Eco-industrial development strategies and characteristics according to the performance evaluation of eco-industrial park projects in Korea

The economic performance of eco-industrial park (EIP) projects has been studied extensively in previous research; however, efforts to link EIP project performance with sustainable eco-industrial development (EID) strategies have been rarely considered. To bridge this gap, this study evaluated the performance of Korean EIP projects, promoted through three stages, based on the EID strategies using the ordinal scale evaluation method. Accordingly, the process of developing EIP projects in Korea was reviewed and the EID methodology was derived through previous research results. The analysis showed that 63.1% (32.8/58 points) of the EIP projects considered and/or applied the EID strategies to them, indicating that the Korean EIP Project Group suitably considered EID strategies, whereas other projects did not. The overall characteristics were: 1) The EIP projects with established initial EID strategies were more likely to produce better results (72.8%). 2) The projects with established initial strategies resulted in high economic performance. 3) The projects showed the high interest of EIP projects in strategies related to economic performance. 4) Strategies of high interest existed but did not lead to successful results. 5) Non-production process strategies were generally not implemented. 6) Performance depended on the ability of the project groups to enforce strategies. Our results showed the importance of applying EID strategies to EIP projects to achieve sustainable development, and suggest a revised systematic approach to develop EID strategies through analyzing the performance of EIP projects. •The performance of eco-industrial parks (EIPs) in Korea was evaluated.•Project groups were interested in strategies related to commercialization.•Projects with established initial strategies resulted in high economic performance.•The results show an approach to develop EID strategies through analyzing the performance.