An AHP-multicriteria suitability evaluation of technological diversification in the automotive industry

作者：Larrode Emilio; Maria Moreno Jimenez Jose; Muerza M Victoria

来源：International Journal of Production Research, 2012, 50(17): 4889-4907.

DOI：10.1080/00207543.2012.657975

• AHP
• technological diversification process
• multicriteria suitability evaluation
• automotive industry
• knowledge extraction

This paper advances a methodological framework for analysing the process of technological diversification in the automotive industry and presents a multicriteria procedure, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), to evaluate, in a simple and user-friendly manner, the suitability of technological diversification for any company in the automotive sector. The AHP-multicriteria procedure associated with the initial stage of the methodology and the decision support systems developed to evaluate suitability have been applied to 22 Spanish automotive companies. The multicriteria procedure classifies the companies into three different groups: (i) those that are suitable for diversification; (ii) those for which product development (innovation) or market development (internationalisation) is more appropriate; (iii) those that are not suitable for any diversification process. The true value added in this initial stage of the technological diversification process is not, despite its importance, the final classification of the firms, but the learning procedure derived from the multicriteria analysis and the evaluation of diversification suitability. From this learning procedure, a set of recommendations related to the diversification of the automotive companies is extracted.

• 出版日期2012