Presenting a causal relationship model of LARG supply chain indicators using the Hierarchical DEMATEL method

Objectives: To compete in the global environment, the simultaneous use of four lean, agile, resilient, and green paradigms that each one has its advantages for supply chain management, can lead to competitive advantage for organizations. However, due to the shared and conflicting aspects of these paradigms, the simultaneous integration of their actions (indicators) in the supply chain processes will create considerable management challenges in this area. Although this issue has received attention in some studies, there are still research gaps that can be traced. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the causal relationships between a set of indicators as a basis for appropriate planning and their phased implementation.

Methods: The present study is descriptive-survey and also practical in terms of purpose. The research community are experts and managers of the Iran-Yazd alloy steel industry in relevant research fields in the years 2021-2020, and among them, experts were selected by purposive judgmental sampling for this research.The data collection tool consists of two self-made questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used to confirm the indicators and the second questionnaire (hierarchical DEMATEL method questionnaire) was used to determine the causal relationships between the indicators. The content validity approach was also used to examine the validity of the data collection tool. To complete the hierarchical DEMATEL questionnaire, experts were asked to complete comparison tables for each category and also the indicators of each category based on the intensity of the effect of each factor, in pairs and based on a 5-point Likert scale. For data analysis, the hierarchical DEMATEL technique was used, which is an extended method of classic DEMATEL, that by considering the hierarchical structure among factors, it reduces the number of pairwise comparisons in problems with a large number of factors. In this technique, comparison tables are integrated and a super matrix of direct impact is obtained, which forms the basis of analyzes.

Results: At first, the lean, agile, resilient and green indicators were identified through a background review and were categorized based on the categories in previous researches. Then, the causal relationships between this indicators were investigated using the hierarchical DEMATEL method. The results show that the "knowledge and technology" dimension indicators were the most influential indicators and the "Comptency" dimension indicators were the most under influence indicators. Based on the research results, the "technology inclusion in strategy" indicator is the most important and influential indicator and "customer satisfaction" is the most under influence indicator. In terms of importance, after technology inclusion in strategy indicator, supplier management and collaboration with them indicator is ranked second. Also in terms of impact, the green information technology indicator has ranked second, which, in addition to emphasizing the importance of attention to information technology, also demonstrates the importance of considering environmental considerations. Customer satisfaction is the most influential indicator in the set of LARG supply chain indicators and be affected from many other indicators. It is also ranked seventh in terms of importance. After that, the presentation of new products and product quality, in terms of be affected from the others have subsequent ranks



Conclusions: Determining causal relationships between the indicators of the LARG supply chain helps managers allocate their limited financial, temporal, and human resources to implement high-priority indicators, taking into account the shares and conflicts present in the principles and performance of these four paradigms, and have proper planning to implement other indicators. Moreover, utilizing the new technique of DEMATEL hierarchy can lead to more familiarity among researchers with this method for analyzing causal relationships among factors in issues with multiple factors.

Keywords: Supply Chain Management Paradigms, LARG Supply Chains, Competitive Advantage Gaining, Hierarchical DEMATEL Method (H- DEMATEL), Determining Causal Relationships, Steel Industry