What Makes Environmental Performance Differ between Firms? Empirical Evidence from the Spanish Tile Industry

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (9) ◽  
pp. 2232-2247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés J Picazo-Tadeo ◽  
Andrés García-Reche
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Ceramic Tile ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Industrial District ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Efficiency Measures

Environmental performance is a matter of major concern both for policy makers and for firm managers. In this paper we interpret firms' environmental performance as their ability to reduce polluting wastes while maintaining observed levels of inputs and desirable outputs. Making use of data envelopment analysis techniques, we compute waste-specific environmental efficiency measures for a sample of ceramic-tile producers located in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia. Our results show that there exists substantial room for improving environmental performance, which would have highly beneficial consequences for the local environment. In a second stage of analysis, we find that affiliation to the regional Technological Institute, ITC, which aims to promote technological innovation within the ceramic-tile industry, improves tile firms' environmental efficiency. In addition, firms located in the local industrial district of the Plana Baixa enjoy what we have broadly defined as ‘environmental spillovers’, which enhance their environmental performance. Also, ceramic-tile firms which outsource the management of wastes show better environmental performance.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Environmental Performance and Operational Efficiency of Container Ports: An Application to the Maritime Silk Road

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong ◽  
Zhu ◽  
Li ◽  
Wang ◽  
Gajpal
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Operational Efficiency ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Port Authorities ◽  
Maritime Silk Road ◽  
Desirable Output ◽  
Container Ports

A major goal for port authorities, operators, and investors is to achieve efficient operations and effective environmental protection. This is because the environmental performance of a container port is important for its competitiveness and sustainable development. However, the container ports along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) have caused numerous problems with the rapid development, among which the most significant problem is environmental pollution. In this paper, we aim to measure and compare the environmental performance and operational efficiency of ten major container ports along the MSR, including the ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kelang, Laem Chabang, Colombo, Dubai, Barcelona, Antwerp, and Hamburg. We develop an improved, inseparable data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with slack-based measures (SBMs) to evaluate and compare the environmental performance and operational efficiency, and we incorporate the desirable output of container throughput as well as the undesirable output of CO2 emission. Our results show that. Overall. these container ports perform better in terms of operational efficiency than environmental performance. We also provide insights for management and policy makers for container ports with different levels of operational efficiency and environmental performance.

ECOEFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS: RESEARCH AND PRACTITIONER ISSUES

2004 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 91-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSEPH SARKIS ◽  
SRINIVAS TALLURI
Keyword(s):  
Data Envelopment Analysis ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Dea Models ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Environmental Performance Evaluation ◽  
Insight Into

Ecoefficiency is critical for organisations that seek to be both environmentally conscious and profitable. Ecoefficiency has implications for a "win-win" situation to arise. Studying and managing organisations from this perspective requires an evaluation of ecoefficiency. To aid researchers and managers develop measures for ecoefficiency we review the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for this purpose. DEA theory and application has increased greatly. Its use as a tool for environmental performance evaluation has been limited. In this paper we provide a number of DEA models and some extensions and how they can be utilised from both the practitioner and researcher perspective. An illustrative example from published data helps to gain insight into the various models, their capabilities and limitations.

Environmental efficiency of Xiangjiang River in China: a data envelopment analysis cross-efficiency approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingxian An ◽  
Zhaokun Cheng ◽  
Shasha Shi ◽  
Fenfen Li
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Data Envelopment Analysis ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Efficiency Measure ◽  
Tobit Regression ◽  
Xiangjiang River ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Exogenous Factors

PurposeEnvironmental performance becomes a key issue for the sustainable development. Recently, incremental information technology is adopted to collect environmental data and improve environmental performance. Previous environmental efficiency measures mainly focus on individual decision-making units (DMUs). Benefited from the information technology, this paper develops a new environmental efficiency measure to explore the implicit alliances among DMUs and applies it to Xiangjiang River.Design/methodology/approachThis study formulates a new data envelopment analysis (DEA) environmental cross-efficiency measure that considers DMUs' alliances. Each DMUs' alliance is formulated by the DMUs who are supervised by the same manager. In cross-efficiency evaluation context, this paper adopts DMUs' alliances rather than individual DMUs to derive the environmental cross-efficiency measure considering undesirable outputs. Furthermore, the Tobit regression is conducted to analyze the influence of exogenous factors about the environmental cross-efficiency.FindingsThe findings show that (1) Chenzhou performs the best while Xiangtan performed the worst along Xiangjiang River. (2) The environmental efficiency of cities in Xiangjiang River is generally low. Increasing public budgetary expenditure can improve environmental efficiency of cities. (3) The larger the alliance size, the higher environmental efficiency. (4) The income level is negatively correlated with environmental efficiency, indicating that the economy is at the expense of the environment in Xiangjiang River.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to developing a new environmental DEA cross-efficiency measure considering DMUs' alliance, and combining DEA cross-efficiency and Tobit regression in environmental performance measurement of Xiangjiang River. This paper examines the exogenous factors that have influences on environmental efficiency of Xiangjiang River and derive policy implications to improve the sustainable operation.

