Strategic marketing initiatives for small co-operative enterprises generated from SWOT-TOWS analysis and evaluated with PROMETHEE-GAIA

Abstract

• It offers a methodology in defining, developing, and prioritizing strategic marketing initiatives for co-operative enterprises. • The crafting of strategic marketing initiatives is carried out through a SWOT-TOWS analysis. • The PROMETHEE-GAIA approach is used to determine priority strategic marketing initiatives. • Partnerships with secondary and tertiary co-operatives on R&D activities is the most preferred initiative. • The inclusion of competitive employee compensation and benefits yields the least preferred initiative. Due to the long-term agenda strategic marketing initiatives pose to co-operative enterprises, the development and the priority identification of these initiatives under multiple criteria must be rigorous and systematic for greater tractability of the decision-making processes. Thus, this work offers an integrated methodological framework in determining the viable strategic marketing options of the case co-operative based on a SWOT-TOWS analysis, adopting relevant strategic marketing criteria for small co-operatives, and evaluating the degree of importance of identified strategic marketing initiatives via a Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) - Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Decision Aid (GAIA) approach, popularly known as PROMETHEE-GAIA. The proposed framework elucidates inclusive strategy development and systematic decision analysis under a group decision-making environment. A case study of a small co-operative enterprise in the Philippines is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed integrated approach. The case findings suggest that partnerships with secondary and tertiary co-operatives on R&D activities as the most preferred initiative, followed by the implementation of business process improvement activities for customer relationship management. Meanwhile, the inclusion of competitive employee compensation and benefits yields as the least preferred initiative. The results of the PROMETHEE are further analyzed with GAIA in order to gain detailed insights into the case decision-making problem. The sensitivity analysis yields stability intervals for criteria weights. Also, it is found that the PROMETHEE results are robust to changes in the choice of criterion types and minor changes in parameter values of the criteria. This work advances the domain literature by offering small co-operative enterprises an integrated approach to systematically develop and evaluate strategic marketing initiatives – crucial activities for planning, resource allocation, and policymaking.