Analysis of the profitability performance of businesses operating in the forest products sector in the province of Artvin using hybrid multicriteria decision-making methods

In this study, the profitability performance of companies operating in the forest products sector in Artvin province was analyzed using hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The main objective of the study is to reveal how companies maintain their financial sustainability in a competitive environment and to emphasize the importance of profitability performance in terms of strategic management. In this context, five different profitability ratios were selected as evaluation criteria based on the financial statements of the companies, and the importance levels of these criteria were determined using the CRITIC method. The ARAS, MABAC, and WASPAS methods were applied to rank the alternatives (companies), and the rankings obtained from these methods were combined using the BORDA counting method to arrive at the final results. According to the results of the CRITIC method applied to determine the importance weights of the criteria, the criterion with the highest importance weight in all years covered by the study, except for 20220, was Gross Profit Margin. The criterion with the lowest importance weight varies from year to year. According to the results of the ARAS, MABAC, and WASPAS methods applied to determine the ranking of companies' profitability performance, although there are differences between years, Company B has the highest profitability performance in most years. While the company with the lowest profitability performance according to the ARAS method varies by year, according to the MABAC and WASPAS methods, Company C has the lowest profitability performance in the most years. According to the BORDA Counting method, which integrates the results obtained from the three methods (ARAS, MABAC, and WASPAS), Company B has the highest profitability performance in the most years, while Company C has the lowest profitability performance in the most years.