2024/05/03 by Vahideh Shahin, Moslem Alimohammadlou, Abbas Abbasi · 40 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Mathematics · #Artificial intelligence #Combinatorics #Computer science #Environmental Sustainability in Business #Fuzzy logic #Interval (graph theory) #Knowledge management #Mathematics #Multi-Criteria Decision Making #Sustainable Supply Chain Management
paper · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123408
published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change 204, 123408 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2024/05/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Increasing environmental burdens and the importance of innovation in the presently competitive environment have encouraged small- and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) to adopt and implement green innovation practices. This process, however, is faced with many limitations and obstacles. The purpose of this study is to propose a framework to identify barriers to green innovation in SMEs and to provide solutions/strategies to overcome such barriers. Using the systematic literature review (SLR) method and the opinions of 20 experts, the study primarily identified 29 sub-categories of barriers falling under seven main categories including “management”, “organization”, “human resources”, “financial resources”, “external cooperation”, “customers, markets or competitors”, and “the external environment.” Similarly, 22 strategies were discovered that could help to counteract the barriers identified. To determine the weights of the barriers, the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Multiplicative Best-Worst Method (IFMBWM) was used. The strategies, too, were ranked through the Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy MULTIMOORA (IVIF-MULTIMOORA) method. Then, a sensitivity analysis and a comparative analysis were applied to confirm the robustness of the proposed method and ensure the consistency of the obtained ranking of alternatives. As the results revealed, the optimal and effective solutions that could be used by policy-makers/managers to overcome the barriers to green innovation were “simplifying authorization and licensing procedures”, “effective environmental laws and regulations”, “shared responsibility throughout the supply chain”, “a supportive organizational culture”, and “merit-based selection of managers.”