An investigation on the impact of industrial symbiosis implementation on organizational performance using analytical hierarchical approach

• Published in: Benchmarking : an international journal 2020-03, Vol.27 (2), p.886-911
• Main Authors: K.E.K, Vimal, K, Jayakrishna, Ameen, Thaha, Afridhi, Syed Shoaib, Vasudevan, Varadharajan, Sreedharan V, Raja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytic hierarchy process; Community; Competition; Decision making; Ecology; Energy; Environmental economics; Environmental performance; Externality; Industrial ecology; Literature reviews; Product development; Raw materials; Symbiosis
• ISSN: 1463-5771; 1758-4094
• DOI: 10.1108/BIJ-12-2018-0423

Purpose Industrial symbiosis (IS) is basically a synergistic association between two or more industries or businesses wherein the waste or by-product of one industry becomes the raw material or immediate material of another industry. IS is believed to bring in significant benefits to the organizations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competitiveness attained through IS. Design/methodology/approach Analytic hierarchy process was adopted to analyze the various organizational competitiveness of IS implementation. The conceptual model was developed to understand the interrelationship between 14 outcomes and 5 organizational competitiveness which are identified from the literature review. The attainment of these five organizational competitiveness was evaluated by computing the global priority score of the outcomes. Findings The global priority score suggests that the organizational collaboration (0.19) is the important output. Further, collective learning and growth (44 percent) have been identified as the important competitiveness attained through the implementation of IS. Practical implications The relationship matrix developed can be used by the practicing managers/researchers to understand the various interactions. Thus, systematic decision making and guidance for future implementation studies will be ensured. Originality/value In the past, few authors discussed the conceptualization of IS; however, the impact of IS on the organizational performance was not extensively studied. Therefore, a conceptual model was proposed to analyze the attainment of various competitiveness through the participation of industrial symbiosis network. Further, based on the computed scores, the relationship matrix developed between outcomes and organizational competitiveness is one of the significant contributions of this work.