Developing a hierarchical structure of the co-benefits of the triple bottom line under uncertainty

Abstract

Abstract The global electronics industry has faced pressure from diversity standards and regulations such as RoHS, WEEE, and REACH, among others. Therefore, electronics firms are striving to implement the triple bottom line (TBL) in their real practices to attain the co-benefits for stakeholders. However, to assess the firms’ performance, there is a lack of a hierarchical structure to consider the interrelationships among these co-benefits. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop a precise TBL structure to assist firms in identifying the key practices to attain the co-benefits. There are three notable results: 1. there are nine aspects of the hierarchical structure, in contrast to the original TBL framework; 2. the hierarchical structure offers precise guidelines for firm practices; and 3. the proposed hybrid method is employed to address the co-benefits the industry seeks to attain. This study provides a theoretical basis for enhancing the understanding of co-benefits and identifies a precise way to guide firms to achieve the co-benefits of the TBL.