Sensitivity analysis of network DEA illustrated in branch banking

Users of data envelopment analysis (DEA) often presume efficiency estimates to be robust. While traditional DEA has been exposed to various sensitivity studies, network DEA (NDEA) has so far escaped similar scrutiny. Thus, there is a need to investigate the sensitivity of NDEA, further compounded by the recent attention it has been receiving in literature. NDEA captures the underlying performance information found in a firm?s interacting divisions or sub-processes that would otherwise remain unknown. Furthermore, network efficiency estimates that account for divisional interactions are more representative of a dynamic business. Following various data perturbations overall findings indicate positive and significant rank correlations when new results are compared against baseline results - suggesting resilience. Key findings show that, (a) as in traditional DEA, greater sample size brings greater discrimination, (b) removing a relevant input improves discrimination, (c) introducing an extraneous input leads to a moderate loss of discrimination, (d) simultaneously adjusting data in opposite directions for inefficient versus efficient branches shows a mostly stable NDEA, (e) swapping divisional weights produces a substantial drop in discrimination, (f) stacking perturbations has the greatest impact on efficiency estimates with substantial loss of discrimination, and (g) layering suggests that the core inefficient cohort is resilient against omission of benchmark branches. Various managerial implications that follow from empirical findings are discussed in conclusions.

Modelling knowledge production performance of research centres with a focus on triple bottom line benchmarking

We demonstrate a portable process for developing a triple bottom line model to measure the knowledge production performance of individual research centres. For the first time, this study also empirically illustrates how a fully units-invariant model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) can be used to measure the relative efficiency of research centres by capturing the interaction amongst a common set of multiple inputs and outputs. This study is particularly timely given the increasing transparency required by governments and industries that fund research activities. The process highlights the links between organisational objectives, desired outcomes and outputs while the emerging performance model represents an executive managerial view. This study brings consistency to current measures that often rely on ratios and univariate analyses that are not otherwise conducive to relative performance analysis

How to better identify the true managerial performance: State of the art using DEA

Our motivation is to detail a potential improvement on the three-stage analysis published by Fried et al. [Accounting for environmental effects and statistical noise in data envelopment analysis. Journal of Productivity Analysis 2002;17:157–74] that can distinguish true performers from those that may be advantaged by favourable environments or measurement errors. The method starts with data envelopment analysis (DEA), and continues with stochastic frontier analysis to explain the variation in organisational performance in terms of the operating environment, statistical noise and managerial efficiency. It concludes with DEA again using adjusted data to reveal a measure of performance based on management efficiency only. Our proposed contributions include (i) a comprehensive approach where total input and output slacks are identified simultaneously for non-radial inefficiencies before levelling the playing field, (ii) identifying percent adjustments attributable to the environment and statistical noise, and (iii) using a fully units-invariant DEA model

DYNAMIC NETWORK RANGE-ADJUSTED MEASURE VS. DYNAMIC NETWORK SLACKS-BASED MEASURE

We dedicate this paper to the memory of Professor William W. Cooper, 1914–2012, whose generous demeanor touched and inspired at least three generations of DEA researchers. It is up to the DEA community to make sure that his vision and legacy live on. Abstract We formulate weighted, dynamic network range-adjusted measure (DN-RAM) and dynamic network slacks-based measure (DN-SBM), run robustness tests and compare results. To the best of our knowledge, the current paper is the first to compare two weighted dynamic network DEA models and it also represents the first attempt at formulating DN-RAM. We illustrate our models using simulated data on residential aged care. Insight gained by running DN-RAM in parallel with DN-SBM includes (a) identical benchmark groups, (b) a substantially wider range of efficiency estimates under DN-RAM, and (c) evidence of inefficient size bias. DN-RAM is also shown to have the additional desirable technical efficiency properties of translation-invariance and acceptance of free data. Managerial implications are also briefly discussed

Regulation by phosphodiesterase isoforms of protein kinase A-mediated attenuation of myocardial protein kinase D activation

Protein kinase D (PKD) targets several proteins in the heart, including cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and class II histone deacetylases, and regulates cardiac contraction and hypertrophy. In adult rat ventricular myocytes (ARVM), PKD activation by endothelin-1 (ET1) occurs via protein kinase Cε and is attenuated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Intracellular compartmentalisation of cAMP, arising from localised activity of distinct cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoforms, may result in spatially constrained regulation of the PKA activity that inhibits PKD activation. We have investigated the roles of the predominant cardiac PDE isoforms, PDE2, PDE3 and PDE4, in PKA-mediated inhibition of PKD activation. Pretreatment of ARVM with the non-selective PDE inhibitor isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX) attenuated subsequent PKD activation by ET1. However, selective inhibition of PDE2 [by erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl) adenine, EHNA], PDE3 (by cilostamide) or PDE4 (by rolipram) individually had no effect on ET1-induced PKD activation. Selective inhibition of individual PDE isoforms also had no effect on the phosphorylation status of the established cardiac PKA substrates phospholamban (PLB; at Ser16) and cTnI (at Ser22/23), which increased markedly with IBMX. Combined administration of cilostamide and rolipram, like IBMX alone, attenuated ET1-induced PKD activation and increased PLB and cTnI phosphorylation, while combined administration of EHNA and cilostamide or EHNA and rolipram was ineffective. Thus, cAMP pools controlled by PDE3 and PDE4, but not PDE2, regulate the PKA activity that inhibits ET1-induced PKD activation. Furthermore, PDE3 and PDE4 play redundant roles in this process, such that inhibition of both isoforms is required to achieve PKA-mediated attenuation of PKD activation

Market Discipline and Bank Charter Value: The Case of Two Safe Banking Industries

This paper analyses the relationship between market discipline and bank charter value using a panel dataset of publicly-listed domestic banks in Australia and Canada over the 1995-2011 periods, with particular focus on the 2007/2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Overall, our results show a positive relationship between market discipline and bank charter value, although this has reduced in the post-GFC period. Furthermore, our findings reveal that in the presence of market discipline, bank capital, contingent liabilities, and non-interest income are important sources of charter value. These findings have important policy implications related to bank safety and soundness. The results are robust to model specification

The influence of co-authorship on article impact in OR/MS/OM and the exchange of knowledge with Finance in the twenty-first century

This article is motivated by two related research questions about research activity in the Operations Research/Management Science/Operations Management (OR/MS/OM) and Finance disciplines. First, we investigate the influence of co-authorship on article impact in OR/MS/OM. Second, we develop a number of citation metrics to explore the nature of scholarly exchange between top OR/MS/OM and Finance journals. We work with a large sample of articles published across 2001–2008 for twenty OR/MS/OM journals and nineteen Finance journals, with corresponding citations up to and including year 2012. Key findings from the first research question indicate a higher impact for articles with multiple authors, but with the marginal gain brought by an additional author being insignificant for articles with three or more authors. For the second research question, we find that the Finance discipline borrows less from OR/MS/OM than vice versa, which highlights the potential for wider collaboration among researchers—particularly for Finance academics in exploring how various OR/MS/OM techniques can be adopted or adapted into their research. Finally, we discover that the ranking of OR/MS/OM journals is determined more by the extent that they are cited in other disciplines, but observe a gradual rise in self-perpetuating behavior in the OR/MS/OM discipline