Risk management in agro-commercial retail ventures in Manabí through AHP-TOPSIS

Abstract

In Ecuador, entrepreneurship has experienced significant growth in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when society was forced to seek economic alternatives to confront the crisis. Within this context, the feed retail sector in Manabí constitutes a key space, presenting structural weaknesses related to the volatility of corn and other raw material prices, poor inventory management, and changes resulting from the latest tax reforms for the Rimpe regime. This study addresses risk management in a local feed and raw material retail business using a multi-criteria AHP-TOPSIS methodology, the objective of which is to prioritize strategies that strengthen business sustainability. The research considers factors related to business management, entrepreneurial culture, and the Ecuadorian legal framework for microenterprises. Four alternatives were evaluated under five key criteria: cost, effectiveness, ease of implementation, customer satisfaction, and sustainability. The results obtained using the TOPSIS method indicate that inventory digitization is the most successful alternative, with a score of 1.0, above the strategy of advance contracting with suppliers (0.52). These findings confirm that the use of multi-criteria methodologies improves business resilience and provides transferable methodological input to university teaching in areas such as management, economic law, and entrepreneurship, strengthening professional training through decision-support tools.