An evaluation of cross-efficiency methods: With an application to warehouse performance

Cross-efficiency measurement is an extension of Data Envelopment Analysis that allows for tie-breaking ranking of the Decision Making Units (DMUs) using all the peer evaluations. In this article we examine the theory of cross-efficiency measurement by comparing a selection of methods popular in the literature. These methods are applied to performance measurement of European warehouses. We develop a cross-efficiency method based on a rank-order DEA model to accommodate the ordinal nature of some key variables characterizing warehouse performance. This is one of the first comparisons of methods on a real-life dataset and the first time that a model allowing for qualitative variables is included in such a comparison. Our results show that the choice of model matters, as one obtains statistically different rankings from each one of them. This holds in particular for the multiplicative and game-theoretic methods whose results diverge from the classic method. From a managerial perspective, focused on the applicability of the methods, we evaluate them through a multidimensional metric which considers their capability to rank DMUs, their ease of implementation, and their robustness to sensitivity analyses. We conclude that standard weight-restriction methods, as initiated by Sexton et al. [48], perform as well as recently introduced, more sophisticated alternativesSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), the State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and the European Regional Development Fund (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) under grants EIN2020-11226

DEA-based Nash bargaining approach to merger target selection

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&amp;As) are important business strategies in any industry, as they allow the parties involved to achieve, for example, higher market share, profits and influence in one or more industries. In any M&amp;A activity, the key challenge for an acquirer company is to select the target company that can most improve its performance through synergy. The goal of this research is thus to help acquirer companies model and optimally solve their merger target selection problems (MTSPs) in both horizontal integration and vertical integration settings. We apply both a data envelopment analysis (DEA) based performance evaluation framework and the Nash bargaining solution concept to mathematically model an acquirer company's MTSPs under the two types of integration settings. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed new models are the first DEA-based Nash bargaining models in the literature to help acquirer companies obtain their most desired target companies. Finally, this research provides numerical examples, including real-life examples, to illustrate various aspects and implementation details of the two types of models.</p

An Evaluation of Cross-Efficiency Methods, Applied to Measuring Warehouse Performance

In this paper method and practice of cross-efficiency calculation is discussed. The main methods proposed in the literature are tested not on a set of artificial data but on a realistic sample of input-output data of European ware- houses. The empirical results show the limited role which increasing automation investment and larger warehouse size have in increasing productive performance. The reason is the existence of decreasing returns to scale in the industry, resulting in sub-optimal scales and inefficiencies, regardless of the operational performance of the facilities. From the methodological perspective, and based on a multidimensional metric which considers the capability of the various methods to rank warehouses, their ease of implementation, and their robustness to sensitivity analyses, we conclude to the superiority of the classic Sexton et al. (1986) method over recently proposed, more sophisticated methods

Koncept i primjena egoistove dileme

Problemu alokacije određene količine djeljivih sredstava u ovome radu pristupa se s motrišta koncepta egoistove dileme. Ključna je pretpostavka koncepta egoistove dileme sebičnost igrača koji dijele dobitak, što znači da svaki od njih nastoji održati vlastitu nadmoć u pogledu kriterija na osnovi kojih se vrednuje rezultat. Koncept egoistove dileme razvijen je unutar zajedničkoga okvira analize omeđivanja podataka i kooperativne teorije igara. Proizašla igra i njezina proširenja u ovome radu primjenjuju se na podatke o ostvarenju igrača koji su sudjelovali u jednoj epizodi natjecateljskoga kviza znanja Potjera Hrvatske radiotelevizije. Budući da igrači trebaju djelovati kao tim, prema pravilima kviza svakome natjecatelju uručuje se jednak iznos zajednički osvojene novčane nagrade. Međutim, doprinosi igrača pobjedi međusobno se razlikuju, što je u ovome radu uvaženo uvođenjem odgovarajućih pretpostavki i predlaže se nekoliko alternativnih raspodjela raspoložive svote. Dobivena rješenja pozivaju se na Shapleyjevu vrijednost. Razmatraju se i ostale moguće primjene koncepta egoistove dileme. Cilj je predstaviti temu koja je nova i nedovoljno istražena i tako potaknuti na upotrebu i daljnji razvoj koncepta egoistove dileme

