Measuring Efficiency: A Comparison of Multilevel Modelling and Data Envelopment Analysis in the Context of Higher Education

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multilevel modelling (MLM) are applied to a data set of 54,564 graduates from UK universities in 1993 to assess whether the choice of technique affects the measurement of universities’ performance. A methodology developed by Thanassoulis and Portela (2002; Education Economics, 10(2), pp. 183–207) allows each individual's DEA efficiency score to be decomposed into two components: one attributable to the university at which the student studied and the other attributable to the individual student. From the former component, a measure of each institution's teaching efficiency is derived and compared to the university effects from various multilevel models. The comparisons are made within four broad subjects: pure science, applied science, social science and arts. The results show that the rankings of universities derived from the DEA efficiencies which measure the universities’ own performance (i.e., having excluded the efforts of the individuals) are not strongly correlated with the university rankings derived from the university effects of the multilevel models. The data were also used to perform a university‐level DEA. The university efficiency scores derived from these DEAs are largely unrelated to the scores from the individual‐level DEAs, confirming a result from a smaller data set (Johnes, 2006a; European Journal of Operational Research, forthcoming). However, the university‐level DEAs provide efficiency scores which are generally strongly related to the university effects of the multilevel models.     

Convergence of the performance of microfinance institutions: A decomposition analysis

In this paper, we focus on investigating whether and to what extent patterns of performance microfinance institutions converge over time. In particular, we analyze whether patterns of performance are related to changes in operating efficiency, capital deepening, and/or technological change for a large international sample of microfinance institutions for the period 2003–2012. We apply intertemporal Data Envelopment Analysis, a methodology that has been used extensively in the literature explaining patterns of economic growth, but has not been applied yet in microfinance research. We decompose performance changes into operating efficiency changes, changes in capital intensity and/or technological change and find that capital deepening is the most important source of improved performance, especially during the first half, while capital deepening and technological innovations are important during the second half of the period. We also find strong evidence for convergence of performance between microfinance institutions. These trends concur with important changes in microfinance, such as increased commercialization, competition with commercial banks, and involvement of private investors.     

Evaluating the productive performance of UK universities as cost-constrained revenue maximizers: an empirical analysis

The study presents an empirical analysis of the relative revenue efficiency of UK universities in providing teaching and research. With government policies pressurizing the largely public-funded universities to secure efficiency in both input usage and output revenue, university producers are modelled as cost-constrained revenue maximizers. Taking explicit account of the quality of research output, the methodology uses linear programming techniques to construct nonparametric cost indirect production frontiers and to compute revenue efficiency relative to these frontiers. Revenue efficiency is then decomposed into its (output) allocative and technical components. Further analysis investigates the sources of allocative and technical inefficiencies.     

The transient and persistent efficiency of Italian and German universities: a stochastic frontier analysis

Despite measures on the European level to increase the compatibility between the higher education sectors, the recent literature exposes variations in their efficiencies. To gain insights into these differences, we split the efficiency term according to the two management levels each university is confronted with. We separate short-term and long-term efficiency while controlling for unobserved institution-specific heterogeneity. We argue that the first term reflects the efficiency of the individual universities working within the country, while the second term echoes the influence of the overall country-specific higher education structure. The cross-country comparison displays whether efficiency differences between countries are related to the individual performance of their universities or their higher education structure. This allows more purposeful policy recommendations and expands the literature regarding the efficiency of universities in a fundamental way. Choosing Italy and Germany as two important illustrative examples, we show that the Italian higher education sector exhibits a higher overall efficiency value. With the individual universities working at the upper bound of efficiency in both countries, the remaining inefficiency and the gap between the countries are caused by persistent, structural inefficiency. Future measures should hence aim at the country-specific structure and not solely at the activities of single universities.     

