Overcoming Data Limitations in Nonparametric Benchmarking: Applying PCA-DEA to Natural Gas Transmission

This paper provides an empirical demonstration for a practical approach of efficiency evaluation against the background of limited data availability in some regulated industries. Here, traditional DEA may result in a lack of discriminatory power when high numbers of variables but only limited observations are available. We apply PCA-DEA for radial efficiency measurement to US natural gas transmission companies in 2007. This allows us to reduce dimensions of the optimization problem while maintaining most of the variation in the original data. Our results suggest that the PCA-DEA methodology reduces the probability of over-estimation of the individual firm-specific performance. It also allows for a large number of original variables without substantially reducing the discriminatory power of the model.Efficiency analysis, DEA, PCA, company regulation, natural gas transmission

Multi-level DEA Approach in Research Evaluation

It is well known that the discrimination power of DEA models will be diminishing if too many inputs or outputs are used. It is a dilemma if the decision makers want to select comprehensive indicators to present a relatively holistic evaluation using DEA. In this work we show that by utilizing hierarchical structures of input-output data DEA can handle quite large numbers of inputs and outputs. We present two approaches in a pilot evaluation of 15 institutes for basic research in Chinese Academy of Sciences using DEA models

Efficiency analysis of Policies against desertification by applying DEA: a case study in the river Guadalentin catchment (Almeria, Spain)

This paper deals about an attempt to evaluate the different policies against desertification carried out during a twenty five year period (1978-2003) in the eight municipalities which compound the river Guadalentín catchment (Murcia, Spain). The approach is based on DEA and the European Environmental Agency indicator studies, the former to measure the efficiency and the second to select the best environmental indicators. The analysis has been reiterated with three different sets of outputs related to the different levels and aspects of the desertification process- from the merely soil losses to the overall desertification process in which population losses are considered. As a result a set of efficiency indexes has been obtained for each municipality, which show clearly the contribution of each action against desertification. These results are very valuable to establish future long term desertification policies in similar territories

An integrated performance measurement framework for restaurant chains: A case study in Istanbul

Companies that continue to operate in a competitive market strive the most efficient use of their resources in order to remain competitive. Nowadays, with increasing customer feedback, properly analyzing customer needs and requests and producing services in accordance with expectations have become increasingly important due to the large number of companies competing in the same market, and this is especially important to be at the forefront of competitors in the food services industry. There are risks and uncertainties owing to the continuously changing demand for food service enterprises, the difficulty to regulate interest and comparable charges, the competitive environment, and currency rate hikes. In light of all of these circumstances, restaurants require a versatile tool to effectively measure and analyze their performance. Therefore, this study combines Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Categorical Data Envelopment Analysis (CAT-DEA) to analyze the performance of 15 dealers in Istanbul, divided into three categories: steakhouse, kebab, and meatball-doner. The results demonstrate that each category has just one efficient restaurant, for a total of three efficient restaurants out of fifteen. In addition to the suggested CAT-DEA-based framework, three research hypotheses are constructed and analyzed to investigate the link between restaurant performance and various environmental factors (or relevant indicators) in the food service industry.Rekabetçi bir piyasada faaliyet göstermeye devam eden şirketler, rekabetçi kalabilmek için kaynaklarını en verimli şekilde kullanmaya çalışırlar. Artan müşteri geri bildirimleri ile birlikte, aynı pazarda rekabet eden çok sayıda firma nedeniyle, müşteri ihtiyaç ve isteklerini doğru analiz etmek ve beklentilere uygun hizmet üretmek giderek daha önemli hale geldi ve bu durum özellikle gıda hizmetleri endüstrisinde rekabette ön planda olmak için önemlidir. Yiyecek hizmeti işletmelerine yönelik sürekli değişen talep, faiz ve karşılaştırılabilir ücretlerin düzenlenmesindeki zorluk, rekabet ortamı ve kur artışları nedeniyle bu sektörde riskler ve belirsizlikler bulunmaktadır. Tüm bu koşullar ışığında restoranlar, performanslarını etkin bir şekilde ölçmek ve analiz etmek için çok yönlü bir araca ihtiyaç duyarlar. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma, İstanbul'da et lokantası, kebap ve köfte-döner olmak üzere üç kategoriye ayrılmış 15 bayinin performansını analiz etmek için Temel Bileşenler Analizi (PCA) ve Kategorik Veri Zarflama Analizini (CAT-DEA) birleştirmektedir. Sonuçlar, her bir kategorinin yalnızca bir verimli restorana sahip olduğunu ve on beş bayiden toplamda üç bayinin verimli olduğunu göstermektedir. Önerilen CAT-DEA tabanlı yaklaşıma ek olarak, yemek hizmeti endüstrisinde restoran performansı ile çeşitli çevresel faktörler (veya ilgili göstergeler) arasındaki bağlantıyı araştırmak için üç araştırma hipotezi oluşturulmuş ve analiz edilmiştir

