Analysis of Innovation Drivers of New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Using a Hybrid Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making Model in the Post-COVID-19 Era: A Chinese Case

Abstract

To overcome the continuous decline in its gross domestic product growth rate, China has advocated new and old kinetic energy conversion (NOKEC) as a policy for sustainable economic development in the post-COVID-19 era. The innovation drivers of NOKEC are the key to promoting sustainable economic development. However, the innovation drivers have various orientations, and their selection requires multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM). This study proposes a modified Delphi method combined with the best–worst method (BWM) as a research framework for selecting and ranking innovation drivers. Our results show the validity of this integrated research framework on a case based in China in the post-COVID-19 era. The results reveal 21 innovation-driven factors of NOKEC with varying levels of relative importance. These results may provide a basis for policymakers and researchers with a useful further understanding of the importance and prioritizing of innovation drivers. In this study, BWM uses 4% fewer pairwise comparisons than AHP, and the consistency ratio is in the range of 0.00 to 0.24.