استفاده از مدل MCDM ترکیبی برای ارزیابی،دانش محیطی شرکت در عدم قطعیت

Environmental practice in knowledge management capability (EKMC) is a complex uncertainty concept that is difficult to determine based on a firm's real situation because measuring EKMC requires a set of qualitative and quantitative measurements. A framework is proposed and uses a novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to address the dependence relationships of criteria with the aid of the analytical network process (ANP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) in uncertainty. Fuzzy set theory is used to interpret the linguistic information in accordance with the subjective evaluation; ANP is used to analyze the dependence aspects, while DEMATEL is used to determine the intertwined relations among the criteria. The evaluation results obtained through the proposed approach are objective and unbiased for two reasons. First, the results are generated by a group of experts in the presence of motile attributes, and second, the fuzzy linguistic approach reduces the distortion and loss of information. Managers can then judge the need to improve and determine which criteria provide the most effective direction towards improvement.

Facing a globally competitive and fluctuating environment, organizations require continual managing of their resources to maintain competitive advantages. The possible role of knowledge management (KM) has been described in creating sustained competitive advantages for organizations [1] and [2]. Clark et al. [3], however, pointed out that KM integration is dependent on a wider and trans-functional integration capability. Lubit [4] reported that tacit knowledge and superior knowledge management capabilities (KMC) are the keys to a sustainable competitive advantage in various industries; a similar result that KMC has a tremendous effect on competitiveness has been reported by Liu et al. [50]. Today, environmental practices are also an overall strategic organizational approach to planning product/process design, top management support, production practices, organizational design and effects on the manufacturing performance [5] and [6]. However, the environmental practices are dependent on wider knowledge integration to achieve a firm's goal of waste elimination due to mandated environmental orders from the European Union, such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) Directives. Hence, firms must integrate environmental practices and KMC to ensure corporate survival and sustainable development. Environmental practice in KMC (EKMC) is an important activity that helps firms make continuous environmental improvements by placing great emphasis on green product development coming into the competitive and sustainable market. EKMC engenders multi-dimensional difficulties that involve numerous organizational functions and resource integration among various departments [5] and [6]. However, the evaluation-related activities have inherent and high uncertainty and imprecision, and it is difficult to assess accurately with both qualitative and quantitative measurements. Hence, judgment in social science measurements is always represented by exact numbers; it is generally understood that human perceptions of decision criteria are judged subjectively. In many practical cases, the human preference model is uncertain and might be reluctant or unable to assign exact numerical values to describe preferences [5], [6] and [7]. Since some of the evaluation criteria are subjective and qualitative in nature and are described using linguistic information, it is very difficult for the decision maker to express preferences using exact numerical values, making it more desirable for the researchers to use a fuzzy logic evaluation. The algorithm developed by Opricovic and Tzeng [8] effectively aggregates the assessment of the decision makers to each criterion by using an overall fuzzy number, and defuzzification captures the importance of the criteria based on the opinion of the decision makers. Unfortunately, few studies have measured linguistic preferences in EKMC. A challenge of this study is that EKMC evaluation is always uncertain because marketing information is rapidly changing, and infrastructure capability, process capability, R&D capability and innovation decision capability are measured qualitatively and quantitatively. Organization scientists have traditionally defined uncertainty as a lack of information or knowledge. This study suggests that EKMC is complex and composed of interaction processes of many different resources; therefore, multi-dimensional and corresponding indicators reflect the EKMC. Hence, a traditional multi-criteria approach is not suited to evaluate the firms that the nature of criteria are composed of complex relations. To indicate the EKMC interdependence aspects and intertwined criteria, for instance, a firm that has outstanding R&D capability to perform advanced research and create unique designs often possesses good process capabilities such as acquisition-oriented KM processes, as well as those oriented toward obtaining knowledge. Such R&D capability is also related to innovation decision capability, which is required for KM innovation and for reducing uncertainty and risk activities. The ANP and DEMATEL are the most suitable tools for this study, where the goal is to understand the hierarchical intertwined relations as well as the cause and effect. DEMATEL is a mathematical computational method that can convert the relations between the cause and effect of criteria into a visual structural model [9] and [10]. In addition, it can be used as an effective method to handle the inner dependences within a set of criteria. The main advantage of DEMATEL is that it involves indirect relations within a cause and effect model. The DEMATEL method is an effective procedure for analyzing structure and relationships between components; it can prioritize the criteria based on the type of relationships and severity of influences they have on one another. The criteria having a greater effect on one another are assumed to have a higher priority and are called cause criteria. In contrast, those that receive more influence from another are assumed to have lower priority and are called effect criteria [11]. The advantage of using a combination of fuzzy set theory, ANP and DEMATEL is that it considers the hierarchical structure, including interdependence relationships in the condition of fuzziness, and flexibly manages the fuzziness situation. With these advantages, the DEMATEL method is used to determine the cause and effect of criteria and to understand the hierarchical structure with interdependence relations; ANP is proposed for application in a hierarchical structure. Hence, using the fuzzy measurements, ANP and DEMATEL, subjectivity, uncertainty and interactivity can be combined with triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs) to eliminate expert subjective judgment problems involving complex hierarchical relationships among EKMC aspects and criteria. This study provides an analytical approach for managerial decision making. It demonstrates that the quantitative technique of interdependences among various aspects and criteria can be effectively captured using the ANP technique and combined with DEMATEL, which is rarely applied in the literature. This study attempts to develop a hierarchical framework that is sufficiently general that it can be applied under various research settings. To date, few studies have adopted a rigorous methodology; this study presents a hierarchical analytical approach that is sufficiently general. The unique point of this study is that it takes qualitative and quantitative measures in linguistic terms presented by TFNs and defuzzifies them into a crisp value for analysis using a cause and effect model. Resolving problems in evaluating a firm is fundamentally important to both researchers and practitioners. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 clarifies the background of the EKMC and discusses the relevant literature. Section 3 presents the structure of the framework of this study. Section 4 presents the proposed methods of fuzzy set theory, ANP and DEMATEL. Section 5 subsequently applies a proposed method in evaluating a firm. This is followed by a discussion and managerial implications in Section 6. Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section 7.

