An integrated group decision-making framework for assessing S3PRLPs based on MULTIMOORA-WASPAS with q-rung orthopair fuzzy information

Sustainable third-party reverse logistics has gradually risen to prominence as a component of contemporary commercial development as a result of the acceleration of global economic integration and the prominent growth of information technology in the logistics industry. In the procedure of sustainable third-party reverse logistics providers (S3PRLPs) selection, indeterminacy and conflict information bring great challenges to decision experts. In view of the significant superiority of q-rung orthopair fuzzy (q-ROF) set in expressing uncertain and vague assessment information, this essay designs a comprehensive assessment framework through merging the best and worst method (BWM), Multiplicative Multi-objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis with Full Multiplicative Form (MULTIMOORA) and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method to address the S3PRLPs selection issue with entirely unknown weight information under q-ROF setting. Firstly, we present a novel score function for comparing q-ROF numbers after analyzing the inadequacies of previous works. Secondly, the q-ROF Frank interactive weighted average (q-ROFFIWA) and q-ROF Frank interactive weighted geometric (q-ROFFIWG) operators are advanced based on the constructed operations to take into consideration the interactive impact of information fusion procedure. Thirdly, the q-ROF-MULTIMOORA-WASPAS decision framework is built based on novel score function and the developed operators, in which the synthetic weights of the criterion are determined by the modified BWM and entropy weight method to reflect both the subjectivity of the decision expert and the objectivity of the decision information. Ultimately, an empirical example was used to evaluate S3PRLPs to demonstrate the applicability and feasibility of the developed methodology, and a comparative analysis was conducted with other existing methods to highlight its advantages in dealing with complex decision problems. The discussion from the research indicates that the developed methodology can be used to evaluate S3PRLPs and further improve the quality of logistics services for organizations.