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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 January 2024

Joonho Na, Qia Wang and Chaehwan Lim

The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental efficiency level and trend of the transportation sector in the upper–mid–downstream of the Yangtze River Economic Belt…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental efficiency level and trend of the transportation sector in the upper–mid–downstream of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the JingJinJi region in China and assess the effectiveness of policies for protecting the low-carbon environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses the meta-frontier slack-based measure (SBM) approach to evaluate environmental efficiency, which targets and classifies specific regions into regional groups. First, this study employs the SBM with the undesirable outputs to construct the environmental efficiency measurement models of the four regions under the meta-frontier and group frontiers, respectively. Then, this study uses the technology gap ratio to evaluate the gap between the group frontier and the meta-frontier.

Findings

The analysis reveals several key findings: (1) the JingJinJi region and the downstream of the YEB had achieved the overall optimal production technology in transportation than the other two regions; (2) significant technology gaps in environmental efficiency were observed among these four regions in China; and (3) the downstream region of the YEB exhibited the lowest levels of energy consumption and excessive CO2 emissions.

Originality/value

To evaluate the differences in environmental efficiency resulting from regions and technological gaps in transportation, this study employs the meta-frontier model, which overcomes the limitation of traditional environmental efficiency methods. Furthermore, in the practical, the study provides the advantage of observing the disparities in transportation efficiency performed by the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei regions.

Details

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

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2023

Anannya Gogoi, Jagriti Srivastava and Rudra Sensarma

While firms in developing countries are increasingly adopting lean practices of inventory management, there is limited evidence showing the impact of lean practices on firm…

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Abstract

Purpose

While firms in developing countries are increasingly adopting lean practices of inventory management, there is limited evidence showing the impact of lean practices on firm performance in countries such as India. Lean practices improve the financial performance of the firms through superior cost-reduction measures and operational efficiencies. This paper examines the impact of inventory leanness in Indian manufacturing firms on their financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors measure inventory leanness based on stochastic frontier analysis (SLA), apart from using conventional measures available in the literature. The authors analyze the impact of inventory leanness on the financial performance of firms by examining data for 12,334 unique Indian manufacturing firms for the period 2009–2018. The authors present a comparative analysis using different methods of inventory leanness and study the effects on firm performance.

Findings

First, the authors find that only 68 industries out of 411 industries follow lean practices, i.e. most industries do not follow lean practices. Second, the estimation results show that there exists a positive relationship between inventory leanness and firm performance. The results suggest that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between inventory leanness and firm performance for the entire sample. In particular, 17% of the industries in the sample exhibit such a relationship, and it is sufficiently strong to show up in the average regression results for the entire sample.

Originality/value

The authors introduce a novel measure of inventory leanness named stochastic frontier leanness based on the SFA method used in production economics. It measures leanness by benchmarking the inventory levels against the industry “frontier”. Furthermore, the authors conduct an empirical study of the lean-financial performance relationship with a large panel dataset of Indian firms instead of the survey-based methods that were previously used in the literature.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2023

Wafa Abdelmalek

This study investigates the diversification benefits of multiple cryptocurrencies and their usefulness as investment assets, individually or combined, in enhancing the performance…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the diversification benefits of multiple cryptocurrencies and their usefulness as investment assets, individually or combined, in enhancing the performance of a well-diversified portfolio of traditional assets before and during the pandemic COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses two optimization techniques, namely the mean-variance and the maximum Sharpe ratio. The naïve diversification rules are used for comparison. Besides, the Sharpe and the Sortino ratios are used as performance measures.

Findings

The results show that cryptocurrencies diversification benefits occur more during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than before it, with the maximum Sharpe ratio portfolio presenting its highest performance. Furthermore, the results suggest that, during COVID-19, the diversification benefits are slightly better when using a combination of cryptocurrencies to an already well-diversified portfolio of traditional assets rather than individual ones. This serves to improve the performance of the maximum Sharpe ratio portfolio, and to some extent, the naïve portfolio. Yet, cryptocurrencies, whether added individually or combined to a well-diversified portfolio of traditional assets, don't fit in the minimum variance portfolio. Besides, the efficient frontier during COVID-19 pandemic dominates the one before COVID-19 pandemic, giving the investor a better risk-return trade-off.

Originality/value

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study that examines the diversification benefits of multiple cryptocurrencies both as individual investments and as additional asset classes, before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The paper covers all analyses performed separately in previous studies, which brings new evidence regarding the potential for cryptocurrencies in portfolio diversification under different portfolio strategies.

