Efficiency Evaluation of China's Regional Innovation Process Based on a Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model with a Mixed Structure: Enlightenment from the Regional Tobacco Industry

Accurate measurement of regional efficiency is a prerequisite for effective management. Prior studies have expanded on the overall "black box" evaluation with two stages of research and development (R&D) and commercialization, opening up the internal structure of the regional innovation process, but ignoring the independent innovation activities of universities, research institutes, and firms in the R&D stage. We construct a mixed structure with two stages, three actors, and four subsystems, and conduct an empirical analysis of China's provincial samples from 2017 to 2019 by using the network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. Results show that the efficiency of the R&D stage at the provincial level is generally higher than that of the commercialization stage. However, the three subsystems of the R&D stage perform poorly. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient suggests that there is a significantly positive correlation between total regional efficiency and commercialization. In addition, we use the k-means method to divide 27 provinces into three clusters, setting a more appropriate improvement benchmark for inefficient provinces. Based on enlightenment of regional tobacco industry, we put forward some proposals for specific stage and specific subsystem.

Performance Measurement for the Recycling Production System Using Cooperative Game Network Data Envelopment Analysis

Resources scarcity and environmental degradation have made sustainable resource utilization and environmental protection necessary worldwide. The development of the circular economy is considered an approach for more appropriate economic and environmental management. This work introduces a cooperative game network data envelopment analysis model for evaluating the implementation effect of recycling production systems from a closed loop and centralized control perspective. The factor efficiency analysis of the involved inputs and outputs is presented to provide guidance for the factor dominance of subsystem efficiencies. An application for assessing the circular economy of EU countries is provided to illustrate the validation of the proposed method. Our results show that the average performance of the production subsystem is superior to that of the recycling subsystem in EU countries. Furthermore, factor efficiency analysis reveals that the inefficient environmental treatment input is the culprit in worse performance of the recycling subsystem. A comparison of the proposed method with recent studies for circular economy performance evaluation is also included.

An EFQM-Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model for Efficiency Assessment in Organizations

One of the new concepts that have found a considerable position in many countries of the world is organizing EFQM organizational excellence models. Different organizations and institutions have been evaluated and compared on its basis, and the move towards improvement and promotion is strengthened in them due to creation of competitive space. The EFQM organizational excellence model cannot remove the managers’ and users’ need for the levels of quantitative goals’ operation solely. Thus, requirement for a tool which considers quantitative goals and present environment was felt, and in this manner, various assessment processes were created to be used in different organizations; one of the most important ones is the technique for Data Envelopment Analysis. Evaluating organization efficiency based on the EFQM model is one of the strategic managerial tools in many organizations. The classic DEA models were designed to work with deterministic data and cannot deal with uncertainties in their inputs. The techniques developed so far for fuzzy performance evaluation are also very limited. Given that the inputs and outputs of a real system are not always definite and accurate and that some data can only be expressed in vague verbal and subjective terms, the use of fuzzy sets in modeling is inevitable (Ali et al., 2019). In this paper, a Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model is proposed in fuzzy conditions for assessing units of an organization based on an organizational excellence model. The suggestive model utilizes the privileges of both Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis and EFQM organizational excellence models simultaneously in order to assess organization’s efficiency. The Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis model is able to calculate the whole organization’s efficiency as well as organization’s efficiency separately for various phases of the organizational excellence model. Another privilege of the suggested model is that it utilizes fuzzy theory and concepts for modeling and observance of existing noncertainties in the experts’ views while assessing organization’s excellence criteria. The EFQM-fuzzy network DEA model is applied for assessing a holding’s organizational units within the discipline of “project management.”