Improving sustainable supply chain capabilities using social media in a decision-making model

This study contributes to the construction of sustainable supply chain capabilities in the textile industry. Previous studies are lacking with regard to sustainable supply chain capabilities; specifically, there are hierarchical structures and measures in qualitative information and quantitative data in nature. In addition, previous studies do not integrate social media with qualitative information and quantitative data, even though social media is an important reference for decision-making. Hence, this study applied the fuzzy synthetic evaluation and decision-making trial evaluation laboratory to address linguistic preferences and provide a strategic approach for the proposed attributes. The results present the integration of qualitative information and quantitative data for building a hierarchical structure with sustainable supply chain capabilities and indicate that social, dynamic and information capabilities are simultaneously strongly affected. The top seven criteria that most influence sustainable supply chain capabilities are outbound logistics flexibility, supply chain reconceptualization, information quality, coevolution, market-oriented perception, partner development and knowledge acquisition and absorptive capacity. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.