Journal of Urban Economics and Management

Nowadays, due to the increasing rate of environmental complexities and the growing number of effective factors in making appropriate decisions, making decisions based on scientific principles has obtained a specific status among the top managers. Opting for the best consultancy firm, as one of the most important decisions the top managers would make for receiving consultancy services, has changed into a vital decision regarding the complications of the current business atmosphere and the effects of the quality of such services on the future sustenance of an economic enterprise. In this paper, in order to make a proper decision to opt for an appropriate consultant in devising strategic plans, a nine-step procedure is presented the most important advantages of which are the pre-qualification of the alternatives and the classification of decision-making criteria into general and specific groups. The proposed procedure has been investigated and analyzed utilizing the real data collected from Tehran Beautification Organization (TBO). The results show that the proposed procedure for selecting consultants for strategic plans in urban management is of high applicability and replicability.