Estimation of productivity change of NBA teams from 2006-07 to 2012-13 seasons

"... acknowledgements at FiT Publishing"The aim of this work is to evaluate the productivity change of the NBA teams during the last seven seasons (from 2006-07 to 2012-13). Within that period of time, a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was ratified before season 2011-12, ending a 161-day lockout. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) has been used to measure the total factor productivity, while an input-oriented Network DEA approach is used to compute the distance of each observation to the corresponding frontier. The results reveal that there has been technological progress for the last few seasons, excluding that of the 2011 lockout, and an increasing efficiency change. This means that best practices are improving and that most teams have been reducing their payrolls to catch up with these practices, thus backing up the owners’ proposal to reduce players’ income. Also regression results show that changes in the number of wins are more dependent upon scale efficiency change than upon budget or efficiency changes

Advances in data envelopment analysis

Since its introduction in 1978, data envelopment analysis (DEA) has become one of the preeminent nonparametric methods for measuring efficiency and productivity of decision making units (DMUs). Charnes et al. (1978) provided the original DEA constant returns to scale (CRS) model, later extended to variable returns to scale (VRS) by Banker et al. (1984). These ‘standard’ models are known by the acronyms CCR and BCC, respectively, and are now employed routinely in areas that range from assessment of public sectors, such as hospitals and health care systems, schools, and universities, to private sectors, such as banks and financial institutions (Emrouznejad et al. 2008; Emrouznejad and De Witte 2010). The main objective of this volume is to publish original studies that are beyond the two standard CCR and BCC models with both theoretical and practical applications using advanced models in DEA

Assessment of the efficiency of spanish football teams through profiling

The aim of this paper is to assess the efficiency of Spanish football teams that participated in the Spanish First Division between 2011 and 2016. We started by specifying the production function of football teams using the production process as a basis. Considering all the moves that can be made during a match, ordering them in the logical sequence that usually links them together and considering ball possession and non-possession as different phases lead to disaggregating the match into eight subdivisions whose efficiency is calculated using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) variant known as profiling. The representative input and output variables considered in these eight subdivisions are moves made during the matches. However, the actions football teams perform, irrespective of their type, are not the result of a standardised procedure. This has two consequences on the number of moves in the field of play: firstly, a minimal variation in playing conditions (both the team's and its opponent's) can alter the number; and, secondly, it is very difficult to control and arrive at a figure possibly established in advance. Since these circumstances can be interpreted as data imprecision, one of the stochastic DEA proposals has also been used in this paper as a calculation tool to verify the robustness of the results. The results show the subdivisions in which the use of moves can be improved to increase the number of actions in the next stage. This knowledge could provide guidance for technical personnel for their training sessions

Comparative values, correlation and classification of basketball players based on the efficiency index and expert evaluation by coaches

Measuring the efficiency of athletes during competition has been a subject of interest both for experts and scientists in sports for more than a hundred years. Basketball has recognized in the 1940s how important it is to analyze efficiency indicators because these procedures allow coaches to increase their knowledge. There are two basic methods – objective and subjective – for evaluating the efficiency, or real quality of basketball players. The aim of this research is to establish the level of correlation between these two methods and to identify clusters, i.e. player hierarchy based on the results of both methods of efficiency evaluation. The sample of variables consisted of 12 basketball players who participated in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. The subjective evaluation, also called expert evaluation, was performed by coaches of seven national teams that participated in the Championship. The objective evaluation was performed using the EEF efficiency index. The data was processed using z-scoring, the Pearson coefficient, and hierarchical cluster analysis. The Pearson coefficients of linear correlation between the efficiency index and the expert evaluation is r = 0.859 with a statistical significance of p ≤ 0.01. The cluster analysis distinguished two groups of players, which were named quality and super quality. The variance analysis showed that the probability of the clusters being equal is less than p ≤ 0.00. The research has shown that the evaluation by coaches is relevant and is fully consistent with the efficiency index formula. Also, the distinction of two groups of players by clustering is not uncommon in the basketball practice and is linked with efficiency at the given time

Efficiency measurement of cloud service providers using network data envelopment analysis

An increasing number of organizations and businesses around the world use cloud computing services to improve their performance in the competitive marketplace. However, one of the biggest challenges in using cloud computing services is performance measurement and the selection of the best cloud service providers (CSPs) based on quality of service (QoS) requirements (Duan, 2017). To address this shortcoming in this article we propose a network data envelopment analysis (DEA) method in measuring the efficiency of CSPs. When network dimensions are taken into consideration, a more comprehensive analysis is enabled where divisional efficiency is reflected in overall efficiency estimates. This helps managers and decision makers in organizations to make accurate decisions in selecting cloud services. In the current study, variable returns to scale (VRS), the non-oriented network slacks-based measure (SBM) model and input-oriented and output-oriented SBM models are applied to measure the performance of 18 CSPs. The obtained results show the superiority of the network DEA model and they also demonstrate that the proposed model can evaluate and rank CSPs much better than compared to traditional DEA models

Social Media and Sports Management: a Data Envelopment Analysis of the English Premier League

Purpose: The aim of this article is to measure the efficiency of the English Premier League (EPL) football clubs combining sports, financial, and social media indicators. Methodology: For that end, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been extensively employed to assess sports productivity. In this particular case, selected inputs are: total assets, wages & salaries, and number of Facebook publications. As outputs, season points, number of Facebook fans, and profits before taxes are considered. Findings/Contribution: Results indicate a direct relationship between table position, efficiency, and profit before taxes and social networks’ use. Intensive utilization of social media can also contribute to the enlargement of a sports institution’s social base, which can also improve its economic resources to be employed on the club’s sport potential

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation explores economic behavior of producers in the U.S. sports industry. The fundamental research questions are: (1) Can business efficiently operate under competitive and noncompetitive environment? (2) Whether or not the difference in competitive abilities leads to industry consolidation? This dissertation uses three cases to investigate the research questions at different angles. The first essay studies the managerial efficiencies in the Major League Baseball using Stochastic Frontier regressions. It discovers that cost efficiency is not related to wins. Although, cost inefficiency is associated with teams that spend more on players, especially pitchers, who is found to be less important to team wins. What more related to victories are the amount of money put in the payrolls and how efficient teams use players to produce wins. However, the technical inefficiency has grown bigger in the recent years. The second essay explores the bidding behavior of National Basketball Association teams for free-agent players, using a comparison of marginal revenue and marginal cost of wins as the judgment. Contradicts other studies that compare salaries with marginal revenue product of players, this study finds that the "winner's curse" does not exist and that teams do not over spend on players. The reason wages are higher than the marginal revenue product can be because of the bargaining power the player union exercised over the shares of teams' fixed income to raise players' salaries. The final essay studies the advertising behavior of the ski industry using the Choice-Base Conjoint analysis. It discovers that smaller ski resorts are less competitive as they face budget constraint. They do not try to compete with bigger operators and could be the reason why the number of ski resorts in the U.S., especially the small ones, has been shrinking recently

Assessing offensive/defensive strategies in a football match using DEA

Belarmino Adenso Díaz Fernández es el investigador principal del proyecto "Análisis y diseño de redes logísticas eficientes, robustas y sostenibles