SmartISM 2.0: A Roadmap and System to Implement Fuzzy ISM and Fuzzy MICMAC

Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is a widely used technique to establish hierarchical relationships among a set of variables in diverse domains, including sustainability. This technique is generally coupled with MICMAC (Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification)) to classify variables in four clusters, although the manual application of the technique is complex and prone to error. In one of the previous works, a novel concept of reduced conical matrix was introduced, and the SmartISM software was developed for the user-friendly implementation of ISM and MICMAC. The web-based SmartISM software has been used more than 48,123 times in 87 countries to generate ISM models and MICMAC diagrams. This work attempts to identify existing approaches to fuzzy ISM and fuzzy MICMAC and upscale the SmartISM to incorporate fuzzy approaches. The fuzzy set theory proposed by Zadeh 1965 and Goguen 1969 helps the decision makers to provide their input with the consideration of vagueness in the real environment. The systematic review of 32 studies identified five significant approaches that have used different linguistic scales, fuzzy numbers, and defuzzification methods. Further, the approaches have differences in either using single or double defuzzification, and the aggregation of inputs of decision makers either before or after defuzzification, as well as the incorporation of transitivity either before or after defuzzification. A roadmap was devised to aggregate and generalize different approaches. Further, two of the identified approaches have been implemented in SmartISM 2.0 and the results have been reported. Finally, the comparative analysis of different approaches using SmartISM 2.0 in the area of digital transformation shows that, with a wide flexibility of fuzzy scales, the results converge and improve the confidence in the final model. The roadmap and SmartISM 2.0 will help in the implementation of fuzzy ISM and fuzzy MICMAC in a more robust and informed way.