Benchmarking of electricity distribution utilities has been widely used as a means to contribute for the adoption or reinforcement of enhanced competitiveness and innovation practices to optimize costs, increase customer satisfaction, improve corporate image and maximize profits. The purpose of...

Die Effizienzanalyse mit Hilfe der Data-Envelopment-Analyse (DEA) stellt ein weit verbreitetes Verfahren zur vergleichenden Einschätzung der empirischen Performanz von Entscheidungseinheiten (z.B. Unternehmen) dar. Angesichts „boomender“ Anwendungen auf eine Vielzahl...

In diesem Beitrag werden zwei Modellansätze zur Integration von Risiko in die Data Envelopment Analyse (DEA) vorgestellt und exemplarisch auf ein balanciertes Panel von 278 unterschiedlich stark spezialisierten Schweinemastbetrieben angewendet. Beide Ansätze bilden das Risiko des...

This paper shows through the combination of output-orientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the calculation of Malmquist indexes that the obvious and persistent differences in growth and levels of per capita income and labour productivity between the German states are less caused by...

In this article an application-oriented approach to analyze the cost of conformance of services, i. e. ‘cost of customer satisfaction’, is presented. Contrary to quality costing methods in manufacturing industries, which are concerned about objective quality standards, services have to...

With rapid economic development, resource and environment problems become more and more prominent. Chongqing Municipality, as a city focusing on industrial development in the past, has serious problem of environmental pollution and scarce agricultural resources. At present, it is urgent to find...

The use of private cars with low occupancy is increasingly predominant in workers' transport to industrial estates in Valles Occidental County, within the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. This unsustainable trend is already on the political agenda. However, sound theoretical background and...

Because of high population density in Europe agriculture cannot define its aims on its own but has to take account of quite a number of demands from different actors. For instance, agriculture is expected to produce food and at the same time to contribute to the protection of cultural landscapes...

The main argument developed here is the proposal of the concept of “Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation” (SMCE) as a possible useful framework for the application of social choice to the difficult policy problems of our Millennium, where, as stated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, “facts are...

This paper focuses on an empirical application of the travel cost method, to estimate the recreational use value of Bellenden Ker National Park, part of the Wet tropics World Heritage Area Queensland, Australia. Walking appears to be one of the main activities associated with recreational...