Benchmarking company performance from economic and environmental perspectives: Time series analysis for motor vehicle manufacturers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring the performance of motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) from economic and environmental (E&E) perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Eight measures are identified for benchmarking the performance from E&E perspectives. A new company performance index I_MVM is constructed to quantitatively generate the historical data of MVMs’ company performance. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models are built to generate the forecast data of the I_MVM. The minimum Akaike information criteria value is used to identify the model of the best fit. Forecast accuracy of the ARIMA models is tested by the mean absolute percentage error.

Findings

The construction of the index I_MVM is benchmarked against three frameworks by six benchmark metrics. The I_MVM satisfies all of its applicable metrics while the three frameworks are incapable to satisfy their applicable metrics. Out of 15, 4 MVMs are excluded for benchmarking future performance due to their non-stationary time series data. Based on the forecast I_MVM data, GM is the best performer among the 15 samples in the FY2018.

Originality/value

This research highlights the environmental perspective during vehicles’ production. The development of this approach is based on publicly available data and transparent about the methods it used. The data out of the approach can benefit stakeholders with insights by benchmarking the historical performance of MVMs as well as their future performance.

Citation

Zeng, Q., Beelaerts van Blokland, W., Santema, S. and Lodewijks, G. (2020), "Benchmarking company performance from economic and environmental perspectives: Time series analysis for motor vehicle manufacturers", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 1127-1158. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-05-2019-0223