Abstract:

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis do not provide an analytical means to determine the importance of the identified factors or the ability to assess decision alternatives according to these factors. Although the analysis successfully pinpoints the factors, individual factors are usually described briefly and very generally. For this reason, SWOT analysis possesses deficiencies in the measurement and evaluation steps. Although the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique removes these deficiencies, it does not allow for measurement of the possible dependencies among the factors. Therefore, it is better to employ a form of SWOT analysis that measures and takes into account the possible dependency among the factors. This paper uses the analytic network process (ANP), which allows the quantitative analysis of SWOT and measurement of the dependency among the factors. Dependency among the SWOT factors affect the strategic and sub-factor weights, as well as to change the strategy priorities.

Keywords:

Strategic planning, SWOT analysis, AHP, ANP.