Analysis of furniture products’ contribution to Turkey’s economy with a hybrid multi-criteria decision making method

Abstract

The furniture sector has a strategic importance in Turkey. That sector contributes greatly to the national economy, provides high levels of employment, is rapidly growing, and does not have a foreign trade deficit. In this paper, a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making method was used to determine the contribution of some furniture products to Turkey’s economy. First, the entropy method was used to determine the weight values of the criteria, and then the ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité (ELimination Et Choice Translating REality) (ELECTRE) method was used to compare and rank the alternatives. As a result of this analysis, the furniture products that contributed the most to the national economy were “seating furniture and parts thereof, other wooden furniture”, “wooden bedroom furniture”, “other metal furniture”, and “parts of furniture other than metal and wood”. The least contributing products were “furniture used in medicine, surgical, dental, veterinary, and barber chairs etc.”, “plastic furniture”, and “furniture other than metal, wood, and plastic”.