Evaluating critical success factors for enhancing sustainability, resilience, and digitalization in trade-in enabled CLSCs: a cloud-DEMATEL–MARCOS integrated approach

Sustainability in supply chains, particularly through effective trade-in programs, has become increasingly critical in addressing modern environmental and management challenges posed by short-lifecycle electronic products. Trade-in programs play a pivotal role in enabling sustainable closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) by promoting product returns and recycling, yet they encounter significant complexities. To address these challenges, this study introduces and empirically validates a novel hybrid decision-making framework combining Cloud Model Theory (CMT), DEMATEL, and MARCOS methods. Initially, expert linguistic assessments are systematically transformed into quantitative cloud parameters, capturing inherent uncertainties and intricate factor interdependencies. The CMT-DEMATEL analysis highlights economic and incentive-driven factors, notably pricing strategies and subsidies, as critical causal influence factors. Subsequently, MARCOS analysis identifies quality considerations, return rates, and real-time inventory systems as top priorities due to their comprehensive impact on sustainability, resilience, and digitalization. The sensitivity analysis then shows that the resilience weight is the most visible leverage: the importance of the inventory system rises or falls in direct proportion to its emphasis. The alignment between these analytical findings and practical industry scenarios underscores the framework's relevance and utility. This integrated approach provides managers with a robust, actionable guide for optimizing trade-in program performance, effectively bridging key methodological gaps in existing trade-in and CLSC literature.