A Hybrid GRA-VIKOR Approach for Prioritization of Sales Management Outsourcing Risks (Case : energy company)

Abstract

Nowadays, outsourcing is increasingly being used as a tool to reduce costs and achieve strategic goals. Marketing and sales outsourcing are also expanding, probably due to the challenges caused by the recession. Therefore, sales outsourcing, like any other outsourcing activity, is associated with risks that must be considered before any decision-making about outsourcing. Success in risk management requires identifying the effect ive factors in risk management. Also, to identify the effective factors in risk management, we need to identify high-probability risks and solutions to them and know the reasons for their outsourcing. For this purpose, we first seek to identify the main reasons and goals of sales outsourcing, and then prioritize and weigh these factors using the three-parameter grey numbers Bullseye method, and finally prioritize the risks involved in sales outsourcing with respect to these factors and using the GRA-VIKOR hybrid method. This research includes six criteria of structural factors, human motivation factors, improvement factors, cost factors, financial factors, human factors and decision options including organizational, environmental, and financial risks. The first 10 risks ranking 1 to 10 are the most important sales risks in this study. Results showed that the decrease in liquidity due to lack of control over credit sales was ranked first in the financial factors risk.