Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the Selection of Sustainable Suppliers: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The supplier selection process is a strategic decision-making process that influences the company’s sustainability. Lately, the sustainability concept has been highlighted as an organization’s source of success and profitability. Therefore, the selection of a sustainable supplier has become an imperative for organizations and is the focus of this manuscript. Suppliers are key stakeholders in the supply chain, and their proper selection is a key factor in a successful and sustainable supply chain. For this reason, it is crucial to determine how and which methods are mostly used by companies when choosing sustainable suppliers with the aim of examining whether the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) contributes to the same. This article is the first to present a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 87 articles dealing with the application of DEA in the sustainable supplier selection in the period 2010–2022, with the application of the keywords “Data Envelopment Analysis”, “Supplier”, and “Sustainable” in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The main goal of this manuscript is to explore the applications of DEA in a sustainable supplier selection and to provide an analysis and visualization of bibliometric data to reveal the annual trends of published articles in this area, the top contributing journals, the most cited papers, the most contributing authors, citations, affiliations, and countries’ analysis, and an in-depth keyword visualization analysis. The findings of this study provide valuable insights and emphasize the ever-growing trend toward the selection of sustainable partners and suppliers in business using DEA methodology. Notably, this work shows the applicability and efficacy of DEA in specialized areas of supply chain management and should contribute to the construction of an overview of the existing literature on DEA studies regarding the process of selection of sustainable suppliers in supply chain management as well as stimulate the interest in the topic. This article gives an overview of a research field that is actually insufficiently explored through the scientific literature and presents a wide area and guidelines for future work.

Do environmental and economic performance go hand in hand? An industrial analysis of European Union companies with the non‐parametric data envelopment analysis method

“…The disadvantages of this method also include the inability to determine the statistical properties of the results, the high sensitivity to abnormal observations, or the atheoretical nature of this method (no parameters of the production function). The limitations and downsides of DEA are often researched, but most authors agree that “its advantages outweigh its limitations” and that DEA should be considered “a significant diagnostic tool” (Fotova Čiković et al, 2022).…”

“…We view efficiency as the relationship between the effects achieved by enterprises and the inputs they incur. We used the non‐parametric DEA method (Data Envelopment Analysis), which is commonly used to assess economic and especially environmental efficiency (Fotova Čiković et al, 2022; Shabanpoura et al, 2019; Vorosmarty & Dobos, 2020). The analysis was carried out with efficiency measures oriented at minimizing inputs and constant return to scale (CRS model).…”

A Review of Sustainable Supplier Selection with Decision-Making Methods from 2018 to 2022

“…TOPSIS was used with other techniques as a hybrid method 16 times (Table 2). It was noted that the most used hybrid methods following TOPSIS were BWM (14), AHP (11), VIKOR and DEMATEL (9), COPRAS (7), DEA (6), and MOORA (4) (Tables 2 and 3). These frequently used classical methods have many extensions, such as Fuzzy, Rough, and Grey (Table 4).…”

“…Ref. [6] categorized articles based on their problem types and methods. The methods used in the articles were analyzed to determine if they were of single or hybrid form.…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Data Envelopment Analysis in Supply Chain Management

“…Soheilirad et al [13] conducted a systematic and meta-analysis approach to review DEA in SCM examination, but their review only covers 75 published works from 1996 to 2016. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on DEA in sustainable supplier selection [14], while Cikovic et al [15] performed an exhaustive literature assessment of research utilizing DEA in supply chain management from 2017 to August 2021. However, no comprehensive bibliometric analysis has been conducted for DEA in SCM.…”