Towards The Development of a Strategic Sustainability Assessment Methodology for Free Zones

Abstract

Sustainability has witnessed a significant interest in recent decades. Incorporating sustainability practices within free zones has emerged as a means to enhance their competitiveness. Free zones prioritizing sustainability are more likely to attract investments and support while fulfilling sustainable development obligations. Accordingly, adopting sustainability assessment tools is crucial for measuring the sustainability effectiveness of free zones. In light of this context, this dissertation addresses the sustainability assessment of free zones and presents five main contributions. First, conducting a review, elucidating free zones' terminology, definition, and classification, and proposing their components. Second, presenting sustainability assessment indicators and related assessment tools, developing a novel model for the strategic sustainability assessment in free zones. Third, deriving weights and priorities of the proposed model by related experts using the Analytic Hierarchy Process approach. As a result, the outcomes indicated that economic sustainability received the highest priority, with a percentage of 41.81%, followed by environmental, social, and organizational at 24.97%, 22.26%, and 10.96%, respectively. Fourth, reviewing sustainability incentives to attract investments for free zones and developing a relevant model, considering economic, environmental, and social incentives. Finally, examining the proposed sustainability incentive model using the AHP decision-making tool to determine weights and rankings by companies and free zone experts. The findings underscore a primary emphasis on economic incentives by companies and free zone experts, representing 75.83% and 61.44% of their priorities, respectively. Meanwhile, environmental and social incentives were ranked second and third, with percentages of 26.84% and 11.72% by free zone experts and 15.13% and 9.05% by companies, respectively.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Science and Engineering