Decision Making and Performance Evaluation Using Data Envelopment Analysis ― Theory, Modeling and Applications

This book offers new transparent views and step-by-step methods for performance evaluation of a set of units using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book has twelve practical chapters. Elementary concepts and definitions are gradually built in Chapters 1-6 based upon four examples of one input and one output factors, two input factors, two output factors, and four input and three output factors. Simultaneously, the mathematical foundations using linear programming are also introduced without any prerequisites. A reader with basic knowledge of mathematics and computers is able to understand the contents of the book. In addition, to prevent pre-judgment about the available concepts and definitions in the DEA literature, some new phrases are introduced and, after elucidating each phrase in detail in Chapters 1-6, they are reintroduced for industry-wide accuracy in Chapter 7. After that, some of the more advanced DEA topics are illustrated in Chapters 8-12, such as: production-planning problems, output-input ratio analysis, efficiency over different time periods, Malmquist efficiency indexes, and a delta neighborhood model.

Yao Chen is Professor of Operations Management, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts at Lowell. She is also a distinguished Professor in College of Auditing and Evaluation, Nanjing Audit University, China. Her current research interests include efficiency and productivity issues of information systems, information technology’s impact on operations performance, and methodology development of Data Envelopment Analysis. Her research are published in journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, OMEGA, Computers and Operations Research, Annals of Operations Research, International Journal of Production Economics, and others.