Investigating the circular supply chain implementation challenges using Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP approach

Abstract

The business organizations across the globe are comes under the severe threats of unsustainability. The unsustainability issues are arises due to environmental unease such as climate change, global warming, resource scarceness, and ecological degradation. Circular Supply chain (CSC) has gained momentum in the last few years and acts as one of the sustainable and innovative approach for the manufacturing industry. CSC adoption enhances the social, economical, and ecological aspects of the production and supply chain system. However, very less research has been done on the identification and exploration of numerous challenges to CSC implementation in developing nations, particularly, in India. Thus, this research objective is to explore and evaluate the challenges to CSC implementation in the perspectives of Indian manufacturing sector. Total 24 CSC challenges are recognized through literature review and experts input. This research proposes the Pythagorean fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (PF-AHP) technique. This technique is used to prioritize the challenges of CSC adoption based on their relative importance. The empirical example of an Indian case organization is considered for demonstration of the applicability of proposed method. The result reveals that lack of top management support is the most crucial challenge to CSC adoption. This research outcome acts as a stepping stone for industrial practitioners to adopt CSC efficiently, and effectively.