Intellectual capital and firm performance: evidence from Indian banking sector

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the entire Indian banking industry was paralysed and their performance was shattered by the unfolding of enormous cases of Non-performing Assets (NPA). The study estimates the operating efficiency of 40 Indian banks for 5 years (2011–15) as a proxy of performance measure using the output-oriented DEA-BCC model. We find that nearly 62% of the state-owned banks and 47% of the private banks are inefficient indicating that the inefficient banks need to reduce their inputs or improve their output to become efficient. The study further investigates the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and bank performance using a truncated regression model. The regression results show that out of the three components of intellectual capital, only human capital efficiency is positively and significantly associated with operational efficiency while structural capital and finance capital have a negative impact on the efficiency of banks. The study concludes that to achieve competitive edge banks should invest in their human capital. The results are robust in the case of financial variables taken as a proxy for performance.     

上市公司智力资本信息披露的实证分析及改进设想

本文运用内容分析法，对我国2005年223家上市公司年报公开披露的非货币计量的智力资本信息进行内容分析，对以货币计量的智力资本信息进行估算，并在此基础上进行实证分析。结果表明，智力资本对组织经营绩效产生了积极的、正向的影响，以货币计量的智力资本信息对资本市场具有较为显著的价值相关性，而非货币计量的智力资本信息的价值相关性并未得到明显体现。同时，这些发现存在行业差异。最后，本文针对我国上市公司的智力资本信息披露现状提出了相关改进设想。     

知识资本、组织性格与组织绩效的结构方程分析

作为隐性资产,知识资本和组织性格在企业价值创造过程中起着重要作用,也以新形态诠释着当今企业持续竞争优势的源泉。以2013-2015年沪深中小板233家企业为样本,构建结构方程模型,对知识资本、组织性格与组织绩效的关系进行了实证分析。结果显示：知识资本对企业的短期与长期绩效直接产生作用,同时,通过企业组织性格间接作用于企业短期绩效,除此之外,企业组织长期绩效的根本来源是知识资本的创造与积累。     

Teaching versus research: A multi-tasking approach to multi-department universities

We study the possible implications of incentive schemes as a tool to promote efficiency in the management of universities. In this paper, we show that by designing internal financial rules which create yardstick competition for research funds, a multi-department university may induce better teaching quality and research, as compared to the performance of independent departments.     

创新政策与科研结构双重影响下高校科技创新绩效研究

我国高校科技创新政策与科研结构不协调问题影响了高校创新绩效。基于2004—2019年中国内地27个省份高校面板数据，运用路径模型、分位数回归模型和双向固定效应模型，探究创新政策与科研结构对高校科技创新绩效的影响。结果表明，高校创新政策与科研结构对创新绩效具有正向影响。结合科研产出与成果转化两个阶段，创新政策能够显著促进科研产出绩效提升，但对科技成果转化绩效的影响表现出一定的非线性特征。其中，创新政策对科技成果转化绩效具有负向影响，而科研产出绩效在两者之间发挥中介作用，说明存在一定程度的科技成果隐性转化。科研结构对创新绩效的推动作用存在分异，集中作用于科研产出阶段，说明教学与科研之间的一致性和竞争性依然存在。据此，提出应进一步发挥创新政策对科技成果转化目标的正向引导作用，在政策层面关注科技成果隐性转化，强化科研方向转移与创新要素配置的作用。     

英国曼彻斯特大学技术转移模式及其启示

大学所属的技术转移公司是英国技术转移中介机构中最重要的一类机构,在促进英国大学技术转移中发挥了重要作用。以曼彻斯特大学的知识产权管理公司(UMIP)为例,对其业务范围、团队构成、主要技术转移模式和支持方式进行了详细的介绍。UMIP技术转移的模式主要为技术驱动型和需求导向型两种。除一般性支持外,UMIP还通过PoP基金对项目进行早期支持,同时为派生公司提供早期风险资金支持。英国大学技术转移工作的模式和方法带给我们的启示是:大学应成为技术转移的重要力量,专业化的技术转移人员是技术转移中介机构成功的重要保证,专利许可不是技术转移的唯一模式,也不是主要模式,大学要为所属技术转移机构提供政策和基金支持等。     

