Untangling the Digital Web: A Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS Approach to Prioritizing SCF Digitization Challenges in India

Abstract

This study presents a novel approach to identifying and prioritizing the critical challenges hindering the digitization of Supply Chain Finance (SCF) in India, with a focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Despite growing interest in digital SCF platforms, adoption remains slow due to complex, interrelated barriers. Objective 1 is to systematically classify these challenges into five core dimensions—technological, organizational, financial, regulatory, and supply chain ecosystem—along with 25 specific sub-factors. Objective 2 is to evaluate and rank them using an integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making framework. By combining Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) with Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (F-TOPSIS), the study captures the uncertainty in expert judgments and delivers a nuanced prioritization of digital barriers. The results reveal technological challenges as the most dominant, with “lack of IT infrastructure” emerging as the most critical sub-factor. Resistance to change, fragmented digital maturity among supply chain partners, and regulatory ambiguity were also significant. This hybrid fuzzy framework offers a rigorous, data-driven foundation for decision-makers to design targeted interventions. The study contributes original insights by aligning fuzzy logic with SCF digitization, an area with limited analytical exploration in the Indian context.