Sustainable supplier selection using an intuitionistic and interval-valued fuzzy MCDM approach based on cumulative prospect theory

The sustainable supplier selection is treated as a type of complex decision-making problem due to involving lots of uncertain information, and the appropriate linguistic terms are usually used to handle such uncertainties. However, the descriptions of linguistic terms in the form of traditional fuzzy sets are not perfectly supported in the sustainable supplier selection process. Luckily, the intuitionistic fuzzy sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets can effectively deal with this uncertain and incomplete data information when selecting evaluation criteria and facing with the ambiguity of human thinking, whereas providing us with a helpful tool to resolve fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems in a more flexible way. Moreover, the cumulative prospect theory can be introduced to well depict decision-makers’ risk preferences and psychological behaviors. Therefore, this study develops a novel fuzzy MCDM approach based on the combination of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, interval-valued fuzzy sets and cumulative prospect theory for selecting the most sustainable supplier. A case study from the sustainable recycling supplier selection of e-bike sharing is studied to illustrate applicability of the proposed method. By comparing with other methods, the rationality and feasibility of the proposed method are verified. This can provide an insightful implication for decision-makers with different risk preferences to select the most sustainable supplier under uncertain environment.