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This paper analyses the efficiency of individual retail stores belonging to a Portuguese multi‐market hypermarket retailing chain, employing data envelopment analysis (DEA). The use of DEA for the analysis of intra‐chain comparative store efficiency can be of value in examining the competitiveness of the chain as a whole. Competitiveness should be based on benchmarking the retail outlets which compose the chain. We conclude from our research that some outlets are at the frontier of best practice, while others are inefficient. Managerial implications arising from the study are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the efficiency and the productive slacks of a sample of major UK auditing firms between 2005 and 2012.

Using the bootstrapping technique as the cornerstone method, DEA estimates were computed, allowing the test for differences in the levels of efficiency and in the potentials for decreasing inputs and increasing outputs. Then, neural networks were combined with DEA estimates to model, with effective predictive ability, the drivers of auditing firms’ performance.

The findings indicate an ambiguous impact of regulatory policies on efficiency levels. Results also indicate an eventual capacity shortfall, since the most important productive resource does not seem to cope with demand growth in the future.

This paper aims to focus on efficiency, complementing previous research in the UK that focuses on productivity, and helps in establishing a decision-support system to slack evaluation.

This paper aims to investigate the production of sugar cane ethanol in Brazil for the time period 1983-2016, separating the data by geographical location.

For this purpose, the authors use techniques based on the concept of fractional integration.

The authors show that the data corresponding to the total production is highly persistent, with an integration order smaller than 1 but close to it. In fact, the unit root hypothesis cannot be rejected implying that shocks have a permanent nature, and thus requiring policy measures to recover the level from exogenous shocks. Separating the data into two sub-regions, namely, North–Northeast and Central–South, higher levels of persistence are detected in the latter, while the former presents some evidence of mean reverting behavior, implying that shocks will disappear by themselves in the long run in the former regions. These results are obtained from all the different methods used.

The originality is based on the time series techniques used in the paper that departs from the classical methods based on unit roots and integer degrees of differentiation.

This paper analyses the cost efficiency of Italian football clubs using a stochastic frontier model. The frontier estimation confirmed that the model fits the data well with all coefficients correctly signed and in line with the theoretical requirements. Marketing and Sponsorship is taken into account as an explanatory variable and the factors which contributed to these findings, as well as other policy implications, are provided.

This chapter analyses the efficiency of African airlines using a two-stage network DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model. Network DEA models usually take into account the production process with intermediate inputs derived from the first stage and a second stage that departs from it. This fundamental feature enables one to view the airline production process as a carry-over activity. The analysis covers the 2010–2013 period. The relative efficiency ranks are presented and policy implications are derived.

The aim of the paper is to estimate the cost efficiency of supermarket chains in the Spanish retailing industry.

The methodology applied is based on a random stochastic frontier model that enables separation of the covariates in the cost function into homogeneous and heterogeneous variables. The methodology is applied to panel data on a sample of 78 supermarket chains between 2001 and 2004.

The results reveal high levels of cost inefficiency in the Spanish retail sector. The results also reveal that the random frontier models better describe Spanish retailers than homogeneous frontier models.

The generalisation of the conclusions of the study to the whole sector should be made with caution, given the fact that only one of the players in the distribution channel has been analysed.

Managers should be aware of the importance that cost efficiency has for their own firms. Further, a common government retailing policy will be unable to reach all retailing companies, since heterogeneity exists.

For the first time, the cost efficiency of the intermediaries in the Spanish retailing sector is studied.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to structure the problem of retail out of stock (OOS). This methodology allows investigating risk factors and barriers related to the main causes and consequences that lead to OOS occurring.

The proposed methodology to structure the OOS problem is based on the bow- ie tool, which allows better visualisation, understanding and analysis of a complete OOS scenario. This proposal comprises exploring the main causes and consequences of OOS, the barriers to prevention and mitigation, the escalation factors to control undesirable events and to define actions to eliminate or mitigate the OSS risk.