Within-group common benchmarking the environmental efficiency in China with data envelopment analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoxin Cheng ◽  
Sheng Ang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Envelopment Analysis ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Significant Variable ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Evaluation ◽  
Common Reference

Purpose Economic growth of China in the past decades has caused rapid increase in energy consumption and environmental deterioration. Therefore, it is critical to make an environmental evaluation and to help decision makers to know each province’s distance to the optimal target and improve environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach In such background, the authors use a within-group common benchmarking model with data envelopment analysis for China’s environmental evaluation and target setting in this paper. This model considers a common treatment of decision-making units within groups but allows for the different circumstances across groups and gives a common reference set for benchmarking. Findings The results show that there are regional difference in economic development and environmental protection. The coastal area has the best average environmental efficiency, then followed by inland area and the lowest level is the western area. The target results show that in four inputs, namely, population, capital, energy consumption and water consumption, the water consumption is the significant variable which should be decreased largely. All provinces have room to improve their economic level under the condition of a better environment. Originality/value In this research, the authors consider the similarity in geography and economy for Chinese provinces and divide 30 provinces into eight economic zones; thus, provinces in the same zone are evaluated with the same weight. Environmental performance and efficiency for each province can be obtained. Efficient targets for those inefficient provinces are provided as a possible improvement direction as well.

scholarly journals A Management and Environmental Performance Evaluation of China’s Family Farms Using an Ultimate Comprehensive Cross-Efficiency Model (UCCE)

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinsheng Yang ◽  
Qianwei Zhuang ◽  
Guangdong Tian ◽  
Silin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Evaluation Systems ◽  
Production Organization ◽  
Environmental Performance Evaluation ◽  
Full Consideration

Family farm emerged as a new form of agricultural production organization in China in recent years. For the purpose of sustainable development, decision-makers, such as farm owners and policy makers, require the precise information of a family farm’s state of operation to adopt measures for management improvement and agricultural contamination reduction. Considering this, we established two evaluation systems for the measurement of family farms’ management and environmental performance. As demonstrated in several recent studies, data envelopment analysis (DEA) cross efficiency is a useful approach for evaluating and comparing the performance of decision-making units (DMUs). Regarding family farms’ performance evaluation issues, we modified the traditional average cross-efficiency method to be the ultimate comprehensive cross-efficiency approach with the integration of two statistical quantities based on the full consideration of family farms’ unique features, such as vulnerability and seasonality, resulting from the influence of natural and social factors. Our proposed approach presents more excellent characteristics compared with CCR efficiency and average cross efficiency. Several conclusions regarding the operation of China’s family farms are drawn: (i) there is weak positive correlation between family farms’ management and environmental performance; (ii) there is an increasing trend for both management and environmental efficiency, along with the augmentation of the utilized agricultural area of family farms, and management performance is therefore more significant; (iii) demand for timely technological instruction to improve family farms’ management efficiency is expressed by farm owners who are willing to expand; (iv) to improve family farms’ environmental performance, several measures—such as introducing biotechnology, providing subsidies, and environmental education for farmers—should be adopted.

scholarly journals A DEA Approach for Assessing the Energy, Environmental and Economic Performance of Top 20 Industrial Countries

Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasim Iqbal ◽  
Ali Altalbe ◽  
Arooj Fatima ◽  
Amjad Ali ◽  
Yumei Hou
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Co2 Emission ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Maximum Score ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Emission Efficiency ◽  
Minimum Score

Due to growing concerns of global warming, reducing carbon emissions has become one of the major tasks for developing countries to meet the national demand for energy policies. The objective of this study is to measure the energy consumption, carbon emission and economic-environmental efficiency in terms of the environmental performance of the top 20 industrial countries by employing a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model from 2013 to 2017. This study used the trilemma of energy efficiency, CO2 emission efficiency, and environmental efficiency, and also the contribution included the quantitative analysis of 20 industrial countries The results show that the energy efficiency of Australia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Poland are the best performing countries, whereas Mexico, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil are identified as least efficient among all 20 countries. Furthermore, Russia’s energy intensity has a maximum score while Poland has a minimum score. Additionally, in the case of CO2 emission efficiency, Brazil, France, and Saudi Arabia are considered as efficient while nine country’s scores were less than 0.5. The results show that most countries exhibit higher performance in economic efficiency than environmental efficiency. The study provides valuable information for energy policy-makers.

