Evaluating the performance of thermal power enterprises using sustainability balanced scorecard, fuzzy Delphic and hybrid multi-criteria decision making approaches for sustainability

The severe situation of resources and environment poses undesirable conditions to thermal power enterprises for making profits. To promote sustainable development, a novel hybrid framework for evaluating the performance of thermal power enterprises is proposed from the perspective of sustainability. Based on the principle of a sustainability balanced scorecard, the initial evaluation criteria are determined, in which the “environmental” and “sustainable” perspectives are covered to address issues of inadequate corporate social responsibility. Then, 22 final criteria are recognized using the fuzzy Delphi method. Considering the deficiencies of the sustainability balanced scorecard in perceiving importance criteria weights and achieving a comprehensive evaluation, a hybrid evaluation model that operates in the fuzzy environment is developed based on the analytic network process and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution. The relative weights of the evaluation criteria are computed by the analytic network process to address the interdependent relationships among the criteria. Furthermore, because of the simple and logical computation process, the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution is adopted to prioritize the performance of thermal power enterprises in terms of linguistic variables, which are capable of handling situations involving complex and ambiguous problems. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated using a case study from the China Huaneng Group Corporation, in which the performances of four enterprises are effectively prioritized. The results indicate that the “sustainable” and “learning and growth” perspectives are the key elements that can greatly improve performance. The proposed framework can help authorities enhance the competitiveness of decisions for sustainable development. In addition, this study extends the scope of this type of issue through varying multi-criteria decision making tools and different environments such as uncertainty, gray and fuzzy. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.