Decomposing total factor productivity of SMEs in agricultural sector in Aceh, Indonesia

This study measures and decomposes the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of the SMEs in the agricultural sector across 23 regencies/cities in Aceh province, Indonesia during the 2015-2019 period. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the study found a low level of SMEs’ productivity during the study period. The SMEs in Aceh province recorded different levels of TFP. Overall, the SMEs’ TFP has slightly declined, contributed mainly by an increase in efficiency level and a decline in the technical efficiency change. These findings showed the importance of adopting advanced agricultural-related technologies and implementing good SMEs’ governance principles to further improve SMEs’ TFP. Finally, the government must prioritize promoting non-productive SMEs across the 23 regencies/districts in the province by offering sufficient financial aids and conducting professional managerial training programs.

PERFORMANCE OF CZECH FOOTBALL CLUBS: MALMQUIST INDEX APPROACH

Sport has become an important part of our lives in the modern times and sporting sites contribute significantly to the image and texture of modern cities. Regarding the popularity of sport, and football in particular, it has become an important modern place where specific types of economic and social interaction take place. The aim of this article is to propose a method for evaluating the performance of football clubs based on DEA and Malmquist index. Professional Czech football clubs playing in the Czech football competition Fortuna:Liga were selected for empirical analysis. To analyze the relative efficiency of football clubs, BCC and CCR models were employed. The study was conducted on a sample of 20 clubs through 2 inputs and 1 output collected during the 2015/16 – 2019/20 seasons. For some clubs the values of the Malmquist index were calculated. With help of MI it was possible to quantify the total productivity change factor and to decompose it to technological change and technical efficiency change. The results show that Czech football clubs achieved a relatively high level of efficiency in the period monitored and that traditional clubs achieved the highest efficiency score. These results could help club managers improve the performance of their teams.

Total Factor Productivity Growth of Ghanaian Electricity Distribution Utilities Using Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Index (2000–2020)

The increasing need for electricity access to drive economic growth, social development, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability requires that efficient allocation of scarce and competing resources in the generation, transmission and distribution subsectors of the electricity sector is indispensable. This paper analyses total factor productivity growth in a single input multiple-output framework in Ghana. The technique applied is data-orientated nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis using Win4Deap 2 software. Total Factor Productivity Change is evaluated through Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), as well as technological change (TECHC) and efficiency change (EFFCH) using firm-level panel data. Sources of productivity growth comparison are made between Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) for the periods 2000 to 2020. The results show TECHCH marginally declined at an average annual rate of 0.3% and drives the electric power distribution productivity regress in ECG and NEDCO from 2000 to 2020. Further, the results indicate stagnation in scale efficiency, pure efficiency and efficiency change when estimated over 20 years. At firm levels comparison, the study shows that the Northern Electricity Distribution Company recorded a productivity growth rate of 4.9%, mainly due to technical progress. However, the Electricity Company of Ghana experienced a slight deterioration of productivity performance due to a 5.3% decline in technical efficiency. The study offers several policy recommendations on how the underperforming firm can learn to improve efficiency and technical to reduce electricity transmission losses.

Dependence of the Xe flash lamps’ UV radiation efficiency on the volumetric power density of the discharge

The study results of the peak and average electrical volumetric power density influence on the radiation efficiency and brightness temperature in the 200–300 nm bactericidal spectrum range are presented. A linear dependence of the radiation efficiency change in the 5.1–8.4 % range was obtained with the average volumetric power density increase from 177 to 390 kW/cm3. The brightness temperature dependence in the specified spectral region on the peak volumetric power density is a logarithmic character with decreasing growth rate when approaching 9 kK. This effect can be associated with both radiation blocking by vaporized quartz fumes and with UV light shielding by outer plasma layers

Economic size and water use efficiency: an empirical analysis of trends across China

Water shortage is a global risk that could arguably be mitigated using water more efficiently. However, the profound relationship between water use efficiency and regional economic size has not been empirically tested. The research design employed an exploratory empirical analysis done through non-linear curve function and attempted to analyze the evolution of water use efficiency over economic growth. First, the water use efficiency change was decomposed into pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change, and technological advance change. Second, the scale efficiency is generally less than 1, revealing that it is the main reason for the decreased water use efficiency by the empirical analysis of trends across China. Third, the fitting function between water use efficiency and economic development was constructed. The results supported the existence of an inverted-S shape between water use efficiency and regional economic growth. This analysis will be the reference to formulate scenarios for economic and demographic growth coupled with water use, particularly for planning and managing future water provision and demand.

