Introduction

The present study was conducted with the aim of developing a strategic map for energy management in food industry units in East Azerbaijan Province. In terms of purpose, the study is applied–developmental, and with respect to the data collection method and time horizon, it is non-experimental, descriptive–survey, and cross-sectional. The research design followed an exploratory mixed-methods approach (qualitative–quantitative). The statistical population consisted of managers, technical experts, and officials of active production units in the food industry of East Azerbaijan Province. Using purposive snowball sampling, 20 qualified experts were selected. In the qualitative phase, data were collected through interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis to extract the factors influencing energy management, with the interview process continuing until theoretical saturation was achieved. In the quantitative phase, SWOT analysis, the SWARA method, and the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix were employed to analyze and prioritize strategies. The results derived from the Internal and External Factors Evaluation Matrices indicated that the strategic position of energy management in food industry units of East Azerbaijan Province lies in the conservative quadrant, meaning that these units should maximize the use of environmental opportunities by reducing internal weaknesses. Accordingly, five restructuring strategies—“Green Budget,” “Green Knowledge and Capability,” “Smart Infrastructure,” “Technological Synergy,” and “Green Motivation”—were formulated. The results of quantitative prioritization showed that the “Green Budget” strategy, with a score of 7.333, had the highest strategic importance. This was followed by “Green Knowledge and Capability” with a score of 6.419, “Smart Infrastructure” with a score of 5.469, “Technological Synergy” with a score of 4.824, and “Green Motivation” with a score of 4.383. The findings indicate that focusing on reforming financial structures, developing specialized knowledge, and modernizing smart energy technologies can have the greatest effectiveness in improving energy performance and sustainability in food industry units of East Azerbaijan Province.

Methodology:

This study is applied-developmental in terms of its purpose and non-experimental (descriptive) survey-cross-sectional in terms of its method and time frame of data collection. The research design used is a mixed exploratory (qualitative-quantitative) study. The statistical population includes managers, technical experts, and officials of production units active in the food industry of East Azerbaijan Province, from whom 20 qualified experts were selected based on the purposeful snowball sampling method. In the qualitative part, the content analysis method was used to extract the factors affecting energy management, and the interview process continued until theoretical saturation was reached. In the quantitative part, SWOT, Swara, and quantitative strategic planning matrix methods were used to analyze and prioritize strategies.



Results and Discussion:

In the findings section, the experts' views on presenting an energy management strategy map in food industry units were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached, and the interview transcripts were fully entered into the MaxQDA software and examined using a content analysis approach.The data coding process was carried out based on the method proposed by Brown and Clark. First, semantic units were separated and reviewed repeatedly at the sentence and paragraph levels, then initial codes were extracted and placed in meaningful categories based on conceptual similarities. By repeating this process in all interviews, a total of 214 codes were identified in the open coding stage, which were categorized in the final step and through axial coding into 2 overarching categories (internal and external factors), 4 organizing categories (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), and 53 basic themes.

Conclusion:

The results of the internal and external factors assessment matrix showed that the strategic status of energy management in food industry units of East Azerbaijan Province is in the conservative quadrant; meaning that these units should make the most of the existing environmental opportunities by compensating for their internal weaknesses. In this regard, five restructuring strategies were developed, including "green budget", "green knowledge and power", "smart infrastructure", "technological synergy" and "green motivation". The results of quantitative prioritization showed that the green budget strategy has the highest strategic importance with a score of 7.333. After that, green knowledge and power with a score of 6.419, smart infrastructure with a score of 5.469, technological synergy with a score of 4.824 and green motivation with a score of 4.383 were ranked next. The results show that focusing on reforming the financial structure, developing specialized knowledge and modernizing smart energy technologies is most effective in improving the performance and energy sustainability of food industry units of East Azerbaijan Province.