Title: An exploratory study on contextual variables and manufacturing efficiency

Authors: Roberto Sarmiento, Mike Byrne, Jo Beale, Graeme Knowles

Addresses: Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Aberconway Building, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, Wales, UK. ' Operations Management Division, Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. ' Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Aberconway Building, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, Wales, UK. ' Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

Abstract: This paper explores the potential impact of a group of contextual variables on manufacturing efficiency in a sample of 48 UK firms. Several Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models, which include manufacturing performance measures as inputs and outputs, are examined with regards to their association with variables such as labour turnover, firm size, production technology and others. By means of correlation analysis, it is observed that the variable |labour turnover| is significantly, negatively and validly associated with higher levels of manufacturing efficiency in some of the models included in the investigation. The implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future studies are proposed.

Keywords: manufacturing efficiency; contextual variables; data envelopment analysis; DEA; labour turnover; UK manufacturing; United Kingdom; firm size; production technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2009.024148

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2009 Vol.5 No.3, pp.275 - 298

Published online: 27 Mar 2009 *

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