A Novel Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model For Green Supply Chain Performance Evaluation In The Ghanaian Mining Industry

The extractive industries and especially mining is very important to the economy of many developing countries, and offers an important source of revenue. However, the supply chain activities from the mining industry create serious environmental and social problems with serious economic consequences. A strategic and effective way to manage these pernicious socio-environmental problems is through organizational practices that include the broader supply chain.Greening the supply chain of mining operations are an important and strategic avenue that can provide beneficial consequences. Green supply chain factors and their role in mining industry strategy and operations have not been comprehensively addressed. Developing, evaluating, assessing, and selecting essential green supply chain management (GSCM) factors are a goal for successful GSCM implementation and performance. These factors may have interrelated and complex relationships. Understanding them and their relative importance is an initial step for achieving the assessment goals for successful GSCM implementation and their management in the mining industry.The objectives of this dissertation are as follows:(1) to propose green supply chain decision framework (factors and indictors) that incorporates mining industry environmental sustainable characteristics to help in building capability and improving environmental management, (2) to propose a novel integrated multiple-criteria decision-making tool to quantitatively investigate green supply chain management programmatic development in the mining and other industries and (3) to show how tools can be used to investigate green supply chain management within mining industry context.To address these objectives and gap in literature, and building on literature, we take a multi-theoretic perspective to determine GSCM factors that will enable mining companies build the needed capacity to manage environmental impacts and achieve sustainable performance. Based on these theories, an initial literature review was conducted to identify potentially useful GSCM sub-factors for the mining industry. Through this literature review, 37 sets of potential GSCM sub-factors for the mining industry were delineated. These 37 sets of potential GSCM sub-factors were further grouped and listed in six major categories. Based on a two-round modified-Delphi method using mining industrial experts, officials from the government mining regulatory bodies and academicians within Ghana, a comprehensive and integrative conceptual (strategic and operations) framework for GSCM in the mining industry was proposed. This framework focuses on six major constructs including Green Information Technology and Systems, Strategic Supplier Partnership, Operations and Logistics Integration, Internal Environmental Management, Eco-innovative Practices and End-of-life factors with detailed factors described and summarized. Further to the framework development, a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology based on fuzzy-DEMATEL (Decision Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory), analytical network process (ANP) and grey relational analysis (GRA) was proposed.Multiple field (case) studies within Ghana's mining industry were illustrated based on the developed green supply chain decision framework and the novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model. This was to investigate the relationships, influence and relative importance of green supply chain management factors and their role in supporting organizational strategy and operations sustainability. Data was collected in different stages and was sequential in nature using questionnaires from different set but overlapped respondent managers sampled based on a combination of purposive and self-selection sampling techniques. These respondent managers were from six selected large scale mining companies from Ghana who gave their permission to collect data from or involved the mines for the study. The data collected was analyzed using DEMATEL, ANP, and GRA models in that sequence. Super-Decisions Software, Matlab Software and Microsoft Excel were utilized to support the data analysis.The results from the multiple field illustration showed that managers perceived early foundational factors such as strategic supplier collaborations and operations and lean initiative factors as those to offer greatest potential sustainability returns for their organization. The results further depicts that managers perceived environmental dimension as the performance dimension that contributes and drive sustainability performance the most in GSCM implementation programmatic of the mining industry.A post-hoc analysis was completed to obtain validity and confidence in the approach and results. The outcome showed that, although the means to arrive at some solution may have been mired in the complexity of the process and definitions, the final results could be viewed as managerially valid and reliable. This consequently means that, the novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making methodology can be used as an effective decision support tool.