Sustainable efficiency drivers in Eurasian airports: Fuzzy NDEA approach based on Shannon's entropy

This research explores the physical infrastructure and flight consolidation efficiency drivers of Eurasian airports regarding their infrastructure and movement productivity levels. A novel Fuzzy Double-Frontier Network DEA (FDFNDEA) model is proposed to investigate the relationship between desirable (freight and passenger turnovers) and undesirable (pollutant emission levels due to aircraft movements) outputs against the respective infrastructure usage, fuel consumed, and movements performed at each of the 23 Eurasian airports from 2000 to 2018. This balance between desirable and undesirable outputs emerges spatially and temporally due to the evolution of the airport system's productive resources at each one of the Eurasian countries over the period observed. Shannon's entropy is used as the cornerstone to quantify the input and output vagueness of this evolution in Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (TFN), thus allowing the accurate building of alternative optimistic and pessimistic double-frontier efficiency. Differently from previous research, Shannon's entropy is the key for measuring input and output vagueness levels in light of the maximal entropy principle. This principle states that the distribution that best represents the current state of knowledge is the one with largest entropy. Maximal entropy yields bias-free decision-making in the sense that the input/output distributional profiles for Eurasian airports contain the maximal possible heterogeneity, working as a robust or best/worst-case scenario against eventual unconsidered assumptions. Hence, optimistic and pessimistic Malmquist Productivity Indexes (MPI) for overall and each stage productivity results are subsequently regressed against contextual variables related to airport characteristics and regional socio-demographic and economic indicators of each Eurasian country using bootstrapped Cauchy regressions. The findings revealed the spatial heterogeneity of productivity factors and airport performance across Eurasia. Results also demonstrated the negative impact of income inequality and the positive impact of private participation on technological progression in the Eurasian airport industry.     

Evaluating the multi-period efficiency of East Asia airport companies

The aim of this study is to analyze how internal operating sub-processes and annual operations of airport companies influence the overall efficiency. The multi-period Network Data Envelopment Analysis is used to evaluate the efficiencies and the efficiency changes for East Asia airport companies. The results indicate that the overall efficiencies of airport companies during a specified period of time are affected by the system efficiency and the sub-processes’ efficiencies in individual periods. Furthermore, the overall efficiency change is determined by the sub-processes’ efficiency changes. According to the operating decision analysis matrix, managers can discover the inefficient sub-processes and formulate the improvement countermeasures.     

中国高新区绩效的时空演化及贸易溢出效应研究

采用基于DEA的Malmquist指数及VAR模型研究了我国52个国家级高新区1996-2009年的绩效演进情况,并对相应的贸易溢出效应进行了研究。结果表明：①高新区TFP指数呈上升趋势,其中,“增长效应”在发展初期对于高新区绩效的贡献较为突出,而在后期则是“追赶效应”的贡献更加显著。②东部高新区TC指数要高于中西部地区,而Ec指数要弱于中西部高新区。③高新技术产品产业内贸易的活跃无法显著提升高新区的绩效,而劳动力的比较优势和汇率条件的作用比较显著。高新区应该充分利用既有优势,通过吸引关键技术等手段提高国际竞争力。     

Measuring and forecasting regional environmental and economic efficiency in Italy

Environmental and economic efficiency has being receiving growing attention among researchers. In general terms, this concept is related to the capability of the economic systems to employ natural resources efficiently, so as to increase economic and human wealth. This clearly implies that both the economic and ecological aspects of decisions ought to be considered. Bearing this in mind, this article considers economic and ecological performance together, by applying data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index to investigate the efficiency of the 20 Italian regions from 2004 to 2011. The results reveal that the northern regions have been more efficient than the southern ones, highlighting the strong geographical differences between the two. Furthermore, this article uses the grey system theory to forecast regional, economic and environmental efficiency. The results of the forecasting analysis show that the north–south duality remains strong and will possibly increase since the regions in the south get worse in term of environmental and economic efficiency.     

Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance – Stakeholder Engagement Evaluation

As environmental protection has become a critical factor in achieving sustainable development, organizational stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in corporate environmental performance (CEP). Many organizations evaluate their CEP but few academic studies have sought to evaluate it. This study undertakes CEP evaluation using an environmental performance measurement (EPM) model consisting of four managerial performance indicators (MPIs: organizational system, stakeholder relations, operational countermeasures and environmental tracking) and two operational performance indicators (OPIs: inputs and outputs). Principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) are used to test model reliability and construct validity. The relationship between MPIs and OPIs has also been analysed using correlation coefficients among the six indicators. Results indicate that there were multiple dimensions to measure under an organizational system as opposed to ideally a single factor. No single model can be effectively used due to different geographical locations and differences between companies from various industry sectors. EPM is more dependent on its organizational system and stakeholder relations than operational countermeasures and environmental tracking. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Estimating airport efficiency of New Zealand airports

New Zealand's airport industry has experienced substantial growth over recent years, but few studies have analysed the operational efficiency of New Zealand airports. This paper aims to extend the study of Francis and Lyon (2007) by exploring the efficiency and productivity changes of New Zealand's major airports between 2010 and 2012, using slacks-based measure (SBM) model and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). The findings suggested that the majority of New Zealand airports increased efficiency and productivity during the period under investigation, but should decrease scale of operations in order to operate at their most productive size. Decomposition of the MPI showed that most New Zealand airports experienced gains in efficiency but, in terms of technology, they have regressed. Four significant factors (i.e. airport hub status, airport operating hours, airport ownership, and the Rugby World Cup 2011) were identified by the Simar–Wilson bootstrapping regression analysis as explaining variations in airport efficiency. Importantly, the significant effect of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (a major sport tournament) on New Zealand's air transport demand and airports' efficiency has been demonstrated in this research.     

Applying DEA, MPI, and grey model to explore the operation performance of the Taiwanese wafer fabrication industry

The study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to explore the operation performances of the Taiwanese wafer fabrication companies from 2004 to 2007. The input variables are total assets, operation costs, and selling and administrative expenditures, while the output variable is net sales. The results show that if Taiwanese wafer fabrication companies want to increase their operation performances, they should improve their CRS and VRS efficiencies not scale efficiency. Furthermore, this paper utilizes GM (1,1) - one order and one variable in the grey model - to forecast the growth trend of the Taiwanese wafer fabrication industry from 2008 to 2010, and then employs GM (1,N) - one order and N variables in the grey model - to measure the influences of the input variables upon the output variable. This study demonstrates that the most influential factor for the output variable, net sales, is selling and administrative expenditures.     

中国多维贫困的测度及分解:1989~2009年

以MPI多维贫困指数为基准,增加收入维度,组成四个维度共11项指标,以中国健康与营养调查数据为依据,借助主成分分析法进行非等权重赋值,考察了1989年以来中国多维贫困的动态变化并进行了多重分解。结果表明：多维贫困的下降幅度要超过单一的收入贫困的下降幅度;农村贫困一直是中国贫困的主体,但城乡之间的贫困差别已从收入因素转变到非收入因素;贫困的主要致因从早期的卫生设施和人均收入因素转变到目前的卫生设施和教育因素。因此,反贫困政策要从单一的收入视角转向多维视角,尤其要重视从农村教育和生活水平等方面来提高反贫困效果。     

Sources of TFP growth in the Malaysian Islamic banking sector

This paper attempts to empirically analyse productivity changes of the Malaysian Islamic banking sector during the period of 2001–2004 by applying the non-parametric Malmquist productivity index method. During the period of study, the empirical findings suggest that the Malaysian Islamic banking sector has exhibited productivity progress during the earlier years before declining during the latter years. The results suggest that foreign banks have exhibited higher productivity levels compared with their domestic counterparts during the earlier years, while the domestic banks’ productivity levels were relatively higher compared with the foreign banks during the latter years.     

双酚A型二醚二酐的制备

双酚A型二醚二酐(BPADA)是重要树脂聚醚酰亚胺(Ultem)的前体。以双酚A和N-甲基-4-硝基酞酰亚胺为主要原料,经成盐、缩合、水解、酸化和脱水5步反应合成了BPADA,总收率48.0%。采用单因素实验对合成反应的关键影响因素进行了考察,得到了实验室制备BPADA较适宜的反应条件。所得中间体及最终产物通过熔点测定、核磁等手段进行了表征。