Blockchain-integrated sustainable supplier selection and order allocation: A hybrid BWM-MULTIMOORA and bi-objective programming approach

Ensuring sustainable supplier selection (SSS) is crucial for companies that seek to procure goods and services responsibly. On the other hand, emergence of new technologies, such as the blockchain technology, has made a significant impact in the way businesses interact with each other. The blockchain technology offers several advantages, including enhanced information security, transparency, traceability, decentralization, and enabling the use of smart and trustless contracts, among others. While previous research has studied blockchain technology in supply chain management, its application towards advancing SSS remains unexplored. This study fills this gap by specifically addressing the blockchain technology adoption into the sustainable supplier selection and order allocation process. In doing so, a novel two-phase framework is proposed to deal with the problem under consideration. In phase I, first, the Best Worst Method (BWM) is used for calculating the importance weights of criteria for supplier selection in four categories of economic, circular, social, and blockchain compatibility to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of suppliers. Next, the MULTIMOORA method is applied to derive the scores of suppliers, where a new scoring method, addressing the shortcomings of the dominance theory approach, is proposed in the MULTIMOORA method in this paper. Then, the phase II of the framework determines the final selected suppliers and the optimal allocation of orders to each selected supplier through a bi-objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. The developed model incorporates a novel cost objective, which includes information coordination and oracle-related costs corresponding to blockchain infrastructure deployment, and also a blockchain-related threshold constraint to ensure that the buyer does not exceed its predefined limits towards blockchain attunement. The proposed approach in this paper represents a significant contribution to the field of supplier selection by integrating sustainability and blockchain-related attributes into the decision-making process. The numerical results demonstrate the practicality and efficacy of the proposed approach in identifying blockchain-enabled and sustainable suppliers, making it a valuable decision-making tool for businesses seeking to enhance their procurement processes. [Display omitted] •Spotting blockchain technology in sustainable supplier selection and order allocation.•Developing an integrated BWM,