In addition to retaining high levels of customer satisfaction, sustainability of businesses is also heavily reliant on the efficiency of their internal and external processes. Continuous performance evaluations using key performance metrics to leverage operations are essential in maintaining a sustainable business while achieving growth objectives for revenue and profitability. Traditionally, companies have considered various financial criteria, quality characteristics, and targeted levels of service as their primary factors for performance evaluation. However, increasing environmental and social awareness and accompanying governmental legislations are now requiring companies to integrate these two aspects into their performance evaluations. With this motivation, this study proposes a Balanced Scorecard (BSC)-based approach combining Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) methodologies for performance evaluation. The grey system theory has been utilized in order to capture the vagueness and the uncertainty in decision making. To demonstrate the functionality of the approach, a case study is conducted on a U.S.-based food franchise. The results of the algorithm and a discussion elaborating on the findings are provided.
Keywords: ANP; DEMATEL; balanced scorecard; food industry; grey systems theory; performance evaluation; sustainability.