Causal relationships among critical factors have been extensively studied in recent years. The most commonly seen methods based on the questionnaire to construct the causal relationships are decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method and semantic structure analysis (SSA) method. However, both methods have their own limitations. In contrast, an ordering coefficient based on information energy has a solid theoretical background to study causal relationships among critical factors. In order to identify the threshold value to establish causal relationships from the raw data, a bootstrapping Monte Carlo simulation for an ordering coefficient based on information energy was conducted. Finally, a brief case study was presented and discussed with the use of an ordering coefficient based on information energy and a bootstrapping Monte Carlo simulation when the raw data are available to construct the causal relationships among the criteria.
