Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Indicators in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Using the Fuzzy VIKOR Approach

This paper introduces a hybrid decision-making model that integrates the fuzzy best-worst method with fuzzy VIKOR to determine the relative importance and prioritization of key indicators of entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a specific focus on enhancing SME competitiveness. By employing triangular fuzzy numbers to capture expert judgments, the proposed framework first applies F-BWM to evaluate the significance of six critical dimensions namely organizational innovation, risk-taking, external factors, competitiveness, responsiveness, and internal factors and subsequently uses fuzzy VIKOR, based on the derived weights, to rank four prominent SME sectors operating within a specific industrial setting. The findings indicate that organizational innovation (0.219) and risk-taking (0.217) exert the greatest influence on entrepreneurial competitiveness, whereas internal factors have the least impact (0.127). Among the sectors examined, the food and beverage industry emerge as the most favorable compromise solution (Q = 0.403). Overall, the proposed hybrid approach enhances the coherence and reliability of decision-making under uncertainty and provides practical and policy-relevant insights for policymakers and SME managers seeking to strengthen competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability in regional industrial development.