Granular and Relational SWOT Analysis: An Ontological Approach

The traditional Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis, despite its popularity [37], faces a significant challenge in interpreting information through the "SWOT Matrix (SM)"[20]. The conventional matrix fails to capture the complexity, semantics, and detailed characteristics necessary for comprehensive decision-making. Therefore, this paper introduces an innovative approach to address these limitations by an ontology SWOTONT [45] representing the domain of SWOT analysis. SWOTONT is developed through a literature review and a bottom-up ontology development approach [23], providing context to the SWOT attributes by introducing finer subcategories and mapping their interrelationships. By developing a structured semantic approach, authors aimed to enable more precise knowledge extraction and support advanced strategic analysis. Future work will focus on empirical validation through case studies and domain expert feedback, integrating an upper ontology and exploring additional applications and integrations of the model.