Title: A proposed hybrid VUCA theory and decision making for logistics enterprises in Oman due to uncertainty contemporary factors

Authors: Noorul Shaiful Fitri Abdul Rahman; Abdelsalam Adam Hamid; Nur Hazwani Karim; Mohammad Khairuddin Othman; Abdelghani Benayoune; Muhammad Subhan Ishak

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Hanken School of Economics, Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute HUMLOG, Finland ' Faculty of Maritime Studies, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia ' Faculty of Maritime Studies, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia ' Research and Graduate Studies, International Maritime College Oman, Sohar, Sultanate of Oman ' Department of Ports and Maritime Transportation, Faculty of Maritime Studies, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of the industrial revolution 4.0, the recent fuel price crisis, and the vision of the Sultanate of Oman logistics strategy 2040 are forcing the Omani logistics sector to determine its capability in handling these four issues simultaneously. This study proposes a decision-making model for small and medium logistics enterprises in Oman for analysing numerous potential business strategies by considering the uncertainty of contemporary factors. A hybrid of multiple-criteria decision-making methods, namely, the analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy link-based approach and evidential reasoning approach, were used in this study. It was found that the 'centralised business activities' business strategy is preferable and more essential to be implemented immediately, mainly due to the geographical market positioning reason. This novel study contributes to developing the decision model for the Logistics Enterprises in Oman as a new measurement when dealing with the uncertainty of external factors of the business environment.

Keywords: operations management; logistics management; decision making; uncertainty supply chain; small-medium enterprises; VUCA theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2023.130457

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2023 Vol.14 No.1, pp.1 - 29

Received: 28 Jun 2021
Received in revised form: 14 Oct 2021
Accepted: 27 Jan 2022
Published online: 21 Apr 2023 *