As win‐win solutions at the park level, eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) have become the mainstream model to realize a sustainable transition of industrial parks in the world. However, few cases have been implemented in Africa, even though Africa is fertile ground for the growth of industrial parks. This study explores the transition process and outcome of a typical African industrial park—Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) in Ethiopia. We adopted the international framework for EIPs and applied the strategic niche management (SNM) framework to uncover the transition performance and process. This study shows that HIP's development is a clear articulation of implementing the sustainable development strategy and the industrial park development corporation's role. However, the analysis also identified limitations such as the impracticability of certain framework criteria and inapplicable indicators. Although HIP is still at the nascent stages of EIP implementation, we have found three critical factors for EIP development in Ethiopia from our preliminary observation. These include the importance of actors, the learning process, and having standards for an indicator system. These indicators are of exceptional value to Ethiopian researchers and practitioners in integrating sustainability into local economic development.
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