Efficiency of Cultural and Creative Industries: A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Guided Systematic Review of Data Envelopment Analysis Applications

This article identifies and analyses the applications of the main non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the efficiency measurement of the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The overarching goal of this study is to survey all the relevant published studies in this area and present and analyse their results to synthesise the state of knowledge in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. Moreover, another goal is to provide a theoretical background to the creative and cultural industries and the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. This article conducts a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis – a guided systematic review with stringent selection criteria to include relevant Data Envelopment Analysis applications in the creative and cultural industries. The methodology resulted in 13 relevant articles regarding the efficiency of creative and cultural industries and the application of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The main findings reveal that there are no studies employing the Data Envelopment Analysis method in the creative and cultural industries and sectors prior to 2012, which raises many issues for future consideration. Moreover, all the different perspectives on the efficiency evaluation of the creative and cultural industries are presented. The ultimate objective is to point out to academic members, researchers and analysts globally to apply the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology more often in the creative and cultural industries and sectors and refer to future research priorities in this field

Efficiency of Cultural and Creative Industries: A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Guided Systematic Review of Data Envelopment Analysis Applications

This article identifies and analyses the applications of the main non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the efficiency measurement of the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The overarching goal of this study is to survey all the relevant published studies in this area and present and analyse their results to synthesise the state of knowledge in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. Moreover, another goal is to provide a theoretical background to the creative and cultural industries and the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. This article conducts a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis – a guided systematic review with stringent selection criteria to include relevant Data Envelopment Analysis applications in the creative and cultural industries. The methodology resulted in 13 relevant articles regarding the efficiency of creative and cultural industries and the application of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The main findings reveal that there are no studies employing the Data Envelopment Analysis method in the creative and cultural industries and sectors prior to 2012, which raises many issues for future consideration. Moreover, all the different perspectives on the efficiency evaluation of the creative and cultural industries are presented. The ultimate objective is to point out to academic members, researchers and analysts globally to apply the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology more often in the creative and cultural industries and sectors and refer to future research priorities in this field

Technology Transition Performance of the U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research Program

Acquisition Research Program Sponsored Report SeriesSponsored Acquisition Research & Technical ReportsSustainable public procurement plays an important role in addressing not only environmental but also economic and social issues through government acquisitions from technology-based small suppliers. In this context, the objective of this study is to better understand the holistic public procurement process by assessing the operational efficiency of technology-based small suppliers and associating the economic aspect of public procurement with the social aspect, such as women-owned businesses. To this end, we analyzed U.S. Department of Defense Small Busi-ness Innovation Research grantees by combining network data envelopment analysis with bootstrap truncated regression analysis. Drawing on the analysis results, we found that (1) there is heterogeneity in the performance of research and development, network building, and commercialization sub-processes, and (2) there is a positive relationship between the overall performance and women-owned small suppliers who excel particularly in network building. The former implies that small suppliers may have different expertise in the chain of public procurement; the latter suggests that woman entrepreneurs with a business network may be able to outperform their counterparts in the public procurement market.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The impact of competition on productive efficiency in European railways

This paper empirically explores the relationship between competition design and productive efficiency in the railway industry. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to construct efficiency scores, and explain these scores, using variables reflecting institutional factors and competition design. Our results suggest that competitive tendering improves productive efficiency, which is in line with economic intuition as well as with expectations on the design of competition. We also find that free entry lowers productive efficiency. A possible explanation for this result is that free entry may disable railway operators to reap economies of density. Our final result is that more autonomy of management lowers productive efficiency. Most of the incumbent railway companies are state owned and do not face any competitive pressure. As a consequence, increased independence without sufficient competition and adequate regulation may deteriorate incentives for productive efficiency.

Transit Costs and Cost Efficiency: Bootstrapping Nonparametric Frontiers.

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarised as follows: (i) the bias implied by uncorrected cost efficiency measures is numerically important (close to 25%), (ii) the bootstrapped-based test rejects the constant returns to scale hypothesis (iii) explaining patterns of efficiency scores using a two-stage bootstrapping approach detects only one significant covariate, in contrast to earlier results highlighting, e.g., the positive impact of high-powered contract types. Finally, comparing the average inefficiency obtained for the Norwegian data set with an analogous estimate for a smaller French sample illustrates how the estimated differences in average efficiency almost disappear once sample size differences are accounted for.

Market access and seaport efficiency: the case of container handling in Norway

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Comprehensive studies on the impact of market access on port efficiency are scarce, and the problem that market access indicators are potentially endogenous lacks treatment in maritime economics. This paper offers both theoretical and empirical advances to fill these research gaps. First, it pioneers in the use of Stochastic semi-Nonparametric Envelopment of Z variables Data for measuring port efficiency, and further develops the methodology for panel data and proposes an instrumental variable extension for dealing with endogenous market access indicators. Second, it advances the empirical port literature by developing a unique panel dataset on Norwegian container ports encompassing a comprehensive set of foreland and hinterland connectivity measures. Our comprehensive assessment suggests that the role of market access in determining port efficiency is uncertain.Market access and seaport efficiency: the case of container handling in NorwaypublishedVersio

Railway reforms: Do they influence operating efficiency?

This paper considers railway operations in 23 European countries during 1995-2001, where a series of reform initiatives were launched by the European Commission, and analyses whether these reform initiatives improved the operating efficiency of the railways. Efficiency is measured using Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis, which enables investigation of how railway reforms affect the inefficiencies of specific cost drivers. The main findings are that the reform initiatives generally improve operating efficiency but potentially differently for different cost drivers. Specifically, the paper provides clear empirical evidence that accounting separation is important for improving operating efficiency for both material and staff costs, whereas other reforms only influenced one of these factors.European railways; reforms; operating efficiency; Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis (MEA)

A material balance approach for modelling banks’ production process with non-performing loans

The aim of this to study is to examine how non-performing loans on the balance sheets of Japanese banks affect their performance by adopting a material balance principle. The paper outlines how the material balance conditions can be applied when modelling banks’ production process in the presence of non-performing loans. The paper utilizes the generalized weak G-disposability principle which accounts for the heterogeneity among banks’ input quality. We test how an input-oriented model (non-performing loans are treated as an input), the weak disposability assumption and the adopted material balance approach, affect banks’ performance levels. We apply our test on a sample of Japanese banks over the period 2013 to 2019. Our findings indicate that the input-oriented model and the material balance estimator even if they present similar distributions, they account differently the effect of non-performing loans’ fluctuations over the examined period. In addition, the results under the weak disposability assumption are found to be different compared to the material balance measures and less sensitive to banks’ non-performing loans variation levels. We also provide evidence that the generalized weak G-disposability assumption captures better banks’ performance fluctuations that has been caused by the restructuring of the Japanese banking industry

Environmental Efficiency Assessment of Dublin Port Using Two-Stage Non-Radial DEA Model

Global maritime trade has reached 11 billion tons and accounts for more than 80% of global merchandise trade (United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD), 2019). As a result, there is a wide range of vessels, from very large bulk carriers (coal, ores, grains, etc., and crude oil/refinery carriers) to container ships to various cruise ships and naval vessels. To efficiently accommodate these various vessels, ports have had to evolve from wharves to efficient logistical hubs within the larger supply chain that move vessels deeper into the hinterland. Port development is critical to managing the growing volume of cargo (European Commission (EC), 2011)