Supplier Selection in Family Small and Medium Enterprises: Modelling the Priority Attributes With an Integrated Entropy-MARCOS (E-MARCOS) Method

Current literature on family businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) offers some disintegrated insights in view of managing supply chains, particularly the supplier selection agenda. The presence of distinct characteristics inherent to both enterprises calls for a new line of inquiry regarding supplier selection for family SMEs. This work advances the literature by (1) identifying a set of supplier selection attributes best encapsulating the interests of family SMEs, and (2) evaluating these attributes to guide relevant decision-making. With a case study in the food industry and previous lists of supplier selection attributes, ten attributes were considered relevant to family SMEs. Applying the hybrid entropy-MARCOS method yields the priority attributes in decreasing order: on-time delivery, total service quality, product quality, productivity, attitude, response to customer requests, problem-solving capacity, payment terms, price, and flexibility. An analysis with other comparable methods suggests high consistency of these findings. Theoretical insights were discussed.