COVID-19 and Hotel Productivity Changes: An Empirical Analysis Using Malmquist Productivity Index

This research investigates the impact of COVID-19 on hotel productivity change using the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). For 26 U.S. hotel brands, productivity changes over 10 quarters from the first quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2020 were analyzed. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the investigated hotels’ productivity deteriorated. Decomposition revealed that, whereas technical efficiency change (EC) improved, technological change (TC) regressed, resulting in deterioration of the MPI. The investigated hotels’ EC-related practices included enhanced cleaning operations, partnering with a hygiene brand, cutting the workforce, and pay cuts. Practices related to TC included the adoption of new hygiene technology and setting a new standard at the organizational level through the formation of a global council and accreditation related to disinfection and hygiene. Our results show that though U.S. hotels are trying to improve their productivity by efficiently utilizing resources, frontier technology’s regress is decreasing productivity. Our results support the importance of investment in technology for productivity management. This research provides empirical evidence for the need for hotels to pursue technological advances to overcome the pandemic.

Research on the Impacts of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations on Green Productivity in China: The Moderating Roles of Technical Change and Efficiency Change

Due to the publicly owned resource attributes of the ecological environment, the treatment and governance of the environment should be guided by governments, which are mainly represented as environmental regulations. However, whether environmental regulations affect green productivity and what effects heterogeneous environmental regulations have on green productivity are still implicit. In addition, the moderating roles of technical change and efficiency change are ignored. To examine these issues, this study investigated the impacts of heterogeneous environmental regulations on green productivity and the moderating roles of technical change and efficiency change using the dynamic spatial Durbin model based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2018. The results show the following: compared with efficiency change, technical change has a stronger promotion effect on green productivity in China; considering the spatial spillover effects and the temporal lag effects of green productivity simultaneously, the negative path-dependent feature is not supported any longer, while the spatial spillover effect is still the power source for promoting green productivity in China; the moderating roles of technical change and efficiency change for the nexus between heterogeneous environmental regulations and green productivity in China are partly and conditionally supported at national and regional levels; the direct and indirect effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on green productivity at the regional level have a feature of spatial heterogeneity. This study provides both theoretical and practical implications, in particular for China, to promote green productivity from the dual perspectives of space and time.

Aggregate Efficiency Dynamics in Lithuanian Dairy Farms

In this paper, we attempt to identify the major groups of decision making units (dairy farms) contributing to the aggregate efficiency change. We also suggest identifying influential peers in order to gain more insights into possible development strategies within a sector. The empirical application focuses on specialist dairy farms in Lithuania. The farm-level data cover the period 2004-2016. The results indicate the presence of structural changes and resulting shifts in the aggregate efficiency. Based on the results of decomposition of the covariance term and identification of the influential peers, two models can be followed by Lithuanian dairy farms, namely “pure” family farms with lower operational scale and large farms involving hired labour.

MEASURING EFFICIENCY CHANGE IN TIME APPLYING MALMQUIST PRODUCTIVITY INDEX: A CASE OF DISTRIBUTION CENTRES IN SERBIA

In the last decade, more and more attention has been paid to the efficiency of logistics systems not only in the literature but also in practice. The reason is the huge savings that can be achieved. In a very dynamic market with environmental changes distribution centers have to realize their activities and processes in an efficient way. Distribution centers connect producers with other participants in the supply chain, including end-users. The main objective of this paper is to develop a DEA model for measuring distribution centers’ efficiency change in time. The paper investigates the impact of input and output variables selection on the resulting efficiency in the context of measuring the change in efficiency over time. The selection of variables on the one hand is a basic step in applying the DEA method. On the other hand, the number of basic and derived indicators that are monitored in real systems is increasing, while the percentage of those used in the decision-making process is decreasing (less than 20%). The developed model was tested on the example of a retail chain operating in Serbia. The main factors changing the efficiency have been identified, as well as the corresponding corrective actions. For measuring efficiency change in time Malmquist productivity index is used. The developed approach could help managers in the decision-making process and also represents a good basis for further research.