Integrated Assessment of Sustainable Economic–Social–Environmental Performance in the Pharmaceutical Industry Using a Mamdani Fuzzy System

Assessing sustainable performance in the pharmaceutical industry is a major challenge, driven by the multidimensional nature of sustainability, the heterogeneity of the indicators used, and the uncertainty associated with their interpretation. In this context, traditional aggregation methods may be limited in capturing the interdependencies between economic, social, and environmental dimensions. This study aims to develop and apply a model for assessing sustainable performance based on fuzzy logic, capable of integrating multiple indicators into a coherent and interpretable framework. The research adopts a quantitative, longitudinal case study design, applied to a pharmaceutical company over the period 2015– 2024. Economic, social, and environmental indicators were normalized and aggregated into dimensional indices, which constituted the input variables in a Mamdani-type fuzzy system implemented in MATLAB. The system uses triangular membership functions and a set of expert rules to generate an annual Sustainable Performance Index (SPI). The results indicate an upward trend in sustainable performance over the entire period analyzed, with a sharp increase in SPI in recent years, corresponding to the concomitant improvements in all three dimensions. The fuzzy model highlights the systemic nature of sustainability, penalizing unbalanced profiles and reflecting the nonlinear relationships between economic, social, and environmental components. The contributions of the study are both methodological, by proposing a transparent and replicable framework for sustainability assessment, and applicative, by demonstrating the usefulness of fuzzy logic as a decision support tool and longitudinal monitoring of sustainable performance in the pharmaceutical industry.