Title: Performance measurement for network DEA with undesirable factors

Authors: Zhongsheng Hua, Yiwen Bian

Addresses: Department of Information Management and Decision Science, School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China. ' School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China

Abstract: Traditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models take Decision-Making Unit (DMU) as a |black box| without considering the inputs/outputs of its intermediate production processes. To provide efficiency enhancing information regarding the sources of DMUs| inefficiencies, researchers investigate network DEA models. This paper proposes a network DEA model in the presence of undesirable factors. In the network DEA model, a DMU is composed of a set of interdependent sub-DMUs, that is, input of a sub-DMU may be an undesirable output of another sub-DMU. We develop a method of estimating efficiency of such DMU, and analyses efficiency relationship between a DMU and its sub-DMUs. Our model provides a way of improving performance of a DMU through identifying its inefficient sub-DMUs. Numerical examples are used to show our results.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; network DEA; undesirable factors; performance measurement; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2008.017196

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2008 Vol.9 No.2, pp.141 - 153

Published online: 18 Feb 2008 *

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