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The purpose of the study is to investigate and document a new approach to best practice benchmarking called rapid benchmarking. Rapid benchmarking is defined by the authors as an approach to dramatically shorten the typical length of time to conduct a successful best practice benchmarking project.

The methodology involved a case study exploration of a multinational dairy company's best practice benchmarking approach using structured interviews and data collection to examine the speed and results achieved through its benchmarking approach and whether it was justified in naming it as rapid benchmarking. A comparison of the speed of the dairy company's approach was undertaken against 24 other organisations that had utilised the same benchmarking methodology (TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking). In addition, a literature review was undertaken to search for other cases of rapid benchmarking and compare rapid benchmarking with other rapid improvement approaches.

The findings revealed that the approach used by the dairy company was unique, with best practices being identified and action plans signed off for deployment within a five-day period (far quicker than the average time of 211 days reported by other organisations). Key success factors for rapid benchmarking were found to be allocating five dedicated days for the benchmarking team to spend on the project, identifying the right team members for the project, obtaining sponsorship support for the project and providing intensive facilitation support through a benchmarking facilitator.

Only one company was found to use a rapid benchmarking approach; therefore, the findings are from one case study. The depth of analysis presented was restricted due to commercial sensitivity.

The rapid benchmarking approach is likely to be of great interest to practitioners, providing them with a new way of finding solutions and best practices to address challenges that need to be solved quickly or with minimal expense. For organisations that have been using benchmarking for many years, the research will enable them to re-evaluate their own benchmarking approach and consider if rapid benchmarking could be used for some projects, particularly for internal benchmarking where it is easier to apply.

This research is the first to identify and document a rapid benchmarking approach and the first to provide a detailed analysis of the length of time it takes to undertake best practice benchmarking projects (and each stage of a benchmarking project).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a benchmarking project carried out by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) as part of a structured benchmarking initiative. The project was based on the TRADE benchmarking methodology and this paper examines the tools, activities and outcomes that relate to each stage of the adopted methodology.

This study is based on case study methodology. Data were collected from various sources including analysis of project reports written by DEWA’s benchmarking team reporting on their activities during the project. Data were also collected from four project presentations given at different stages of the project. In addition, the research team held three meetings with the DEWA benchmarking team at different stages of the benchmarking project.

The results show the key challenges and successes faced during each stage of the benchmarking project. It indicates the actions taken to overcome the challenges and the role played by internal and external stakeholders in facilitating the success of the benchmarking project.

The study presents information that would guide organisations that wish to carry out a benchmarking project – and particularly those implementing benchmarking for the first time. The study provides a summary of the key lessons learnt by DEWA’s benchmarking team as a guide for other organisations.

Academic research has not adequately examined and analysed the stage-by-stage elements of a benchmarking project from the perspective of the implementing organisation. This study addresses this gap by detailing and analysing the experiences of a benchmarking project by tracking the stage-by-stage activities of the benchmarking team.

This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms for managing coordinated benchmarking projects and the outcomes achieved from such coordination. While there have been many independent benchmarking studies comparing the practices and performance of public sector organisations, there has been little research on initiatives that involve coordinating multiple benchmarking projects within public sector organisations or report on the practices implemented and results from benchmarking projects. This research will be of interest to centralised authorities wishing to encourage and assist multiple organisations in undertaking benchmarking projects.

The study adopts a case study methodology. Data were collected on the coordinating mechanisms and the experiences of the individual organisations over a one-year period.

The findings show successful results (financial and non-financial) across all 13 benchmarking projects, thus indicating the success of a coordinated approach to managing multiple projects. The study concluded by recommending a six-stage process for coordinating multiple benchmarking projects.

This research gives new insights into the application and benefits from benchmarking because of the open access the research team had to the “Dubai We Learn” initiative. To the authors’ knowledge the research was unique in being able to report accurately on the outcome of 13 benchmarking projects with all projects using the TRADE benchmarking methodology.

This paper aims to investigate how business excellence (BE) custodians (BECs) design, develop and modify their BE frameworks (BEFs) and to provide a general framework for reviewing BEFs. The design process is important to understand as these BEFs are used to help organisations understand the components of BE to guide them towards world-class performance.

The first step was to identify all the BE awards (BEAs) worldwide and their BEFs by conducting a review of publicly available sources. This research was then limited to only those BEAs that were held no more than two years ago. Of these, 29 BECs (with active BEAs) in 26 countries agreed to participate in the research. Data was collected with the help of a survey and 13 BECs also undertook optional follow-up interviews.

In total, 56 countries and regions have 65 active BEAs with another 17 countries having BE initiatives. The EFQM excellence model and the Baldrige excellence framework are used by 37.7% and 14.5% of BECs worldwide, respectively. In total, 58.3% of the BECs review their BEFs once every three years or sooner, 100% of the BECs are confident in their BEFs’ fundamental concepts and 96.5% in their categories. There are fewer active BEAs now and the use of BE is potentially decreasing which suggests that more effort is required by the BECs in promoting BE.

This research collects data directly from the BECs on how BECs design and develop BEFs and provides a general framework for reviewing BEFs.

The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative approach to equity trading that is based on cointegration. If there are long-run equilibria among financial assets, a cointegration-based trading strategy can exploit profitable opportunities by capturing mean-reverting short-run deviations.

First, the author introduces an equity indexing technique to form cointegration tracking portfolios that are able to replicate an index effectively. The author later enhances this tracking methodology in order to construct more complex portfolio-trading strategies that can be approximately market neutral. The author monitors the performance of a wide range of trading strategies under different specifications, and conducts an in-depth sensitivity analysis of the factors that affect the optimal portfolio construction. Several statistical-arbitrage tests are also carried out in order to examine whether the profitability of the cointegration-based trading strategies could indicate a market inefficiency.

The author shows that under certain parameter specifications, an efficient tracking portfolio is able to produce similar patterns in terms of returns and volatility with the market. The author also finds that a successful long-short strategy of two cointegration portfolios can yield an annualized return of more than 8 percent, outperforming the benchmark and also demonstrating insignificant correlation with the market. Even though some cointegration-based pairs-trading strategies can consistently generate significant cumulative profits, yet they do not seem to converge to risk-less arbitrages, and thus the hypothesis of market efficiency cannot be rejected.

The primary contribution of the research lies within the detailed analysis of the factors that affect the tracking-portfolio performance, thus revealing the optimal conditions that can lead to enhanced returns. Results indicate that cointegration can provide the means to successfully reproducing the risk-return profile of a benchmark and to implementing market-neutral strategies with consistent profitability. By testing for statistical arbitrage, the author also provides new evidence regarding the connection between the profit accumulation of cointegration-based pairs-trading strategies and market efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of trade shows and provide insights for trade show exhibitors using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The paper also offers a benchmarking analysis of the business factors for the most efficient trade shows in each sector.

The paper uses the metafrontier DEA methodology and identifies several frontiers according to the sector in which the trade show operates since different sectors could not share homogeneous production technology for exhibitor firms.

The main findings reveal different profiles of individual sectors. The investment sector presents a more homogenous profile than either the consumer goods or the services sector. The consumer goods sector is more heterogeneous but it is also possible to find common characteristics for the most efficient trade shows. The service sector is characterized by a high variability and as such it is more difficult to identify benchmarking elements for the most efficient trade shows.

The main limitation of the study is that the sample only includes audited trade shows. Future studies could extend the period under study in order to obtain a more complete picture on the evolution of trade show efficiency.

This paper extends the DEA results by profiling the most efficient trade shows in each sector so that this information can be used as a benchmarking tool to define exhibitors’ strategic decision making.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.