Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) using a list of blockchain benefits.Design/methodology/approach: A decision aid was used to explore the suitability of blockchain in humanitarian supply chains. To achieve that, first, a list of barriers to HSCM was identified. Then, the intuitionistic fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (IF–DEMATEL) method was utilized to determine the relationships and the level of interdependencies among the criteria. Finally, the intuitionistic fuzzyanalytic network process (IF–ANP) technique was employed, as it successfully handles dependencies among the criteria.Findings: The findings of this study suggest that interorganizational barriers are the most suitable ones, the impacts of which blockchain may alleviate. This study further suggests that trust turned out to be the most significant benefit criterion for the analysis.Research limitations/implications: The readers should construe the findings of this study with caution since it was carried out using the data collected from the experts of a particular country. Moreover, the proposed decision aid contemplates a limited set of criteria to assess a possible role of blockchain in overcoming the barriers to HSCM.Practical implications: The findings of this study can assist humanitarian supply chain managers to make more judicious assessments on whether they implement the blockchain in humanitarian supply chain operations. Specifically, this research may help decision makers to identify the certain barriers, the impact of which may be reduced by using the blockchain. The findings of this research will also help various decision makers make more rational decisions and allocate their resources more effectively.Originality/value: To the best of authors’ knowledge, no single study exists to investigate the role of blockchain in reducing the impact of barriers to HSCM using an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach.

Site selection for logistics centers is one of the most strategic decisions in logistics. This study addresses the problem of logistics center site selection, using Analytic Network Process/Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks, which is a multi-c

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the necessity for strategic approaches to manage global catastrophes. This study argues that disaster risk management (DRM) is an essential approach to mitigate the impact of global calamities, such as a pandemic. However, due to the uncertainty emerging from variables such as time and demand, managing DRM effectively involves high complexity. Blockchain technology (BcT) can be implemented to help address these challenges due to its potential to build trust, transparency, and accountability in complex operations. However, no research has quantitatively examined the applicability of BcT in the sub-dimensions of DRM to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal and scope of this study is to explore the role of BcT in DRM operations during the COVID-19 pandemic through an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (IF-MCDM) framework. More specifically, the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (IF-ANP) method was utilized to calculate the weights of key criteria (i.e., BcT benefits), while Intuitionistic Fuzzy VIKOR (IF-VIKOR) was used to prioritize the alternatives (i.e., the sub-dimensions of DRM). The findings of this study are threefold. First, supporting effective coordination turned out to be the most essential benefit of BcT to build resilience in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, disaster management was found to be the most appropriate DRM sub-dimension for possible BcT implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, eleven distinct activities involved in disaster management and governance and financial protection were discovered to be the most applicable for BcT. The findings of this study could assist disaster risk managers to assess whether (or not) BcT is suitable for the sub-dimensions of DRM to build national and organizational resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: Ports are the key elements of maritime transportation, which is crucial for world trade. Approximately 180 port facilities are located in Turkey. After 2007, 5 of the ports, which are formerly owned by Turkish Republic Railways Administration (TRRA), are privatized. The aim of the study is to evaluate the performance of these privatized ports by multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach.Design/methodology/approach: The application process is performed by a MCDM model. This model includes both criteria (dry bulk, liquid bulk, general cargo, container, RO-RO capacity, total port area, total berth, total berths length and depth) and alternatives (Mersin, Samsun, Bandirma, Iskenderun and Derince Ports). It determines the weights of the criteria by entropy and ranks the alternatives by ARAS and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods.Findings: The results of entropy, ARAS and TOPSIS methods are compared. According to these results, “container” is the most important criteria while Mersin port has the best performance.Originality/value: In the literature, most of the studies about this subject were analyzed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) and there are no studies had been taken into consideration ports that are owned by TRRA, in Turkey. Moreover, few of these studies used integrated MCDM models, and this is the first study that integrates entropy, ARAS and TOPSIS methods in this field.