The hydrogen supply chain (HSC) has emerged as a crucial driver of decarbonization, particularly in emerging and developing economies. However, the systemic interdependencies model among critical success factors (CSFs) in developing a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem remains underexplored. This study identifies and prioritizes 20 CSFs across four stages of the HSC—sourcing, conversion, transportation, and utilization —using integrated multi-method decision-making frameworks, including the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), interpretative structural modeling (ISM), and the multiplication of applied cross-impact matrices for classification (MICMAC). The key analytical outcomes reveal a distinct hierarchical structure: resource security, strategic energy planning, and life-cycle assessment emerge as fundamental drivers with the greatest systemic influence. Technological efficiency, infrastructure readiness, and regulatory clarity serve as critical linkage factors, mediating between upstream conditions and downstream adoption. Meanwhile, utilization-related CSFs, such as market certainty and consumer acceptance, emerge as highly dependent factors. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the value of a hybrid approach for unraveling complex cause-and-effect relationships and classifying factors by their driving and dependence power within a transitioning ecosystem. Theoretically, these findings highlight the co-evolutionary dynamics of institutional, technological, and infrastructure drivers in socio-technical transitions. For practitioners, the results provide a strategic blueprint, highlighting the need to secure upstream drivers, fortify intermediate linkages through adaptive governance, and cultivate downstream market readiness to accelerate a viable hydrogen-based decarbonization pathway.
Primadasa et al. (Tue,) studied this question.