Data envelopment analysis and its key variants utilized in the transport sector

Having reviewed the international literature on data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric linear programming method used for efficiency evaluation, the aim of the author with the present article was to fill a gap by collecting and summarizing the essence of the main variants of DEA applied in the transport sector. Thus the DEA CCR, BCC and the Simar-Wilson method are presented. DEA CCR enables the efficiency evaluation under constant, DEA BCC under variable returns to scale. The Simar-Wilson method, also referred to as the truncated bootstrap method, is currently seen as the most reliable technique for hypothesis testing and confidence interval estimation under DEA. Some extensions, like the super-efficient DEA, the principal component analysis and the MNDEA are also highlighted. The variants included in the article were selected on the basis of their application in the transport sector, of which examples are also provided

Effective Clusters as Territorial Performance Engines in a Regional Development Strategy - A Triple-Layer DEA Assessment of the Aviation Valley in Poland

Regional development policy aims to cope with the challenge of spatial disparities. It is based on a smart combination of various critical capital assets in a region which functionally and spatially interact and which yield synergetic economic opportunities and promising challenges for innovation and progress. The present study regards sustainable territorial performance – as a manifestation of regional development – as the overarching principle for competitive advantages and economic growth in a system of regions, which is particularly induced by territorial capital, comprising human capital, infrastructural capital and social capital. In the long-standing tradition of regional development policy a wide variety of effective facilitators or drivers of accelerated spatial growth has been distinguished, for instance, industrial districts, growth poles, growth centers, industrial complexes, special economic zones, communication axes, and so forth. In the past decades, a new concept has been introduced, viz. economic-technological clusters. An avalanche of literature has been published on the conceptual, operational and policy foundation and relevance of this concept, especially in relation to previously developed regional growth concepts. In this paper, clusters will be regarded as the spatial foci of sustainable territorial performance strategies and synergetic actions by both public and private actors. The present paper aims to address the relevance of cluster concepts for an effective regional development policy, based on the above notion of territorial capital. It does so by introducing a new concept, viz. effective cluster, in which spatial-economic synergy, local/regional concentration of industry, and the supporting role of territorial capital are regarded as the main determinants of a highly performing cluster in a given territory. The effective cluster concept will be tested on the basis of a field study on the aviation and aerospace cluster ‘Dolina Lotnicza’ in the Podkarpackie region in South-East Poland. This is one of the most vibrant high-tech clusters in the country. A new approach based on a triple-layer architecture will be adopted here, viz.: a quantitative comparative analysis of the 16 Polish ‘voivodships’ (main administrative regions in the country, at a NUTS-2 level), a benchmark analysis of the 25 counties (‘powiats’) within the Podkarpackie voivodship (at a NUTS-4 level), and an effective industrial cluster analysis on the basis of the individual aviation firms located in the Podkarpackie region. In each step an extended Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), characterised by a merger of a Slack-Based Measure (SMB) and a super-efficiency (SE) DEA, will be used in order to achieve an unambiguous ranking of the various regions or Decision Making Units (DMUs). The study will employ an extensive database on individual actors in the cluster, in combination with a broadly composed territorial-capital database for the areas under study. The paper will be concluded with some strategic policy lessons