Details

EuroMed Journal of Business, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1450-2194

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 August 2023

Emmanouil G. Chalampalakis, Ioannis Dokas and Eleftherios Spyromitros

This study focuses on the banking systems evaluation in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (known as the PIIGS) during the financial and post-financial crisis period from…

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on the banking systems evaluation in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (known as the PIIGS) during the financial and post-financial crisis period from 2009 to 2018.

Design/methodology/approach

A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis (order-m estimators) is used to measure banking efficiency combined with variables highlighting the effects of Non-Performing Loans. Next, a truncated regression is used to examine if institutional, macroeconomic, and financial variables affect bank performance differently. Unlike earlier studies, we use the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as an institutional variable that affects banking sector efficiency.

Findings

This research shows that the PIIGS crisis affects each bank/country differently due to their various efficiency levels. Most of the study variables — CPI, government debt to GDP ratio, inflation, bank size — significantly affect banking efficiency measures.

Originality/value

The contribution of this article to the relevant banking literature is two-fold. First, it analyses the efficiency of the PIIGS banking system from 2009 to 2018, focusing on NPLs. Second, this is the first empirical study to use probabilistic frontier analysis (order-m estimators) to evaluate PIIGS banking systems.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Bhavya Srivastava, Shveta Singh and Sonali Jain

The present study assesses the commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition in a rapidly growing emerging economy, India from 2009 to 2019…

Abstract

Purpose

The present study assesses the commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition in a rapidly growing emerging economy, India from 2009 to 2019 using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA).

Design/methodology/approach

Lerner indices, conventional and efficiency-adjusted, quantify competition. Two SFA models are employed to calculate alternative profit efficiency (inefficiency) scores: the two-step time-decay approach proposed by Battese and Coelli (1992) and the recently developed single-step pairwise difference estimator (PDE) by Belotti and Ilardi (2018). In the first step of the BC92 framework, profit inefficiency is calculated, and in the second step, Tobit and Fractional Regression Model (FRM) are utilized to evaluate profit inefficiency correlates. PDE concurrently solves the frontier and inefficiency equations using the maximum likelihood process.

Findings

The results suggest that foreign banks are less profit efficient than domestic equivalents, supporting the “home-field advantage” hypothesis in India. Further, increasing competition drives bank managers to make riskier lending and investment choices, decreasing bank profit efficiency. However, this effect varies depending on bank ownership and size.

Originality/value

Literature on the competition bank efficiency link is conspicuously scant, with a focus on technical and cost efficiency. Less is known regarding the influence of competition on bank profit efficiency. The article is one of the first to examine commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition. Additionally, the study work represents one of the first applications of the FRM presented by Papke and Wooldridge (1996) and the PDE provided by Belotti and Ilardi (2018).

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 October 2023

Ambrose R. Aheisibwe, Razack B. Lokina and Aloyce S. Hepelwa

This paper aims to examine the level of economic efficiency and factors that influence economic efficiency among seed potato producers in South-western Uganda.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the level of economic efficiency and factors that influence economic efficiency among seed potato producers in South-western Uganda.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses the economic efficiency of 499 informal and 137 formal seed producers using primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the study sites and specific farmers. A one-step estimation procedure of normalized translog cost frontier and inefficiency model was employed to determine the level of economic efficiency and the influencing factors.

Findings

The results showed that mean economic efficiencies were 91.7 and 95.2% for informal and formal seed potato producers, respectively. Furthermore, results show significant differences between formal and informal seed potato producers in economic efficiency at a one percent level. Market information access, credit access, producers' capacity and experience increase the efficiency of informal while number of potato varieties, market information access and producers' experience increase economic efficiency for formal counterparts.

Research limitations/implications

Most seed potato producers, especially the informal ones do not keep comprehensive records of their production and marketing activities. This required more probing as answers depended on memory recall.

Practical implications

Future research could explore panel data approach involving more cropping seasons with time variant economic efficiency and individual unobservable characteristics that may influence farmers' efficiency to validate the current findings.

Social implications

The paper shows that there is more potential for seed potato producers to increase their economic efficiency given the available technology. This has a direct implication on the economy through increased investment in the production and promotion of high yielding seed potato varieties to meet the growing national demand for potatoes.

Originality/value

The paper bridges the gap in literature on economic efficiency among seed potato producers, specifically in applying the normalized translog cost frontier approach in estimating economic efficiency in the context of potato sub-sector in Uganda.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2021-0641

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2023

Armand Fréjuis Akpa, Cocou Jaurès Amegnaglo and Augustin Foster Chabossou

This study aims to discuss climate change, by modifying the timing of several agricultural operations, reduce the efficiency and yield of inputs leading to a lower production…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to discuss climate change, by modifying the timing of several agricultural operations, reduce the efficiency and yield of inputs leading to a lower production level. The reduction of the effects of climate change on production yields and on farmers' technical efficiency (TE) requires the adoption of adaptation strategies. This paper analyses the impact of climate change adaptation strategies adopted on maize farmers' TE in Benin.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses an endogeneity-corrected stochastic production frontier approach based on data randomly collected from 354 farmers located in three different agro-ecological zones of Benin.

