Comparison of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods to Rank Business Strategies and Marketing Resources

Amirhossein TohidiMohammad GhorbaniAli-Reza KarbasiAhmadreza AsgharpourmasoulehBehrooz Hassani-Mahmooei

DOI 10.7160/aol.2020.120309
No 3/2020, September
pp. 101-114

Tohidi, A., Ghorbani, M., Karbasi, A.-R., Asgharpourmasouleh, A. and Hassani-Mahmooei, B. (2020) “Comparison of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods to Rank Business Strategies and Marketing Resources", AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 101-114. ISSN 1804-1930. DOI 10.7160/aol.2020.120309.

Abstract

Given the growing competition in domestic and international agricultural product markets, choosing a business strategy compatible with requirements of marketing resources can guide agro-food firms to maintain and enhance competitive advantages. However, this is not as simple as it seems because the decision-making criteria expressed in a fuzzy manner and the relationship between them can be hierarchical or network-based. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to select the most suitable business strategy and to prioritize marketing resources for one of the major agro-food firms in Iran. To ensure the robustness of the results, both fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) were applied to prioritize business strategies and marketing resources. The results of both methods revealed that the differentiation strategy had the highest priority in terms of the experts' viewpoints. The results also showed that managerial and customer relationship capabilities were the most important criteria in selecting the differentiation strategy. According to the findings of the study, for the successful implementation of the differentiation strategy, company managers are recommended to take the following three main elements into huge consideration: financial conditions, paying attention to customer’s needs and requirements, and the introduction of new products and services.

Keywords

Agro-food, strategic management, problem-solving.

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