A data envelopment analysis approach to evaluate sustainability in supply chain networks

Benefiting from a performance measurement system is an inevitable necessity for any supply chain management to direct the business operations towards the maximal efficiency. In particular, there has been an increasing interest in incorporating sustainability practices evaluation in supply chain operations in the last years due to various stakeholders' requirements. The sustainability paradigm calls for balancing economic, environmental, and social needs. This paper focuses on the evaluation of supply chain operations that maximize economic returns, minimize environment impacts, and meet social expectations. In order to design a supervisory framework to measure the performance of these operations, this study develops a multi-stage data envelopment analysis model that is apt to evaluate the sustainability of a chain of business partners. In addition, the proposed mathematical model is applied to two case studies; one in the manufacturing sector and the other in the banking sector. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.