Findings

Estimation results revealed that the adoption of adaptation strategies improve maize farmers' TE by 1.28%. Therefore, polices to improve farmers' access to climate change adaptation strategies are necessarily for the improvement of farmers' TE and yield.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study contribute to the policy debate on the enhancement of food security by increasing farmers' TE through easy access to climate change adaptation strategies. The improvement of farmers' TE will in turn improve the livelihoods of the communities and therefore contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2 and 13.

Originality/value

This study contributes to theoretical and empirical debate on the relationship between adaptation to climate change and farmers' TE. It also adapts a new methodology (endogeneity-corrected stochastic production frontier approach) to correct the endogeneity problem due to the farmers' adaptation decision.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 October 2022

Szymon Stereńczak

The positive illiquidity–return relationship (so-called liquidity premium) is a well-established pattern in international developed stock markets. The magnitude of liquidity…

Abstract

Purpose

The positive illiquidity–return relationship (so-called liquidity premium) is a well-established pattern in international developed stock markets. The magnitude of liquidity premium should increase with market illiquidity. Existing studies, however, do not confirm this conjecture with regard to frontier markets. This may result from applying different approaches to the investors' holding period. The paper aims to identify the role of the holding period in shaping the illiquidity–return relationship in emerging and frontier stock markets, which are arguably considered illiquid.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilise the data on stocks listed on fourteen exchanges in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors regress stock returns on liquidity measures variously transformed to reflect the clientele effect in a liquidity–return relationship.

Findings

The authors show that the investors' holding period moderates the illiquidity–return relationship in CEE markets and also show that the liquidity premium in these markets is statistically and economically relevant.

Practical implications

The findings may be of great interest to investors, companies and regulators. Investors and companies should take liquidity into account when making decisions; regulators should employ liquidity-enhancing actions to decrease companies' cost of capital and expand firms' investment opportunities, which will improve growth perspectives for the entire economy.

Originality/value

These findings enrich the understanding of the role that the investors' holding period plays in the illiquidity–return relationship in CEE markets. To the best knowledge, this is the first study which investigates the effect of holding period on liquidity premium in emerging and frontier markets.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2021

Xiaobing Zhao

This paper investigates the global financial integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets, which is important for financial economists, global investors and policymakers.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the global financial integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets, which is important for financial economists, global investors and policymakers.

Design/methodology/approach

The first step is to estimate a benchmark one-factor model and multifactor models over the entire sample period to obtain the time-invariant global integration estimates for the Gulf Cooperation Council markets. Because the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets may be time varying, the second step is to use 24-month rolling regressions to estimate the time-varying integration estimates. To explicitly test for structural breaks in global integration, this study applies a supremum Wald test to endogenously search for structural breaks.

Findings

Empirically, consistent evidence suggests that the Gulf Cooperation Council markets are increasingly integrated with international equity markets at different levels of financial development and from different regions. However, compared to other emerging and frontier markets, the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets is still relatively low, suggesting that these markets still offer significant diversification benefits for global investors.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by systematically investigating the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets with monthly data (to account for the gradual information diffusion in international equity markets) and a longer sample period (to more robustly identify the trend in the global integration).

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1026-4116

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2024

Mohammad Alsharif

This study attempts to comprehensively analyze the cost Malmquist productivity index of conventional and Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia, the largest dual banking sector in the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study attempts to comprehensively analyze the cost Malmquist productivity index of conventional and Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia, the largest dual banking sector in the world, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs the novel approach of cost Malmquist productivity index, which focuses on production costs, to measure the change in cost productivity so that the actual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could be captured.

Findings

The Saudi Central Bank has successfully mitigated the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the Saudi banking sector by implementing several policies and services. This success is reflected in the large positive shift in the production frontier of Saudi banks. Moreover, it was found that Islamic Saudi banks were by far more productive than conventional Saudi banks during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the total cost productivity index (CMPCH) of Islamic Saudi banks starts to decline sharply in the last quarter of 2022 compared to conventional Saudi banks, indicating that Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia are suffering the most from the tighter monetary policy recently implemented by the Saudi Central Bank.

Practical implications

The results provide insights for policymakers and investors on how different types of banks respond differently to economic crises and monetary policy changes. Targeted support measures may be needed to ensure all banks remain productive and efficient.

Originality/value

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to use this innovative methodology to assess the impact of COVID-19 on bank performance in a dual banking sector.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

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