Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility Efficiency for the International Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry

One of the major challenges in the research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the aggregation of the CSR metrics into overall measures of CSR practices by firms. This paper computes composite indicators of CSR from an efficiency perspective using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for a sample of international food and beverage manufacturing firms over the period 2011-2018. The study’s contributions to the literature are twofold. First, this paper contributes by being the first to compare efficiency in CSR practices of food and beverage companies across regions of Europe, the United States and Canada, Latin America and Caribbean and Asia-Pacific. Second, methodologically we extend the composite indicators within DEA, allowing for non-convexities of the production set. The study finds a considerable potential for improvement in CSR practices as revealed by the values of CSR composite indicators. The study also shows the differences in CSR efficiency between food and beverage firms in the regions considered, with the most CSR efficient region being Latin America and Caribbean, and the least CSR efficient being firms in Asia-Pacific region. The CSR composite scores fluctuate over the analyzed period, with an increase in efficiency in 2018 experienced by all regions

Extending the Measurement of Composite Indicators Towards a Non-convex Approach: Corporate Social Responsibility for the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry

This paper computes composite indicators of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an efficiency perspective for food and beverage manufacturing firms in various world regions over the period from 2011 to 2018. From a methodological perspective, we extend the measurement of composite indicators within data envelopment analysis, allowing for the non-convexities of the production set and for the appropriate comparison of indicators between groups of firms. From an empirical point of view, we contribute by comparing the efficiency in CSR practices of food and beverage companies across regions of Europe, the United States and Canada, and Asia Pacific. The study reveals differences in CSR efficiency between food and beverage firms in the regions considered, with USA and Canadian firms tending to perform best, followed by European firms, and Asian Pacific firms achieving the worst efficiency results. The study also shows that regional catching up in performance occurred over the analyzed period.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure, 5 table

Accounting for slacks to measure dynamic inefficiency in data envelopment analysis

Slacks that arise when nonparametrically constructing technologies are relevant because they can be an important source of technical inefficiency. This paper extends the measurement of dynamic inefficiency in the full input–output space in the adjustment-cost theory framework to account for slacks. In particular, the paper develops the dynamic weighted additive model in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and shows its main properties. Additionally, the approach is illustrated by a real application. The empirical applica- tion concerns data on large firms in the dairy-manufacturing industry in the main dairy-producing coun- tries in the European Union (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic) from 2005 to 2012. The results show the differences in average dynamic inefficiency between the analyzed countries. The findings also indicate that, not surprisingly, firms are, on average, closer to their own-country fron- tier than the common frontier comprising all firms, regardless of country. Greater inefficiency was also found, on average, in the new approach when related to the dynamic framework that does not account for slacksWe thank three anonymous referees for providing constructive comments and help in improving the contents and presentation of this paper. Additionally, the authors appreciate the financial support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad), the State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigacion) and the European Regional Development Fund (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) under grant MTM2016-79765-P (AEI/FEDER, UE)

Technical efficiency and its determinants in the Spanish construction sector pre- and post-financial crisis

This paper estimates technical efficiency in the Spanish construction sector before and after the start of the current financial crisis, and examines the impact of socio-economic factors on technical efficiency. Bias-corrected efficiency measures are obtained using Data Envelopment Analysis with bootstrap for a sample of medium-sized and large construction firms over the period 2000–2010. Next, bias-corrected efficiency scores are regressed on the variables explaining efficiency using bootstrap truncated regression. The results show that technical efficiency is very low and is significantly lower after the beginning of the financial crisis than before. Firms with the highest technical efficiency scores have the lowest input-ratio for material and employee costs to output and the highest for fixed assets. The examination of the determinants of technical efficiency indicates that efficiency is higher for firms that export, are highly leveraged, are integrated in the form of joint stock company, and are located in Spanish regions with higher GDP per capita, while firms with high stock relatively to turnover have lower technical efficiency. Technical efficiency increases with size for relatively small sized construction firms, but decreases beyond a critical firm size, while technical efficiency decreases with age for young firms, but eventually increases for older firms