REPLY: THE CONCEPT OF CAPITAL

Edward Denison and I agree that the correct theoretical concept of capital is to consider two capital goods equivalent if they generate the same real net revenue, defined as gross revenue minus variable operating costs measured at a fixed set of output and input prices. Although I showed in my book that the correct concept could be fully implemented for commercial aircraft and electric generating equipment, for other products I was able only partially to take operating costs into account. As a result, both Denison and I agree that my radical revision to the official capital goods deflators does not go far enough and is biased toward understating improvements in quality. Our disagreement comes down to research strategy: I believe that I have progressed partway toward the ultimate goal of implementing the correct concept, while he views such a full implementation as infeasible. As a result, he advocates a return to the traditional criterion of base-period production cost, even though this yields price deflators that ignore improvements in performance (as for computers) and improvements in operating efficiency (as for successive generations of jet aircraft) made possible by technological advances that reduct the cost of production.     

Competition Among Universities and the Emergence of the Élite Institution

We consider an environment where two education institutions compete by selecting the proportion of their funding devoted to teaching and research and the criteria for admission for their students, and where students choose whether and where to attend university. We study the relationship between the cost incurred by students for attending a university located away from their home town and the equilibrium configuration that emerges in the game played by the universities. Symmetric equilibria, where universities choose the same admission standard, only exist when the mobility cost is high; when the mobility cost is very low, there is no pure strategy equilibrium. For intermediate values of the mobility cost, only asymmetric equilibria may exist; the final section of the paper provides an example where asymmetric equilibria do indeed exist for a plausible and robust set of parameters.     

PLS路径模型在省域高校科技活动综合评价中的实证研究

对高校科技活动进行综合评价是科研管理的重要课题之一。基于PLS路径模型,建立各省高校科技活动综合评价指数,运用2007年的数据,对31个省的高校科技活动进行了综合评价。结果显示:"知识产权产出"和"投入"是对省域高校科技活动综合水平影响最大的两个因素,西部大多数省份高校的科技活动水平落后于中东部。     

Achieving competitive capabilities in e-services

What implications does the Internet have for service operations strategy? How can business performance of e-service companies be improved in today's knowledge-based economy? These research questions are the subject of this paper. We propose a model that links the e-service company's knowledge-based competencies with their competitive capabilities. Drawing from the current literature, our analysis suggests that services that strategically build a portfolio of knowledge-based competencies, namely human capital, structural capital, and absorptive capacity have more operations-based options, than their counterparts who are less apt to invest. We assume that the combinative capabilities of service quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost are determined by the investment in intellectual capital. Arguably, with the advent of the Internet, different operating models (e.g., bricks-and-mortar, clicks-and-mortar, or pure dot-com) have different strategic imperatives in terms of knowledge-based competencies. Thus, the new e-operations paradigm can be viewed as a configuration of knowledge-based competencies and capabilities.     

Banking efficiency in transition economies

An increasing share of the banking sector is controlled by foreign capital in the majority of transition countries. To analyse the effects of this trend on the performance of the banking sector in these countries, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the performance of foreign‐owned and domestic‐owned banks operating in the Czech Republic and Poland. We use the stochastic frontier approach to compute cost efficiency scores. Following Mester (1996 ), financial capital is included in the cost frontier model to control for risk preferences. Our finding is that on average foreign‐owned banks are more efficient than domestic‐owned banks. We conclude, however, that this advantage does not result from differences in the scale of operations or the structure of activities.     

Factors affecting technology transfer offices' performance in the Italian food context

In recent years, growing attention has been devoted to the commercialisation of knowledge and technologies developed by universities and public research institutions. A central role in this particular process is played by the technology transfer offices (TTOs), which are on the one hand in charge of promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology to external companies, and on the other hand are also responsible for protecting and licensing the intellectual property of the research organisation. This paper is focused on a TTO operating in the food context, with the specific objectives of identifying the performance indicators and the main factors affecting its performance and, finally, analysing the relationships among these factors. Results highlighted the importance of both external and internal factors for the performance of a TTO operating in this context. In addition, we found both direct and indirect relations within these factors.     

