Search results

1 – 10 of over 67000
Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2012

Tuija Virtanen, Mari Tuomaala and Emilia Pentti

Purpose – The accounting literature has demonstrated increased concern over issues of sustainability. One of the most critical issues that corporations face at the moment is…

Abstract

Purpose – The accounting literature has demonstrated increased concern over issues of sustainability. One of the most critical issues that corporations face at the moment is climate change. This especially concerns companies that are substantial consumers of materials and energy. Corporations have increasingly acknowledged that to address this issue the existing ways of managing business must be changed.

This study examines the challenges posed by measurement of energy efficiency performance in an energy-intensive industry. It covers the challenges encountered with respect to the energy efficiency indicator and its use as a management tool.

Methodology – The case study method was used to conduct the research, which took place in a single firm in an energy-intensive process industry.

Findings – The results indicate that the current energy efficiency indicator, specific energy consumption (SEC), does not meet the criteria for good performance measurement. In particular, the controllability of energy efficiency seems problematic. Another major challenge is target setting. Measurable targets are needed to identify and prioritise areas where consumption and emission can be reduced.

Practical implications – The study provides practical knowledge on what is happening in organisations that pursue sustainable development and in particular, environmental efficiency.

Originality/value – Although the conceptual challenges in energy efficiency measurement are well known in the technical literature, discussions dealing with its management have been few in number. This study is a cross-disciplinary work and combines technical energy efficiency literature and management accounting research on performance management.

Details

Performance Measurement and Management Control: Global Issues
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-910-3

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2017

Corrado lo Storto

The purpose of this paper is to present an objective decision-making framework and conduct a benchmarking study in the air cargo industry.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an objective decision-making framework and conduct a benchmarking study in the air cargo industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The decision-making framework and benchmarking methodology evaluates the aircraft value for money (VfM) as a benefit-to-cost ratio calculated adopting a measure of relative efficiency. This efficiency score is measured as a comprehensive efficiency index obtained by combining several efficiency scores calculated by implementing four data envelopment analysis (DEA) models.

Findings

The framework is used to carry on a benchmarking study in the air cargo industry on a sample of 27 airplanes. The average VfM is 67.04 percent, with measurements between 39.96 and 116.03 percent. Only three airplanes achieve full VfM and behave as benchmarks to the remaining airplanes. Boeing B727-200 is a broad player in the market. Some old cargo models (DC 9-30F) deliver the same amount of VfM as more recent aircraft models (i.e. MD-11F and A300-600F).

Research limitations/implications

The decision-making framework and benchmarking methodology can usefully support managers to make sound decisions and plans. Even though DEA generates attributes weights to different alternatives that are independent of the buyer preferences, the framework flexibility allows introducing a weighting scheme to take into account the managers preferences for certain aircraft performance/functional features. It can easily include new functional/performance measurements and adapt the VfM measurement to the particular economic context, strategy, and business model of the airlines, or be transferred to different industries.

Originality/value

The framework combines technical, functional performance, and economic cost measurements to get a unique efficiency index to evaluate the airplane VfM.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Nicholas Pawsey, Jayanath Ananda and Zahirul Hoque

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sensitivity of economic efficiency rankings of water businesses to the choice of alternative physical and accounting capital input…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sensitivity of economic efficiency rankings of water businesses to the choice of alternative physical and accounting capital input measures.

Design/methodology/approach

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to compute efficiency rankings for government-owned water businesses from the state of Victoria, Australia, over the period 2005/2006 through 2012/2013. Differences between DEA models when capital inputs were measured using either: statutory accounting values (historic cost and fair value), physical measures, or regulatory accounting values, were scrutinised.

Findings

Depending on the choice of capital input, significant variation in efficiency scores and the ranking of the top (worst) performing firms was observed.

Research limitations/implications

Future research may explore the generalisability of findings to a wider sample of water utilities globally. Future work can also consider the most reliable treatment of capital inputs in efficiency analysis.

Practical implications

Regulators should be cautious when using economic efficiency data in benchmarking exercises. A consistent approach to account for the capital stock is needed in the determination of price caps and designing incentives for poor performers.

Originality/value

DEA has been widely used to explore the role of ownership structure, firm size and regulation on water utility efficiency. This is the first study of its kind to explore the sensitivity of DEA to alternative physical and accounting capital input measures. This research also improves the conventional performance measurement in water utilities by using a bootstrap procedure to address the deterministic nature of the DEA approach.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 June 2021

Carolina Andrea Gómez Winkler Sudré, José Paulo de Souza and Melise Dantas Machado Bouroullec

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of governance structure alignment, property rights protection, and reputation in generating efficiency in dairy…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of governance structure alignment, property rights protection, and reputation in generating efficiency in dairy agro-industrial system in Paraná, Brazil, and Midi-Pyrénées, France.

