Decision making on supplier selection based on social, ethical, and environmental criteria: A study in the textile industry

The main objective of this paper is to balance social, environmental and economic criteria, alongside related ethical issues, in the supplier selection process when outsourcing activities in the textile industry. We propose a multi-criteria model to support supplier selection process, whereby suppliers are allocated to classes based on sustainability, integrating the opinions of customers and managers. The model has three phases: i) criteria definition, in which the Copeland method is used to aggregate criteria reported in the literature for a group of decision makers (customers and expert managers); ii) elicitation of the perceptions of decision-makers, about criteria and the definition of weights for these criteria using the AHP method, and iii) multi-criteria classification of suppliers performed using the ELECTRE-TRI method. A numerical application was performed in the textile sector in order to test results. The main results show that suppliers can be classified, balancing social, environmental and economic criteria and related ethical issues, considering opinions from customers and experts. The theoretical implications can benefit researchers who can apply the model in future research into economic, environmental and social interactions. Managers can use the structure presented in this model to improve supplier selection.