Identifying and prioritizing export-related CSFs of steel products using hybrid multi-criteria methods

Abstract

This research aims to identify the factors that affect the export of steel products and then prioritize them using the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) method. This industry has a crucial role in various countries and the company involved in the case study is one of the three largest steel exporters in Iran. In our study, 56 effective factors have been extracted and classified after a review of the literature in the area of export and marketing, especially the export and marketing of steel products. For identifying the factors affecting the steel products export, the Delphi method was used. This method identified 26 effective factors. In the third part of the study, these effective factors were prioritized using Shannon’s entropy and the WASPAS method in combination. As a result, we have recognized three factors that are the most important to affect the export of steel products: problems and questions of export, transport aspects, and skills/knowledge.