Design/methodology/approach

Descriptive qualitative research, comprising semi-structured interviews with producers, processors and key agents of the dairy agrindustrial system in Brazil and France, in 2016/2017.

Findings

As a result, it was identified that measurement generates information about transacted dimensions and when it is shared can generate affect reputation in transactions that leads to system improvement. It was also observed that, in the dairy agro-industrial system, reputation acquired does not reduce all the measurement costs, as the product requires measurement in each all collection, regardless of the reputation created.

Research limitations/implications

As a limitation of the study, there is a difference in the moments when the interviews were done. In 2016, in France, the context was low prices, while in 2017, in Brazil, there was a rise in prices. This difference could have influenced some responses to the interviews, mainly about efficiency by producers.

Practical implications

Reputation, protecion of property rights by measurement and information sharing allows reduction costs (transaction, measurement and negotiation costs). This efficiency implies improvement to the system, in cases of milk producers and processors.

Social implications

Improvements in the dairy system can have repercussions on several other improvements such as better distribution of income among agents in the chain; better-paid producers, which implies the improving quality of lives of these people; better products offered to consumers.

Originality/value

From a complementary perspective of transaction cost economics and measurement cost economics, reputation and protection of property rights are discussed with a focus on efficiency. Empirically, the paper contains heterogeneous data collected from two countries: Brasil and France.

Details

RAUSP Management Journal, vol. 56 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2531-0488

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Olli‐Pekka Hilmola

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate public transportation efficiency in larger cities. Global agreements to decrease environmental emissions in the future (CO2), world‐wide…

3471

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate public transportation efficiency in larger cities. Global agreements to decrease environmental emissions in the future (CO2), world‐wide decreasing reserves of oil, and growing population in larger cities is the main motivation to develop efficiency benchmarking measurement models for public transportation systems, and gives reason for this research work. Also, from the point of view of the city, data envelopment analysis (DEA) based efficiency measurement has not been researched earlier, which is another motivation for this study from the method development perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Four different DEA‐based efficiency benchmarking models are used to evaluate public transportation efficiency in larger cities. Data are from year 2001, and amount of analyzed cities in smaller DEA model is 52 and in larger 43. This gives statistical significance and efficiency measurement confidence over the results.

Findings

Medium‐sized, old and central European cities such as Bern, Munich, Prague and Zürich show frontier performance in all four models. Mega‐cities fail to reach frontier and/or good performance in small “services used” DEA model. However, some other medium‐sized cities show contrarian behaviour for “space used” DEA model. Lowest performance is more divergent in the analyses, but is found from Spanish cities, Athens, Middle East and North America. The author also found support from regression analysis that higher DEA efficiency results in lower share of private car use in large cities.

Research limitations/implications

This research work uses only year 2001 data, and should be repeated in the future as public transportation data18base is being updated. The research is also limited on the use of DEA method, and other efficiency measurement methods should be used to verify the results further.

Originality/value

According to the author's knowledge, this research work is seminal from the city‐level DEA efficiency benchmarking studies concerning public passenger transportation systems. Earlier research works have concerned actors (e.g. bus companies or rail operators), but the overall picture from the city level has not been researched before.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 February 2017

Nor Nazihah Chuweni and Chris Eves

This paper aims to present a conceptual model on the efficiency of Islamic real estate investment trusts (I-REITs) available in Malaysia. The key difference between the Islamic…

1280

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a conceptual model on the efficiency of Islamic real estate investment trusts (I-REITs) available in Malaysia. The key difference between the Islamic and their conventional investment vehicle part is mainly its own Shariah framework. For instance, I-REITS must comply with the requirement of Securities Commission Act 1993 as well as the Guidelines on Islamic Real Estate Investment Trusts (Islamic REITs Guidelines).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews and synthesises the relevant literature on the performance analysis and efficiency measurements of REITs. The paper then develops and proposes a conceptual model to measure the efficiency of Malaysian and Islamic REITs.

Findings

The paper identifies and examines the appropriate methods and instruments to measure the efficiency in relation to the risk and profitability of I-REITs. The efficiency measure is important for the fund managers to maximise the shareholders’ return in an investment of property portfolio as well as proposing the best way to allocate resources efficiently.

Research limitations/implications

This is a preliminary review of current work that identifies the issues that will be addressed in future empirical research. The authors will be undertaking this future empirical research in measuring the efficiency of Malaysian real estate investment trusts (M-REITs), particularly the I-REITs, using the non-parametric approach of data envelopment analysis.

Originality/value

To date, there has been very limited research on the efficiency measurement of I-REITs. The current analysis of REIT has been focused on traditional non-Islamic funds. This paper will review and discuss the current literature on efficiency measurement to determine the most appropriate approaches and methodologies for future application in performance analysis of efficiency measure for Malaysian and Islamic REITs.

