A causal eco-industrial park hierarchical transition model with qualitative information: Policy and regulatory framework leads to collaboration among firms

Eco-industrial parks promise to reduce environmental and social impacts and improve the economic performance of industrial parks. However, the transition from industrial parks to eco-industrial parks is still not well understood. This study contributes to developing valid hierarchical eco-industrial park transition attribute sets with qualitative information, as prior studies lack an exploration of the attributes in the transition of eco-industrial parks in Hungary. In nature, eco-industrial park transition attributes have causal and hierarchical interrelationships and are described with qualitative information. The assessment involves an analysis of the industrial symbiosis principles by using linguistic preferences. However, multiple attributes are involved in the assessment; therefore, this study proposes the Delphi method to develop a valid attribute set and applies fuzzy set theory to translate qualitative information into crisp values. The fuzzy decision-making trial evaluation laboratory method is used to visualize the attributes' causal interrelationships under uncertainties. The results indicate that the policy and regulatory framework leads to collaboration among firms in the eco-industrial park transition model. In practice, price reforms, management commitment, strategic planning, cognitive barriers and the integration of external information are the practical criteria for improvement. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.