Several potential causal risk factors, related to technical, behavioural, cultural and organisational aspects, were identified with this methodology. With the analysis of the OOS scenario, it was observed that the factors that lead to the OOS risk are preventable. In order to improve existing barriers or implement new barriers, a set of actions can be recommended to reduce or eliminate OOS risk factors.

From a better understanding of hazard, the bow-tie methodology allows identifying crucial factors that could be acted upon to reduce the incidence of OSS. Thus, the value is to propose a methodology that allows establishing the preventive and protective barriers necessaries and the escalation factors related to each of these to help structure the problem and consequently reduce the OOS in retail organisations.

Sporting events usually attract corporate sponsors because of the promise of easy, wide-reaching promotion of their brands through association with the event. This study investigates the brand recall and brand preferences of Portuguese citizens in relation to the sponsors of the UEFA Football Championship finals, Euro 2004. A questionnaire was carried out immediately after the event. A structural equation model with latent variables is estimated and managerial policy implications are derived.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the pay and performance of chief executive officers (CEOs) in Portuguese, non‐profit organizations (NPOs), focusing on the role played by the economic performance of the organization, together with that played by the structure of the board and the individual characteristics of the manager. If the CEO can influence the board structure, agency problems arise, which in turn allow the CEO to extract rent and demand compensation in excess of the equilibrium level.

An ordinary least squares (OLS) model and an instrumental variable (IV) models are estimated for comparative purposes. The IV permits to account for endogenous variables in the regression.

It is concluded that governance is important in the Portuguese non‐profit sector. Several variables affect the CEO, namely, organization performance variables, board composition variables and individual variables. This result highlights the urgent need for a code of governance practice to be introduced in this sector. Moreover, the paper integrates human capital in the definition of the earnings, concluding that this also contributes to earnings.

This paper has two limitations. The first is related to the data set and the second with the method adopted. With the reference to the data set, the span is limited and therefore the generalization of this result is questionable. A larger data span is needed to confirm the present results. Relative to the method, the OLS is unable to handle endogeneity variables in a regression. The instrumental variables (IV) can overcome this result, but some critics to this method have appear recently, when there are heterogeneous across subjects and local IV are needed.

A governance code should be adopted, involving NPO managers in their definition. A regulatory agency that will be the watch dog of the process should be implemented to enforce the modernization of Portuguese NPO.

This is the first paper analyzing governance issues on Portuguese NPO and the second paper at European level on NPO governance. It clarifies two issues, the absence of governance principles in Portuguese NPO and the need of a regulatory agency in this context.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a representative sample of hypermarkets and supermarkets working in the Portuguese market, using a benchmark procedure to compare companies that compete in the same market and thereby deriving managerial and policy implications.

A two‐stage procedure to benchmark the companies was adopted. In the first stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used and in the second stage a Tobit model is employed to estimate the efficient drivers.

First, that, on average, the efficiency of hypermarket and supermarket retail companies is high compared with that to be found in other sectors. Second, larger retail groups are, on average, more efficient than the smaller retailers, and third, that national retailers are on average more efficient than regional retailers. Finally, scale plays an important role in this market. The efficiency drivers are market share, number of outlets and location. Finally, regulation has a negative effect on efficiency.

This paper has two limitations. The first is in relation to the data set, and the second in relation to the DEA method. With reference to the data set, the homogeneity of the retailers used in the analysis is questionable, since retailers of different sizes, production characteristics and locations are compared, which may face different restrictions and therefore might not be considered to be directly comparable. However, it can always be claimed that the units are not comparable and that it would consequently be equally impossible to undertake a ratio analysis. Moreover, the data set is short, so that the conclusions are limited. For the conclusions to be generalised, a larger panel data set would be required.

These can be separated into managerial and competitive – more importantly, the latter with its implications for the retailing industry and its future evolution.

Clarifies two issues: the changes in the fortunes of the retail companies, as observed in their sales volume ranking, and the need to look for the causes of retail efficiency, apart from internal managerial procedures.