Corporate Social Responsibility and Operational Inefficiency: A Dynamic Approach

Sustainability is currently a common term used more and more frequently in the academic literature and in the public communications of companies. This is an indicative that suggests that more and more sustainability is understood as a challenge that involves not only environmental aspects, but also as an integrative concept including economic, environmental and social aspects that should be a key pillar of the most highly innovative and advanced companies in the twenty first century. This study has been developed over several years, collecting detailed information on more than two hundreds different ESCO projects (Energy Service Company) in Spain, developed during five years (2010 to 2014). The aim of this research is related to obtaining a better understanding of an issue that is a concern: to what extend these projects that are seeking the efficient reduction of energy from collaboration between companies, could contribute to the integrated vision of sustainability, as a platform for the integration of economic and environmental.This research was funded by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) in Poland grant number DEC-2016/23/B/HS4/03398

Dynamic versus Static Inefficiency Assessment of the Polish Meat-Processing Industry in the Aftermath of the European Union Integration and Financial Crisis

This paper assesses the dynamic inefficiency of the Polish meat processing industry during the period between 2004 and 2012. This study employs also a comparison of dynamic with static inefficiency measures to address the importance of accounting for adjustment costs when measuring a firm's inefficiency. Dynamic and static cost inefficiencies and their decomposition into technical, allocative, and scale inefficiency are derived using Data Envelopment Analysis. Results showed that firms' low levels of dynmaic cost inefficiency were due to dynamic allocative inefficiency rather than technical and scale inefficiency. The 2008 financial crisis appears to have hampered firms' dynamic technical performance, but has also had a positive influence on the dynamic allocative and scale inefficiencies. WE further show that the average static measures tend to underestimate all inefficiency compenents compared to dynmaic counterparts

Modelling environmental inefciency under a quota system

This paper introduces the methodology necessary to evaluate inefciency of regulated decision making units that operate under quotas through data envelopment analysis, accounting for both quotas restrictions and negative environmental externalities of production. Three technical inefciency measures are proposed: inefciency in the production of marketed output, environmental inefciency, and ineffciency with quotas. It is then shown how to aggregate these measures in order to obtain indicators of overall performance. The new approach is illustrated through a numerical example that uses real data available for the European Union dairy sector. The results show that considerable diferences in inefciencies could be found when quotas restrictions are accounted for in the model than in the model without quota imposition, indicating that not accounting explicitly for quotas when measuring performance in regulated sectors may lead to a not accurate estimation of frms’ technical inefciency.The authors are grateful to the National Science Centre in Poland (grant number 2016/23/B/HS4/03398)the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad), the State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigacion) and the European Regional Development Fund (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) under grant MTM2016-79765-P (AEI/FEDER, UE) for providing fnancial support for this articleThe calculations of adapted Li test were made at the Wroclaw Centre for Networking and Supercomputing (www.wcss. wroc.pl), Grant No. 28

Intangible assets and firm efficiency : international analysis in the textile and apparel industry /