This study focused on developing a quantitative evaluation of EKMC measures. A consequence of the representation of uncertainty in an evaluation model formulation is that the results are based upon fuzzy set theory, which reflects these uncertainties and represents them by TFNs. Particularly, five aspects must be considered and evaluated simultaneously in terms of the numerous criteria. These criteria comprise qualitative and quantitative descriptions and are typically inaccurate or uncertain, and the quantitative values must transfer them into a comparable value. The proposed technique was used to evaluate EKMC that accommodates both qualitative and quantitative information. The fuzzy decision model enables an evaluator to utilize quantitative information with inherent imprecision in weighting criteria and performance in relation to qualitative criteria by transforming linguistic expressions into numerical crisp values. This study employed TFNs to represent linguistic variables in working with subjective judgments by evaluators and reduced the evaluator cognitive burden during the evaluation processes. However, in EKMC and fuzzy MCDM problems in which aspects and criteria are not always mutually independent, a vast amount of aspects and criteria are typically interactive and have interdependencies. The proposed model incorporates hierarchical aspects and criteria structure, fuzzy set theory, ANP and DEMATEL, comprising an effective weighting of a firm from subjective information. This proposed method is also useful for evaluating final decision making of a case firm. Since this is an MCDM problem, it is better to employ MCDM methods for reaching an effective solution. The ANP and DEMATEL can be used not only as a way to handle the inner dependences but also as a way to produce more valuable information in cause and effect criteria for decision making. Furthermore, this study can also easily and effectively accommodate criteria that are not independent on the merits of the ANP and DEMATEL methods. The theoretical contribution is to combine the two methods to build a visual cause and effect model and to evaluate EKMC firms successfully that few works in the literature can systematically evaluate, and the proposed method contained the complex interdependence and interactive relations under uncertainty. Moreover, the case firms can apply this approach to evaluate and determine a firm's EKMC capabilities to reduce the firm's risk in decision making. Finally, to provide more objective information on the applicability of the proposed evaluation model, future studies need to be undertaken using case studies of particular EKMCs, thus proving the practicality of the evaluation procedure proposed in this study.