Who drives sustainability in distance education? A novel multi-stakeholder analysis using factor analysis and fuzzy MACTOR

Distance education (DE) has become a core component of higher education institutions, particularly in response to rapid digital transformation and global sustainability goals. In this perspective, identifying sustainability dimensions, understanding stakeholder roles, and the interrelationships between them are essential for the long-term success of DE. This study addresses the research gap concerning the stakeholder-driven sustainability of DE by proposing a novel hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. This approach, which integrates factor analysis (FA) and the Matrix of Alliances and Conflicts: Tactics, Objectives and Recommendations (MACTOR) method enhanced with circular intuitionistic fuzzy sets (C-IFSs), explores stakeholder interrelationships and their impact on sustainability factors. Based on survey data collected from 92 higher education institutions, five sustainability factors were extracted. Using the C-IFS-enhanced MACTOR method, the impact and roles of nine stakeholders on the sustainability factors are obtained, addressing the uncertainty in assessments. The findings indicate that institutional factors are the most important, followed by environmental-economic and pedagogical-psychological factors. Managerial staff, higher education institutions, and accreditation bodies lead institutional sustainability; administrative staff and service providers underpin environmental-economic sustainability; and students and academic staff drive pedagogical-psychological sustainability. To validate the robustness and reliability of the proposed approach, sensitivity and comparative analyses are conducted. The proposed approach contributes to stakeholder analysis under uncertainty and offers practical insights for decision-makers involved in the sustainable implementation of DE.