Descripció del recurs: el 09 de novembre de 2009El objetivo de esta tesis es evaluar la eficiencia así como la evolución de la productividad en las empresas del sector textil y de la confección en diferentes regiones del mundo. Además, investigamos los factores que contribuyen a explicar las diferencias en cuanto a los niveles de eficiencia mostrados por las empresas bajo análisis. En particular, la tesis se enfoca en el papel de los recursos intangibles y su contribución a eficiencia empresarial. Como marco de referencia esta investigación emplea la Teoría de los Recursos y Capacidades (Resource-based View of the Firm) con su reciente desarrollo del Enfoque de las Capacidades Dinámicas (Dynamic Capabilities Approach), la Teoría de la Agencia (Agency Theory), y la Teoría Institucional (Institutional Theory). Construimos y contrastamos un modelo teórico el cual relaciona los recursos intangibles y otros factores internos y externos con la eficiencia de las empresas. De esta forma, este estudio contribuye al desarrollo de la investigación sobre los activos intangibles mediante la introducción de un método alternativo para la medición del desempeño empresarial. Además nuestra propuesta permite abordar la eficiencia desde una perspectiva integral, donde diferentes enfoques teóricos son considerados a la hora de explicar los factores que afectan la eficiencia. Para ello, usamos una base de datos original que se desarrolló a través de la vinculación de datos a partir de tres fuentes de información: COMPUSTAT, DATASTREAM y OSIRIS. Nuestra base de datos consta de 5477 observaciones (eficiencia estática) y 4982 observaciones (evolución de la productividad en el tiempo) de las empresas de la industria textil y de la confección en diferentes regiones del mundo para el período de 1995-2004. La mayoría de las empresas provienen de los EE.UU., Japón, China, Corea, Taiwán, Alemania y el Reino Unido (regiones de Asia, America del Norte y Europa). La metodología empleada en esta tesis involucra: 1) el cálculo de los indicadores de eficiencia para las empresas de la muestra mediante una función distancia orientada hacia el "input", utilizando el método de Análisis Envolvente de Datos (Data Envelopment Analisis DEA); 2) el cálculo de la evolución de la productividad en el tiempo mediante la aplicación del índice de Malmquist; y 3) el contraste de las hipótesis donde empleamos un modelo de regresión truncada con datos de panel. Además, evaluamos la significancia estadística de los indicadores estáticos y dinámicos de eficiencia obtenidos mediante la aplicación de métodos de "bootstrapping". Por último, nuestras conclusiones se presentan junto con las implicaciones que consideramos pertinentes tanto para managers como para los encargados de formular políticas de desarrollo. La referencia a las limitaciones del estudio, y algunas recomendaciones para futuras investigaciones se presentan al final del documento. La principal implicación de esta tesis indica que las empresas de la industria textil y de la confección necesitan invertir en recursos intangibles.In this dissertation, we aim at assessing efficiency as well as productivity evolution over time of firms in the textile and apparel sector in different regions in the world, and we look at the factors contributing to efficiency outcomes. In particular, we focus on the role that intangible assets play in efficiency. Theoretically, this research stands upon the Resource-Based View of the Firm with its recent development of the Dynamic Capabilities Approach, the Agency Theory, and the Institutional Theory. We build and test a theoretical model that hypothetically links intangible assets, other internal factors and external factors with firm efficiency. In this way, this study contributes to the development of intangible assets research by introducing the alternative method for performance measurement, and benefits the efficiency literature by trying to integrate different theoretical perspectives considering the factors affecting efficiency. We rely on the original dataset which was developed through the linkage of the information from three databases: COMPUSTAT, DATASTREAM and OSIRIS. It consists of 5477 observations (static efficiency) and 4982 observations (productivity evolution over time) of firms from the textile and apparel industry worldwide for the 1995-2004 time-period. The majority of companies come from the USA, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Germany and the UK (regions of Asia, North America and Europe). Methodology applied in this dissertation involves: 1) the computation of static efficiency indicators of firms in the sample by means of an input distance function using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method; 2) the computation of productivity evolution over time through the application of Malmquist index; 3) the model and the hypotheses testing in the panel data truncated regression. In addition, we assess the statistical significance of static and dynamic efficiency indicators through the application of bootstrapping methods. Finally, our conclusions are presented together with their implications for managers and policy makers, reference to the studyís limitations, and some recommendations for future research. The main implication of this dissertation indicates that textile and apparel firms need to invest in intangible assets

Production under a quota system: an extension of the weighted additive model to assess technical efficiency

Since it was introduced, data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been applied to many different areas and has also been extended to numerous production contexts. In this paper, we focus our attention on the production framework under output quotas. Many types of markets throughout the world are subject to intervention by government policies, with the purpose of raising the prices that producers receive for their products through the imposition of production quotas. In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive approach based upon the extension of the weighted additive model in DEA with the aim of measuring technical inefficiency of firms producing under a quota system. Accordingly, we prove several interesting properties of the new approach and compare it with the conventional weighted additive model. The paper concludes by considering a case study that analyses milk production inefficiency in Canadian provinces, incorporating information on the quota assigned to each of the provincesWe would like to express our gratitude to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments, as well as to the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness for supporting us through grant MTM2013-43903-P