scholarly journals Determinants of Vietnamese Colleges’ Academic Performance: The Second Stage Bootstrapping DEA Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dung Thi Thanh Tran
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Data Envelopment Analysis ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Managerial Performance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Dea Approach ◽  
The Way

This paper aims to examine the determinants of the academic performance of 141 colleges in Vietnam in 2011/12–2013/14. The second-stage bootstrapping data envelopment analysis is proposed to estimate performance of colleges and investigate the effects of environmental factors on their performance. The findings reveal that colleges in the surveyed sample are not technically efficient in their operations. To obtain the full efficiency of unity, colleges could potentially improve their efficiencies, on average, 37.7 per cent for colleges. However, inefficiencies of colleges are not entirely a result of managerial performance. Instead, external factors including location, age, and ownership are presented as key influencers on inefficiencies of colleges. Our results are expected to provide more understanding of the operational efficiencies of colleges for educational managers and policy makers on the way seeking possible solutions to enhancing innovation in performance of Vietnamese colleges.

scholarly journals Assessment of the operational and environmental efficiency of agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean 

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Moreno-Moreno Juan-Javier ◽  
Morente Francisco Velasco ◽  
Diaz Maria Teresa Sanz
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Efficiency Score ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Agricultural Emissions ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Land Consumption

Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) require information that can be used to strengthen environmental agricultural strategies. However, in LAC there is not enough comparative analysis regarding operational performance and environmental performance, which are particularly important for sustainable agriculture. The objective of this study is the measurement of operational, environmental and unified (operational and environmental) efficiency through data envelopment analysis (DEA) for an environmental assessment in the agricultural sectors of eighteen LAC countries. The DEA in this study evaluates each country based on six variables: capital stock, labour, land, consumption of fertilizers, value of the gross agricultural production and agricultural emissions (CO<sub>2</sub>eq). This empirical study finds that six LAC countries attained full efficiency in terms of the three efficiency measurements. Three countries exhibit the highest level of unified efficiency, but show some level of inefficiency in the other two measurements (operational and environmental efficiency). In contrast, nine countries failed to achieve the maximum unified efficiency score. 

scholarly journals Evaluation of the effectiveness of the National Benchmarking Initiative (NBI) in improving the productivity of water services authorities in South Africa

Water SA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1 January) ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Brettenny ◽  
Gary Sharp
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Malmquist Productivity Index ◽  
Productivity Index ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Public Demonstrations

Water shortages, public demonstrations and lack of service delivery have plagued many South African water services authorities (WSAs) for a number of years. From 2004–2007 the National Benchmarking Initiative (NBI) was implemented to improve the performance, efficiency and sustainability of WSAs. The current study demonstrates the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) for the assessment of the effectiveness of the NBI in achieving these goals. Furthermore, the MPI is used to assess the impact that the termination of the NBI had on the efficiency of the WSAs in the years that followed. In conclusion, the MPI is identified as a valuable tool for regulators and policy makers that wish to assess the performance of their benchmarking initiatives.

scholarly journals The Efficiency Score of Small Accommodation Businesses in Non-Coastal Rural Areas in Greece

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11005
Author(s):  
Eleni Dimitriadou ◽  
Thomas Bournaris ◽  
Theodoros Stavrinoudis ◽  
Olga Iakovidou
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Efficiency Score ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Truncated Regression ◽  
Simple Complex ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Interval Efficiency

Small accommodation businesses dominate the rural hospitality industry, producing simple or complex tourist products and services in order to be sustainable and competitive. In this paper, a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was applied in a representative sample of 151 small accommodation businesses in non-coastal areas in the region of Central Macedonia in Greece. In the first stage, DEA-bootstrapping is applied to estimate point and interval efficiency ratios of accommodation businesses and identify the benchmark accommodations. The double bootstrapping truncated procedure of Simar and Wilson is implemented in the second stage to investigate the role of five business factors in terms of efficiency. The findings suggest that small accommodation businesses, although they are based in areas where tourist resources abound, are inefficient. Moreover, the results of the truncated regression method showed that the business’s size, the operating days, and the variety of activities (simple/complex) affect business’s inefficiency. On the contrary, the business’s age and their engagement in agriculture or not do not affect business’s efficiency. The results are important for rural entrepreneurs and policy makers, and they will also be useful for the adaptation of businesses to increase their efficiency.

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