Strategic analysis of manufacturer-supplier partnerships: An ANP model for collaborative CO2 reduction management

• ANP has been applied for the first time to CO2 management in collaborative contexts.
• Construction of the model is based on 20 interviews with different managers.
• Application of the decision network to a leading manufacturer in the FMCG sector.
• Sensitivity analyses show that the final solution is robust to changes of weights.

The objective of this manuscript is to introduce a decision methodology that allows manufacturing firms to evaluate which supplier is the most suitable partner for the implementation of a collaborative CO2 reduction management approach. The decision problem is developed for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) industry, which currently ranks among the ten largest CO2 emitting industries worldwide. In this paper, the evaluation and selection of the most suitable supplier is performed using the analytic network process (ANP), a decision-making technique that allows practitioners to solve complex decision structures. The key contributions of the present paper reside in the combination of literature and case-based derived decision criteria, aimed at enhancing judgment validity, with particular emphasis on a collaborative setting, which is highly relevant in the present context as the focal firms often lack the necessary skills for sustainability and, at the same time, are responsible for sustainability in the supply chain. The practical application of the ANP model at a major FMCG company yields robust results corroborated through a sensitivity analysis.