMATEL approach in order to find cause and effect relations. At first step, CSFs in Company A’s SM were determined. Then four experts’ views of Company A’s strategic planning department were gathered and calculated by fuzzy set theory.

Results showed the important role of customer perspective in supporting and achieving the organization’s vision which ultimately will lead to fulfillment of the financial objective of the company through satisfied customers. In other words, the dominant approach to logic of SM design in Company A and the obtained results from this research indicate, Company A can achieve strategic result with a more prominent role of customer and financial perspective, through employing the enabler perspective, i.e. learning and growth perspective.

Current study is limited to Iranian automotive industry. So, the strategic planning managers and future researchers shall consider their own company’s strategic structures for developing their SM.

To the best of knowledge of the authors, it is the first attempt, particularly in the context of Iran, aimed at using fourth generation of BSC and fuzzy DEMATEL technique in an automotive industry which led to the confirmation that these two approaches can jointly be employed for the identifying cause and effect relations in SM and clarification and easy understanding of it. This proposed research structure can be a suitable base for the development of SM in other companies.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to present a structural competency model; second, to remark new criteria for personnel selection in Industry 4.0 environment; and third, to contribute to the operations management literature by focusing on recruitment process in Industry 4.0 environment and supporting human resources activities with Industry 4.0 related criteria and point out a new research field in Industry 4.0.

Fuzzy DEMATEL has been used in the implementation. The study is conducted in a high-tech firm, which has started to modify its processes according to Industry 4.0, and introduces a new specific department that is responsible of this transformation. In total, 11 personnel selection criteria were presented and then assessed by experts through a fuzzy linguistic scale. Both importance order and causal relation between criteria are presented at the end of the study.

According to the results, the most important criteria in the selected firm are the ability of dealing with complexity and problem solving, thinking in overlapping process, and flexibility to adapt new roles and work environments. While cause group includes criteria such as knowledge on IT and production technologies, awareness of IT security and data protection, and ability of fault and error recovery, effect group includes flexibility to adapt new roles and work environments, organizational and processual understanding, and the ability to interact with modern interfaces.

Analytical thinking and system approach are the key topics for new supporting personnel selection criteria, which lead to the need for the skills and qualifications in decision making and process management. Results of the cause group criteria also indicate the importance of technical abilities such as coding, IT security and human-machine interfaces. On the other hand, effect group of the study emphasizes on the flexibility and interdisciplinary working structure that suggests the suitability of matrix organization in the companies which follow the Industry 4.0 trends. Moreover, team work comes forward as another key concept for organizations transforming to Industry 4.0.

The originality of this study appears on modeling of a competency structural model for Workforce 4.0 which is proposed as a road map, including the suggested set of related criteria and the fuzzy MCDM-based methodology for companies which alter their organizations according to Industry 4.0.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cause-and-effect relationship and the mutually influential level among information security control items, as well as to provide organizations with a method for analyzing and making systematic decisions for improvement.

This study utilized the Fuzzy DEMATEL to analyze cause-and-effect relationships and mutual influence of the 11 control items of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS), which are discussed by seven experts in Taiwan to identify the core control items for developing the improvement strategies.

The study has found that the three core control items of the ISMS are security policy (SC1), access control (SC7) and human resource security (SC4). This study provides organizations with a direction to develop improvement strategies and effectively manage the ISMS of the organization.

The value of this study is for an organization to effectively dedicate resources to core control items, such that other control items are driven toward positive change by analyzing the cause-and-effect relation and the mutual influential level among information security control items, through a cause-and-effect matrix and a systematic diagram.