Sustainability Evaluation for an Industrial Supply Chain: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Over the last decade, there has been an increased pressure on enterprises to broaden the focus of sustainability and accountability in business performance beyond that of financial performance. Benefiting from a performance measurement system is an inevitable necessity for any supply chain to direct the business operations towards the maximal efficiency. Demands for sustainability management includes a variety of sources, including societal mandates incorporated into regulations, fear of loss of sales, and a potential decline in reputation if a firm does not have a tangible commitment to sustainable management. The sustainability paradigm calls for balancing economic, environmental, and social needs. Thus, this paper focuses on the evaluation of industrial supply chain operations, maximizing economic returns, minimizing environmental impacts, and meeting social expectations. The objective of this work is to expand the understanding of the measurement of sustainability management by introducing a data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. By employing the approach of cross efficiency, we present a new model to measure sustainability management. The new proposed model and the findings contribute to the body of knowledge in sustainability management and its performance measurement.