Lu-Lu: A framework for collaborative decision making games

This paper proposes Lu-Lu as an add-on architecture to open MMOGs and social network games, which has been developed to utilise a key set of ingredients that underline collaborative decision making games as reported within the research literature: personalisation, team matching, non-optimal decision making, leading, decisiveness index, scoring, levelling, and multiple stages. The implementation of Lu-Lu is demonstrated as an add-on to the classic supply chain beer game, including customisation of Lu-Lu to facilitate information exchange through the Facebook games platform, e.g., Graph API and Scores API. Performance assessment of Lu-Lu using Behaviour-Driven Development suggests a successful integration of all key ingredients within Lu-Lu's architecture, yielding autonomous behaviour that improves both player enjoyment and decision making

Criteria Used in Research & Development Project Selection

Devido à corrida em busca de inovação, organizações do Brasil e do mundo todo enfrentam desafios constantes para se manterem relevantes no mercado, buscando as melhores formas de gerenciar seus projetos e utilizando dos recursos existentes para maximizar os benefícios e, em alguns casos, minimizar o risco ou custos de seus projetos. De acordo com uma revisão sistemática de 61 artigos, escritos entre 1970 a 2018, que utilizam métodos multi-critérios para tomada de decisões (MCDM) para selecionar projetos de Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento (P&D), apenas 19 deles dão uma explicação adequada dos critérios utilizados. Assim, a fim de contribuir com o processo de seleção de projetos, o objetivo principal deste trabalho é mostrar quais os tipos de critérios que apresentam maior relevância sobre os demais. Todo o processo é feito através de uma revisão sistemática da literatura: desde a seleção dos artigos, o agrupamento dos critérios e sua avaliação por dois especialistas utilizando o método Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Ao final, percebe-se o quão importante é o benefício financeiro para os especialistas, e que a inovação não é considerada tão relevante para eles e para a maioria dos autores dos artigos analisados

Modelos flexibles para la valoración de la eficiencia

El objetivo en esta Memoría ha sido el análisis de eficiencia de un determinado sector empresarial, teniendo en cuenta dos problemas casi siempre presentes, y de naturaleza muy diferente, por una parte, que los datos que se manejan pueden ser imprecisos y, por tanto, afectar al resultado de cualquier estudio de eficiencia y, por otra parte, el deseo de ordenar las empresas (Unidades De Toma de Decisión) atendiendo a la medición de su eficiencia. Para la medición de la eficiencia se ha recurrido a la metodología no paramétrica del Análisis Envolvente de datos (DEA) aplicandola a empresas del sector textil muy cercanas a nosotros. Ahora bien, dado que consideramos que siempre existe alguna incertidumbre o un posible error en la medición de algunos datos (inputs y outputs), introducimos la limitación de la certeza con el tratamiento fuzzy de los datos, métodos que no requieren conocer ni aplicar hipótesis sobre distribuciones de probabilidad de esos datos, que dicho sea de paso, podría no ser fáctible bajo determinados supuestos de incertidumbre. Pero además de la medir la eficiencia pretendemos proporcionar más información que la mera separación dicotómica entre empresas eficientes o no eficientes. Para ello desarrollamos y aplicamos los modelos de super-efficiencyfuzzy y cross-efficiency-fuzzy, que nos permiten establecer una ordenación bajo incertidumbre. Con este trabajo hemos realizado un estudio amplio de la eficiencia bajo incertidumbre. Se observa que los resultados obtenidos aplicando los distintos métodos son similares. Además, estos métodos proporcionan más información sobre las unidades estudiadas que las que proporciona un solo índice de eficiencia. Estos métodos pueden ser aplicables a otros tipos de empresas, aportando nueva información que puede ayudar u orientar en la toma de decisiones de sus gestoresPla Ferrando, ML. (2013). Modelos flexibles para la valoración de la eficiencia [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/31521TESI

