The fuzzy industry maturity grid (FIMG) and its application to the Singapore construction industry

Abstract

This paper introduces the fuzzy industry maturity grid (FIMG) as an extension of the industry maturity grid for diagnosing an industry, to identify fast growing sectors and to map out growth strategies for sectors showing signs of maturity. By incorporating fuzzy set theory and aggregation models in decision-making, the conventional industry maturity grid is enhanced from a qualitative analysis to a semi-quantitative method which captures an expert's knowledge of the industry, inclusive of his judgement. It does this via using a linguistic scale describing the characteristics under each of the three main dimensions of the IMG to form fuzzy sets, a hierarchical aggregation of information based on fuzzy aggregation operators and a conceptual hypercube to determine the rank and ranking size of the prescribed strategies. The FIMG is illustrated using the Singapore construction industry as an example; the resulting three highest ranked prognoses for the industry are -in decreasing order of possibility - sunrise industry, technology-led diversification and new applications of technologies. This ranking of prognostic alternatives bestows policy-makers with information useful for selecting cost-effective programmes for growth.