Evaluating Digital Transformation
Effectiveness in Select Vietnamese Cities:
A Hybrid Approach Combining Probability
and SIWEC Methods

Digital transformation plays a pivotal role in streamlining administrative procedures, stimulating economic growth, enhancing governance efficiency, and improving quality of life. This research aims to assess the efficacy of digital transformation initiatives, using a case study involving 20 cities in Vietnam. Eight criteria were employed to evaluate digital transformation progress: digital awareness index, digital institutional framework index, digital infrastructure index, digital human resources index, cybersecurity index, digital government performance index, digital business performance index, and digital social activity index. SIWEC, a subjective weighting method, was utilized to determine the significance of each criterion in this study. The performance ranking of the cities' digital transformation efforts was then conducted using the Probability method.
The results showed, firstly, that the criteria identified as most important when using the subjective weighting method, SIWEC, were consistent with those when using the objective weighting method, PSI. Secondly, the integration of SIWEC and Probability methods yielded a digital transformation ranking of the cities that exhibited a high degree of correlation with rankings obtained using other established methodologies.

Digital Transformation, MCDM, Probability method, SIWEC method

1. A. Abdulaziz, K. N. Al-Khalifa, and M. H. Abdel, ‘AIPowered Innovation in Digital Transformation: Key Pillars and Industry Impact’, Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, Art. no. 1790, 2024.

2. T. H. Pham, T. T. H.Hoang, E. I. Thalassinos, and H. A. Le, ‘The Impact of Quality of Public Administration on Local Economic Growth in Vietnam’, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, vol. 15 Art. no. 158, 2022.

3. M.Đurđević, ‘Freelancing and the Digital Economy: The Case of Serbia’s Emerging Role in the Global Market’, Journal of entrepreneurship and business resilience, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 65–79, 2024.

4. A. M. Shirwa, A. M. Hassan, A. Q. Hassan, and M. Kilinc, ‘A cooperative governance framework for sustainable digital transformation in construction: The role of digital enablement and digital strategy’, Results in Engineering, vol. 25, pp. 104139, 2025.

5. M. M. A. P. Mick, J.L.Kovaleski, R.L.Mick, and D. M. d.G.Chiroli, ‘Developing a Sustainable Digital Transformation Roadmap for SMEs: Integrating Digital Maturity and Strategic Alignment’, Sustainability, vol.16, Art. no. 8745, 2024.

6. H. F. Beyaz, and N. Yıldırım, ‘A Multi-criteria DecisionMaking Model for Digital Transformation in Manufacturing: A Case Study from Automotive Supplier Industry’, Proceedings of the International Symposium for Production Research 2019, 2020.

7. Onyekwere, I. T., “Strategic planning for fostering resilient entrepreneurship development,” Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Resilience, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 93–104, 2024. https://jebr.fimek.edu.rs/index. php/jebr/article/view/119

8. D. D. Trung, B. Dudić, N.-T. Nguyen, and A. Ašonja, ‘Data Normalization for Root Assessment Methodology’, International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 156- 168, 2024.

9. J. D. Hong, ‘Application of the extended two-stage network DEA model for the biomass-biofuel logistics network design’, International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 76– 89, 2025

10. Trung, D. D., Tung, N. N., 'Applying COCOSO, MABAC, MAIRCA, EAMR, TOPSIS and weight determination methods for multi-criteria decision making in hole turning process', Strojníckyčasopis - Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 72, no 2, pp. 15-40, 2022.

...