A literature review of sustainable supplier evaluation with Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper summarizes findings about papers involving supplier selection and evaluation using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) published between 2009 and 2018. It reviews how DEA, one of the most frequently used methods, supports the supplier selection and evaluation process and related management decisions. Its novelty stems from the fact that such a type of review has only been carried out in a much broader context, thus the present approach can reveal potentially new opportunities for development and application. A systematic literature review was completed involving 54 papers that propose the use of some form of DEA for supporting supplier-management-related decisions. The paper uses descriptive and multivariate statistics to cluster the reviewed papers. Although a large number of papers were published in the period under examination, most of them still focus on supplier selection. However, a limited number of papers were identified which are more practice oriented and support strategic decision making in supplier management. Papers considering sustainability tend to focus only on green factors, but in most cases it means an additional criterion in the evaluation. Sustainability problems do not generate substantially new DEA model versions.