A multi-attribute framework for determining the competitive advantages of products using grey-TOPSIS cum fuzzy-logic approach

Abstract

Competitive advantage (CA) is a manufacturing business idea that assists organisations to be at benefits over rivals by keeping additional customers and exhibiting superior trade levels. The literature on prioritising measures and resources with respect to their impacts on competitiveness is interesting, important, promising but limited. This limitation is largely due to the complex CA factors, which have unequal importance. Additionally, data may be scanty and uncertain, but quality decisions must be made. Furthermore, the factors employed to judge the CA ability of organisations are disjointed and limited and do not often account for environmental friendliness in frameworks. Consequently, a new environmentally set of measures should be included in frameworks containing combined grey-technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and fuzzy-logic. Using the resulting framework, a case study approach, based on expert judgement, was adopted to exemplify and articulate the concept embedded in the approach. Study results indicate framework application feasibility and validity in packaging manufacturing. The novelties of the paper are (i) the development of a comprehensive CA method using greenness factors; (ii) the addition of a case-based CA method for the Nigerian manufacturing environment and (iii) the application of combined grey-TOPSIS–fuzzy-logic framework for CA. The presented framework may serve as an effective CA implementation tool.

Keywords:

• grey-TOPSIS
• competitive advantage
• multi-attribute
• multi-product
• fuzzy decision-making