A ‘technically level playing-field’ profit efficiency analysis of enforced competition between publicly funded institutions

The study demonstrates how recent advances in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) of profit efficiency, and in combining DEA and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to measure producer performance, can be used to obtain a ‘technically level playing-field’ profit efficiency performance measure. A three-stage analysis is used to provide an empirical investigation of public-sector universities facing regulatory pressures to attain both profit efficiency and output quality. Stage one employs directional distance function analysis to decompose DEA profit efficiency measures into technical and allocative components. As these performance measures incorporate the impacts of managerial inefficiency, the operating environment and luck (statistical noise), stage two applies SFA to total (radial and non-radial) slacks to obtain a degree of disentanglement from the latter two impacts. The stage-two results are used to define a common environment and common luck scenario, thus permitting university producers’ inputs to be adjusted so as to reflect operation within this more level playing-field scenario. Stage three recomputes the first-stage DEA for this scenario, to yield an (input-focused) ‘technically level playing-field’ measure of profit efficiency that unifies the regulatory financial audit and output-quality indicators in a single, best-practice-benchmarked, performance measure.     

对高校教师人力资本投资风险及规避的新探讨

当今高校的竞争已日趋激烈,而竞争的根本在于高校优质的教师人力资本。优质教师人力资本的获得需要进行投资,但高校教师人力资本投资存在风险,如何规避风险成为高校关注的焦点。本文对高校教师人力资本投资风险进行了界定,认为高校教师人力资本投资风险主要表现为对教师投资后并没有达到预期的效果。深入分析了高校教师人力资本投资风险产生的原因,认为主要是由外部原因和内部原因两方面造成的,外部原因是由于市场供求的不平衡所决定的,内部原因是由于教师人力资本载体一教师的机会主义行为倾向和高校的体制缺陷所决定的。并提出了要从高校、教师自身和学生三方面入手,即学校方面要进行高校管理改革;教师方面要提高教师自身素质;学生方面要提高学习热情,来共同形成高校教师人力资本投资风险规避体系,来规避高校教师人力资本投资风险,为高校人力资本投资决策提供依据;     

西部地区资源型产业R&D效率研究:基于DEA的分析

基于产业经营绩效和创新产出绩效两个视角,运用投入导向的规模报酬不变(CRS)的DEA模型和超效率方法,对西部12个省、市、区资源型产业R&D的效率进行实证分析。结果表明,在现有的产出水平下,各个省、市、区资源型产业R&D投入效率较低;各个省、市、区相同资源型产业研发实力和研发管理效率以及研发成果产生的经营绩效上的差异导致同一产业R&D投入产生不同的贡献度,这其中研发成果产生的经营绩效差异性是主要原因。     

中国特色世界一流大学建设背景下高校科技创新能力评价研究

在中国特色社会主义进入新时代的历史节点,习近平总书记多次发出建设中国特色世界一流大学的号召,研究高校科技创新能力有助于探索中国特色世界一流大学建设。基于资源配置理论,从科技创新资源条件、科技创新资源投入、科技创新活力和科技创新产出效益4个方面构建高校科技创新能力评价指标体系,并利用2010—2020年中国高校数据,从科技创新视角分析如何建设中国特色世界一流大学。结果发现,中国高校科技创新能力整体处于上升趋势,高校科技创新能力发展呈现区域性、阶段性和差异性特征;科技创新产出效益对高校科技创新能力的影响较大,而科技创新活力的影响较小;资本因素对科技创新能力的影响较大,而人才因素的影响较小。因此,中国高校应该重视优秀人才培养,参与国际交流和社会服务。研究结论有助于丰富新时代背景下高校科技创新能力研究,为中国特色世界一流大学建设提供参考依据。