Title: A data fusion approach for business partners selection

Authors: Maria Leonilde R. Varela; António Arrais-Castro; Rita A. Ribeiro

Addresses: Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Azurém Campus, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal ' Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Azurém Campus, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal ' UNINOVA - CA3, Campus FCT-UNL, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

Abstract: Strategies of market diversification push companies to provide novel products and services to customers, belonging to new geographic and demographic segments. Additionally, market development strategies targeting non-buying customers in selected segments or new buyers in new segments may be paired with increased product diversification and improved business agility. To fulfil the requirements associated with manufacturing, a wider range of products and increased customised demands imply having a wider set of competences available. Most companies find it increasingly difficult to have all required competences in their internal structures; therefore, they need to rely on strategic business partnerships and suppliers to be successful. In this paper, we discuss a data fusion decision approach for supplier and business partner evaluation, which includes past, current and forecast information about business partners. This approach may prove vital for companies to establish strong collaborative business networks.

Keywords: collaborative networks; supplier evaluation and selection; business strategies; dynamic multi-criteria model; data fusion; decision support methods and tools; fuzzy decision-making; uncertainty treatment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDS.2018.095494

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 2018 Vol.10 No.4, pp.311 - 344

Accepted: 30 May 2017
Published online: 08 Oct 2018 *

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