Using DEMATEL to explore a casual and effect model of sustainable supplier selection

This paper utilized DEMATEL method to recognize the influential criteria of sustainable supplier selection in order to improve supplier´s CSR performance. In this study, identification of criteria of sustainable supplier selection was categorized into four criteria and 24 subcriteria, a multi-criteria decision model was proposed from literature review and experts´ opinions at an electronics manufacturer of Taiwan. By considering the interrelationships among the criteria, DEMATEL was applied to deal with the importance and causal relationships among the evaluation criteria of supplier selection. The results show that quality and labor´s occupational safety and health management system (ex: OHSAS 18001) are the greatest influential criteria, of which are the real sources affecting the other criteria directly.