Application of combined SWOT and AHP for strategy development: evidence from pottery industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study aims to explore the appropriate strategies to revive the pottery industry development in Bangladesh. The research followed SWOT-AHP combined method that is based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) weighting methodology. SWOT analysis is one of the popular tools for environmental scanning to identify the internal and external environmental factors simultaneously for defining an enterprise's strategic actions. Due to some flaws of SWOT analysis, this study followed the AHP, which is a multi-criteria decision-making approach. The qualitative data collection consisted of a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in-depth Interviews. We analyzed quantitative data by the AHP to identify the relative prominence of each SWOT factor analysis. The results revealed that potters have an innovative capacity. Due to the lack of administrative coordination and fierce competition with alternatives products such as plastic, metallic products, they face some difficulties. Still reliability in the marketplace is increasing with time. These findings guide to generate useful inference and could be utilized for decision-making and policies formulation in pottery industry.