Effective municipal solid waste management capability under uncertainty in Vietnam: Utilizing economic efficiency and technology to foster social mobilization and environmental integrity

Resources and expertise for controlling processes are inadequate due to municipal solid waste management (MSWM) capability limitations in Vietnam. The resource-based view (RBV) needs to be considered in the assessment of municipal solid waste management. Nevertheless, in practice, various attributes of municipal solid waste management are not considered in the sustainable performance of cities. Hence, this study applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to confirm the validity and reliability of these attributes and construct a hierarchical structure. Fuzzy set theory was used to convert the linguistic preferences into crisp values and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to assess the causal interrelationships among the attributes. The analytic network process (ANP) was adopted to construct the hierarchical framework, and fuzzy importance - performance analysis (IPA) was used to enhance our understanding of the gap between importance and performance. The results show that the efficiency and effectiveness of cities’ waste management systems depend on the capability based on utilizing economic efficiency and technology advantages to foster social mobilization and environmental integrity. Practitioners should consider new data acquisition and communication technologies, the circular economy, technical capabilities, and organizational/leadership capabilities in their decision making to promote sustainable performance. To develop sustainable MSWM, suitable strategic solutions based on the resources and strengths of each city should be developed that consider formal, informal and small-scale sectors. •The resource-based view is applied to analyze the municipal solid waste management for improving the sustainable advantages.•Hybrid method is used to confirm the attributes’ validity and reliability and construct a hierarchical structure.•Cities depend on the capability based on utilizing economic efficiency and technology advantages.•Practitioner has to involve new data acquisition and circular economy to promote sustainable performance.