Choosing the Best Financing Source in a Supply Chain by PROMETHEE Approach

Abstract

Issues related to structures of goods and information are frequently discussed in the logistics and Supply Chain Management (SCM) literature. But, only few contributions are exploring the financial structures associated with supply chains. This paper presents a framework to identify the appropriate financing source used for supply chain. It is extensively noticed that although various financing sources are available today; issue in choosing the proper one in order to decrease the cost of capital investment with the most effectiveness, still remain in supply chains. In this paper, the proposed framework includes three main developmental phases: (1) identification of financing sources, (2) determination of factors effective on choosing the best financing source in a supply chain, and (3) conducting a numerical study with a questionnaire survey by PROMETHEE approach in the supply chain of downstream oil industries in Iran to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method of the survey. Results show that financing through the capital market is the best choice in the supply chain of the survey.