Kajian Tentang Tingkat Efisiensi Pelayanan Kesehatan Rumah Sakit Umum Pemerintah Kabupaten/Kota di Jawa Timur Menggunakan Metode PCA-DEA

Salah satu prioritas pembangunan provinsi Jawa Timur adalah meningkatkan kualitas pelayanan kesehatan. Kualitas pelayanan kesehatan dapat diukur melalui efisiensi pelayanan kesehatan di rumah sakit. Efisiensi yang dimaksud adalah adanya keseimbangan antara yang dilayani dan yang melayani, selanjutnya disebut sebagai output dan input. Pada penelitian ini ingin diketahui tingkat efisiensi 39 rumah sakit umum pemerintah Kabupaten/Kota di Jawa Timur dengan menggunakan metode Principal Component Analysis-Data Enpelovment Analysis (PCA-DEA) berorientasi input. Model yang digunakan yaitu DEA-CCR, DEA-BCC, PCA-CCR, dan PCA-BCC. Data input yang digunakan adalah sumber daya kesehatan di rumah sakit umum dan data output yang digunakan berupa jumlah pasien rawat inap dan jumlah pasien rawat jalan. Dari berbagai model PCA-DEA yang digunakan dihasilkan nilai efisiensi yang berbeda untuk rumah sakit umum yang sama dan hanya satu rumah sakit umum yang memiliki nilai efisiensi yang tetap atau konsisten diantara rumah sakit- rumah sakit tersebut, yaitu rumah sakit umum Kanjuruhan Kepanjen Malang

Eficiencia de las universidades públicas españolas desde una perspectiva de género

La medición de la eficiencia de las Organizaciones Públicas es un tema de 10 creciente interés sobre el que se ha vertido abundante literatura. A ello no han 11 escapado las Universidades como Organizaciones claves de la economía en cuanto 12 son productoras de capital humano y nuevos conocimientos. La metodología más 13 utilizada es la del análisis envolvente de datos (DEA), aunque ésta establece 14 eficiencias relativas entre las unidades de decisión que, además, dependen de los 15 inputs y outputs elegidos “a priori” en la formulación. En este trabajo, tras la 16 elección de los inputs y outputs que intervienen en el proceso productivo de 17 formación/conocimiento, ponemos de manifiesto cómo el factor género es 18 determinante en la consecuente ordenación de las universidades públicas españolas 19 en cuanto a sus niveles de eficiencia. En concreto encontramos que la utilización que 20 hace el colectivo femenino de los inputs es más eficiente, con carácter general, del 21 que hace de estos mismos inputs el colectivo masculino

An Assessment of Telecommunications Regulation Performance in the European Union

We assess the performance of National Regulatory Authorities across 16 EU countries regarding economic regulation in telecommunications sector, by constructing a so-called Composite Regulatory Performance Indicator for regulatory aspects such as effectiveness of the national regulatory system, effectiveness of the dispute settlement body, general market access conditions and application of remedies in markets for narrowband voice, mobile, broadband and business services. This composite indicator is the output measure used in the DEA non-parametric approach. The computation of efficiency scores allows to rank the NRAs and to detect some room for improvement in terms of efficiency gains for each national authority.technical efficiency; DEA; telecommunications; regulated industries; National Regulatory Authorities; European Union.

Determinants of Scale Efficiency in the Brazilian Third-Party Logistics Industry from 2001 to 2009

This article investigates the Brazilian third-party logistics (3PL) sector which, increasingly competitive, offers clients a wide variety of services/information technologies in the quest to bolster efficiency. The main research objective is to determine which variables significantly impact 3PLs scale efficiency by applying two-stage DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). Based on an unbalanced panel model, data from the annual study published by Revista Tecnologística (years 2001–2009) were analyzed. Results corroborate evidence in the literature that coordination mechanisms in the supply chain, supported by the availability of real time information and inventory synchronization, favor a more rational allocation of resources (inputs) to client demands (outputs)