Ein DEA-basierter Ansatz zur Messung der Performance bei zentralisierten Managementstrukturen

Traditional performance measurement approaches are usually characterized by a number of different limitations. Among other things, these approaches require the subjective determination of weights to aggregate a set of indicators to an overall performance score. Furthermore, traditional approaches are usually not able to incorporate additional improvement potentials that can be received from a centralized management. A performance measurement framework which can overcome these limitations is called data envelopment analysis (DEA). Against this background, this thesis provides a thorough overview of how different degrees of centralization are modeled in the current DEA literature. The systematic literature review identified 135 different approaches that assume a centralized or partially centralized management structure. A concluding discussion of the respective DEA approaches showed two fundamental research gaps. In response to this, this thesis has two fundamental objectives: The first objective is to propose a DEA-based performance measurement approach for measuring performance changes over time. The second objective is to develop another DEA-based approach for comparing the performance of management groups. In contrast to so far developed DEA-models, the here proposed approaches explicitly incorporate the respective management structure. Both DEA approaches thus developed are based on the combination of the metafrontier concept and the Malmquist index. The first approach evaluates productivity changes of operating entities over time and, hence, may indicate potential sources for performance changes. Thereby, the proposed approach preserves the individual characteristics of each local group technology. The second DEA approach proposed here uses the Malmquist index for comparing the performance of management groups. This index accounts for the existence of a central decision maker who can, e.g., undertake resource reallocations to improve the overall performance of its managed group. The applicability and usefulness of both proposed approaches is empirically shown with real-world data from KONE Corporation.Traditionelle Performance Measurement Ansätze gehen mit einer Reihe von Herausforderungen einher. So erfordert die Aggregation unterschiedlicher Kennzahlen zu einem einzelnen Performancemaß die Verwendung von subjektiven Gewichtungen. Darüber hinaus lassen sich in traditionellen Ansätzen nur schwer etwaige Verbesserungspotentiale modellieren, die aus zentralisierten Managementstrukturen resultieren. Eine betriebswirtschaftliche Methode, welche die genannten Limitationen nicht aufweist, ist die Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Aufgrund dieser Vorteile wird in dieser Arbeit zunächst ein umfassender Literaturüberblick erarbeitet, wie unterschiedliche Managementstrukturen in einer DEA modelliert werden können. Mithilfe der Literaturrecherche wurden insgesamt 135 unterschiedliche Ansätze ermittelt, die entweder ein vollkommen zentralisiertes oder teilweise zentralisiertes Managementmodell unterstellen. Eine abschließende Diskussion der verschiedenen DEA-Ansätze zeigte allerdings eine Forschungslücke, woraus die beiden folgenden Forschungsziele für diese Arbeit abgeleitet wurden: Einerseits soll ein DEA-basierter Ansatz erarbeitet werden, der zur Messung von Effizienzveränderungen einzelner Produktiveinheiten über die Zeit geeignet ist. Andererseits soll eine DEA-basierte Methode entwickelt werden, welche bei Performancevergleichen zwischen Managementgruppen anwendbar ist. Im Gegensatz zu den bisher in der Literatur diskutierten Ansätzen sollten die entwickelten Methoden dabei die jeweils vorliegende Managementstruktur berücksichtigen. Die entwickelten DEA-Ansätze basieren auf der Kombination des Metafrontier-Konzepts mit dem Malmquist-Index. Der erste Ansatz erlaubt es, Performanceveränderungen von einzelnen Produktiveinheiten über mehrere Zeitperioden zu messen. Im Gegensatz zu konventionellen Metafrontier-basierten Malmquist-Indizes berücksichtigt der vorgeschlagene Ansatz die individuellen Eigenschaften der lokalen Produktionstechnologien. Der zweite vorgeschlagene DEA-Ansatz nutzt den Malmquist-Index für den Vergleich der Performance von Managementgruppen. Der Index berücksichtigt dabei explizit, dass eine zentrale Entscheidungsinstanz existiert, welche Ressourcenumverteilungen durchführen kann. Beide Ansätze werden anhand eines Datensatzes des Unternehmens KONE illustriert