IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i19p10616-d642403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrated Management Solution for a Sustainable SME—Selection Proposal Using AHP

Author

Listed:
  • Ramona Lacurezeanu

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

  • Alexandru Chis

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

  • Vasile Paul Bresfelean

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
    Faculty of Economics and Law, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology, 540142 Targu Mures, Romania)

Abstract

In the conditions of the pandemic crisis, implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with a sustainability component represents a crucial investment for a small and medium enterprise (SME) but critical for the organization, if it is not the matching solution. A comprehensive framework for selecting the S–ERP system was elaborated, including a set of relevant criteria for an SME to draw and assess the selection of an ERP system, considering that the factors extracted as well as the importance in the proposed model have been debated for years in the available literature. A methodology based on the brainstorming and questionnaire techniques was proposed in establishing the selection criteria, and the AHP decision analysis method was used for evaluating the weight of the criteria, all these in order to provide a model for ERP selection. This model was tested on a set of numerical, hypothetical, and applied data of the Romanian context. The use of the recommended model shows that it can be applied to improve decisions and decrease the time interval required for S–ERP selection. The results also show that AHP can fulfill the S–ERP selection objective for SMEs and the decisive factors that affect decision–making processes in a systematic way.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramona Lacurezeanu & Alexandru Chis & Vasile Paul Bresfelean, 2021. "Integrated Management Solution for a Sustainable SME—Selection Proposal Using AHP," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:10616-:d:642403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10616/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10616/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hockerts, Kai & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2010. "Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids -- Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 481-492, September.
    2. Wei, Chun-Chin & Chien, Chen-Fu & Wang, Mao-Jiun J., 2005. "An AHP-based approach to ERP system selection," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 47-62, April.
    3. Luthra, Sunil & Mangla, Sachin Kumar & Xu, Lei & Diabat, Ali, 2016. "Using AHP to evaluate barriers in adopting sustainable consumption and production initiatives in a supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(PB), pages 342-349.
    4. Wen-Hsien Tsai & Shu-Hui Lan & Hsiu-Li Lee, 2020. "Applying ERP and MES to Implement the IFRS 8 Operating Segments: A Steel Group’s Activity-Based Standard Costing Production Decision Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-33, May.
    5. Shivam Gupta & Régis Meissonier & Vinayak Drave & David Roubaud, 2020. "Examining the impact of Cloud ERP on sustainable performance: A dynamic capability view," Post-Print hal-02914021, HAL.
    6. Catalina Costache & Danut-Dumitru Dumitrascu & Ionela Maniu, 2021. "Facilitators of and Barriers to Sustainable Development in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Descriptive Exploratory Study in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Minodora Ursacescu & Dan Popescu & Cristina State & Ion Smeureanu, 2019. "Assessing the Greenness of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems through Green IT Solutions: A Romanian Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-32, August.
    8. ISACHI, Silvia Elena, 2015. "Importance Of Smes In The Economic Development Of Romania," Journal of Financial and Monetary Economics, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research "Victor Slavescu", vol. 2(1), pages 191-198.
    9. Alexandru Dumitru Bodislav & Carmen Valentina Rădulescu & Daniel Moise & Sorin Burlacu, 2019. "Environmental Policy in the Romanian Public Sector," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 312-317, November.
    10. Rafael Lizarralde & Jaione Ganzarain & Mikel Zubizarreta, 2020. "Assessment and Selection of Technologies for the Sustainable Development of an R&D Center," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    11. Lai, Vincent S. & Wong, Bo K. & Cheung, Waiman, 2002. "Group decision making in a multiple criteria environment: A case using the AHP in software selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 134-144, February.
    12. Thomas L. Saaty & Luis G. Vargas, 2012. "Models, Methods, Concepts & Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-4614-3597-6, September.
    13. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Büyüközkan, Gülçin & Ruan, Da, 2008. "Evaluation of software development projects using a fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 77(5), pages 464-475.
    2. Torbjörn Ljungkvist & Jim Andersén, 2021. "A taxonomy of ecopreneurship in small manufacturing firms: A multidimensional cluster analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1374-1388, February.
    3. Desirée Knoppen & Louise Knight, 2022. "Pursuing sustainability advantage: The dynamic capabilities of born sustainable firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1789-1813, May.
    4. Rosa Maria Dangelico & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, 2015. "Being ‘Green and Competitive’: The Impact of Environmental Actions and Collaborations on Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 413-430, September.
    5. Muñoz, Pablo & Dimov, Dimo, 2015. "The call of the whole in understanding the development of sustainable ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 632-654.
    6. Agnieszka Konys, 2019. "Towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship Holistic Construct," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-33, November.
    7. Dinesh Seth & Minhaj Ahemad A. Rehman, 2022. "Critical success factors‐based strategy to facilitate green manufacturing for responsible business: An application experience in Indian context," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 2786-2806, November.
    8. Carsten Gandenberger & Matthias Gotsch & Mathias Miemiec, 2017. "Strategische Elemente nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens [Strategic elements of sustainable entrepreneurship]," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 247-254, November.
    9. Brunella Arru, 2020. "An integrative model for understanding the sustainable entrepreneurs’ behavioural intentions: an empirical study of the Italian context," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3519-3576, April.
    10. Ana Criado-Gomis & Amparo Cervera-Taulet & Maria-Angeles Iniesta-Bonillo, 2017. "Sustainable Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Business Strategic Approach for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, September.
    11. Erik G. Hansen & Stefan Schaltegger, 2016. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Architectures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 193-221, January.
    12. Kai Hockerts, 2015. "A Cognitive Perspective on the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 102-122, February.
    13. Stefan Schaltegger & Markus Beckmann & Erik G. Hansen, 2013. "Transdisciplinarity in Corporate Sustainability: Mapping the Field," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 219-229, May.
    14. Enes Ünal & Vikash Kumar Sinha, 2023. "Sustainability trade‐offs in the circular economy: A maturity‐based framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4662-4682, November.
    15. Kirti Nayal & Rakesh D. Raut & Vinay Surendra Yadav & Pragati Priyadarshinee & Balkrishna E. Narkhede, 2022. "The impact of sustainable development strategy on sustainable supply chain firm performance in the digital transformation era," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 845-859, March.
    16. Beltagui, Ahmad & Kunz, Nathan & Gold, Stefan, 2020. "The role of 3D printing and open design on adoption of socially sustainable supply chain innovation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    17. Florian Lüdeke‐Freund, 2020. "Sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and business models: Integrative framework and propositions for future research," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 665-681, February.
    18. Sascha Kraus & Janina Burtscher & Christine Vallaster & Martin Angerer, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation: A Reflection on Status-Quo Research on Factors Facilitating Responsible Managerial Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, February.
    19. Anna Kwiotkowska & Magdalena Gebczynska, 2021. "Causal Pathways of Innovation Orientation, Sustainability, Leadership and Social Performance," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 32-54.
    20. Natalie M. Scala & Jayant Rajgopal & Luis G. Vargas & Kim LaScola Needy, 2016. "Group Decision Making with Dispersion in the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 355-372, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:10616-:d:642403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.