ESG-Based Performance Assessment of the Operation and Management of Industrial Parks in Taiwan

Abstract

The development of industrial parks plays an important role in the economic development of developed and developing countries, but it has recently been affected by globalization and the rise of environmental protection awareness, as 2050 net-zero carbon emissions are being pursued by the world’s major economies. To make their development more sustainable, this study evaluates the operational management performance of industrial parks in Taiwan from the perspective of ESG, to inform future industrial development strategies and policy research. First, 61 industrial parks managed by the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) were selected and underwent a fuzzy Delphi expert questionnaire to screen the ESG-oriented performance indicators; performance was evaluated through the data envelopment analysis (DEA) undesirable outputs model and the window analysis method. The results indicate that the New Taipei Industrial Park performed best in terms of ESG, followed by the Feng-Shan and Anping industrial parks, with the worst performance from the Mei-Lun, Yun-Lin Island, and Hu-Pin industrial parks. Regarding factors affecting the performance of operation management, a Mann–Whitney U test showed that the northern industrial parks performed significantly better than those in the eastern region, those in the municipalities significantly outperformed the nonmunicipalities, and the industrial parks with more clustered industries and those in areas with convenient transportation performed substantially better. Finally, this study summarizes the important issues facing Taiwan’s industrial parks, and it makes policy recommendations, including promoting ESG sustainable development objectives in their operation and management, as well as increasing the investment of government resources and the clustering of industries and transportation.