Details

Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-0817

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2008

Malte Peters and Stephan Zelewski

The paper seeks to show pitfalls in the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to efficiency analysis and performance measurement as well as ways to steer clear of these…

1814

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to show pitfalls in the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to efficiency analysis and performance measurement as well as ways to steer clear of these pitfalls.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper outlines guidelines for avoiding pitfalls in the application of the AHP to efficiency analysis and performance measurement.

Findings

The pitfalls discussed in the paper can be understood as a type of critical reflection of best practice, since they stem from the experiences of the application of the AHP in the area of efficiency analysis and performance measurement.

Research limitations/implications

The pitfalls discussed are based on a limited number of projects covering only a few industries. Further work may be required to test the general validity of these findings.

Practical implications

The ways to steer clear of these pitfalls can guide a decision maker to a proper application of the AHP in the area of efficiency analysis and performance measurement.

Originality/value

The paper goes beyond the multi criteria decision‐making literature where only general criticism of the AHP is found and the area of efficiency analysis and performance measurement is neglected.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 46 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2020

Shruti J. Raval, Ravi Kant and Ravi Shankar

The aim of this analysis is to review the Indian manufacturing organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) tools/techniques with an objective of monitoring the performance of an…

1521

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this analysis is to review the Indian manufacturing organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) tools/techniques with an objective of monitoring the performance of an organization and to develop recommendation for strategies to benchmark organizational operational efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

This study offers insights of the LSS performance measurement aspects of the Indian manufacturing organizations based on Data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The five inputs and two outputs are considered on the basis of literature review and discussed with the practitioners.

Findings

In this analysis, the relative efficiency score of 18 Indian manufacturing organizations has been determined in order to assist evaluation of the impact of monetary investment on the outputs. The present analysis not only investigates the optimum level of input variables but also lays down a significant observation that an organization having higher profit and inventory turnover ratio is not necessarily an efficient organization.

Practical implications

The results assist to determine the best practice units, potential source of inefficiency and deliver beneficial data for the consistent enhancement of the operational efficiency. The DEA results assist managers and decision makers to derive appropriate strategies to enhance their performance with reference to the efficient organization and to regard it as their role model.

Originality/value

This analysis renders a DEA based framework of LSS practicing Indian manufacturing organizations. The framework is unique in terms of its input-outputs variable selection and measurement procedure.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 27 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Valeria Maltseva, Joonho Na, Gyuseung Kim and Hun-Koo Ha

We adopt a super slack-based measurement (SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to estimate the efficiency of five biggest freight rail operators in Russia, which are…

Abstract

We adopt a super slack-based measurement (SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to estimate the efficiency of five biggest freight rail operators in Russia, which are included in the top 30 freight rail operators in terms of two dimensions – financial and operational efficiency during 2013–2017. The result shows that the private companies characterized by high financial and operational efficiency, while the Rossiiskye Zheleznye Dorogi (RZD) subsidiaries characterized by sufficiently low financial and operational efficiency scores. And the result also presents that operational efficiency score of operators handling universal rolling stock is higher than financial efficiency scores. In contrast, financial efficiency scores of operators handling special rolling stock is higher than operational efficiency scores. rail freight operators in addition to a special rolling stock park should have a universal rolling stock park for higher profitability. State-owned companies and its subsidiary operate inefficiently in the midst of a market economy in Russia. Rail freight operators for a higher level of financial efficiency should be transferred to the private sector.

Details

Journal of International Logistics and Trade, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1738-2122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2022

Ceren Erdin and Mehmet Çağlar

The purpose of this study is to measure and analyze the national innovation efficiency of organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries. This is to…

425

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to measure and analyze the national innovation efficiency of organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries. This is to determine to what extent OECD countries efficiently use the elements that enable innovation activities possible in generating innovation outputs.

Design/methodology/approach

An input–output model was constructed to measure efficiency. The inputs and outputs in the research model are the input and output sub-indices of the Global Innovation Index. Data envelopment analysis was used to measure the national innovation efficiency levels of OECD countries.

Findings

The results show that national innovation efficiency is generally high in OECD countries. However, some countries lag behind in innovation efficiency. OECD countries’ ability to create and provide the elements that enable innovation activities is higher than their ability to create innovation outputs. OECD countries have a good innovation environment and a high level of resources, but they should focus on how to create more innovation outputs.

Originality/value

This study presents a measurement of national innovation efficiency of OECD countries which contributes “Innovation Strategy” agenda. The results empirically show that overall innovation indices cannot be the only indicator of the performance of national innovation systems. In this study, an innovation efficiency/performance matrix is constructed to present the relative positions of the countries to help in examining countries’ strengths, weaknesses and potentials based on innovation efficiency and innovation performance simultaneously. This study contributes to the literature by presenting a broader perspective and measurement of national innovation efficiency by taking an extensive number of indicators into account.

Details

International Journal of Innovation Science, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-2223

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 67000