Spatial-temporal business partnership selection in uncertain environments

• Main Authors: Arrais-Castro António, Varela Maria Leonilde R., Ribeiro Rita A., Putnik Goran D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade 2015-01-01
• Series: FME Transactions
• Subjects: spatial-temporal multi-criteria decision making; data uncertainty filtering; business partnerships; data fusion
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1451-2092/2015/1451-20921504353A.pdf
• ISSN: 1451-2092; 2406-128X

Small and Medium (SME) companies are facing growing challenges while trying to implement globalized business strategies. Contemporary business models need to account for spatial-temporal changeable environments, where lack of confidence and uncertainty in data are a reality. Further, SMEs are finding it increasingly difficult to include all required competences in their internal structures; therefore, they need to rely on reliable business and supplier partnerships to be successful. In this paper we discuss a spatial-temporal decision approach capable of handling lack of confidence and imprecision on current and/or forecast data. An illustrative case study of business' partner selection demonstrates the approach suitability, which is complemented by a statistical analysis with different levels of uncertainty to assess its robustness in uncertain environments.