Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine cost efficiency and its determinants in Nigerian sawmill industries. Design/methodology/approach – A stochastic frontier model is employed on a total of 160 mills randomly selected across five states in south‐western Nigeria in 2006....

Surveys the methodologies of technical assessment which have been used to evaluate the technical level of products and processes within the former USSR, and are now being adapted for use in Russian industry in the current conditions of transition from a centrally‐planned economy. Also provides...

This paper seeks to explore empirically the relationships between efficiency, financial performance and customer service quality among a representative cross‐section of Australian banks and credit unions and the correlations between these categories of measures. In particular, it seeks to...

The key to successful project management is knowing how well the process is performing to prevent problems rather than fix them after they occur. Success measurement in product development has emphasized end‐result measures of overall project performance or economic value. The product...

Discusses a new application of the AHP to a problem where the alternatives are not independent. It is used as an integral part of a method to evaluate the likelihood of successful outcomes from current or proposed product development processes. The AHP is used to determine correlation factors to...

Purpose – This paper aims to reflect on the sources of the technical inefficiency of health care foodservice operations, using a sample of Australian and American hospitals. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies the stochastic frontier model to reflect on the technical inefficiency...

Purpose – Demonstrates the feasibility of, and introduces a practical approach to enhancing, reinsurance efficiency using index-based instruments. Design/methodology/approach – First reviews the general mathematical framework of reinsurance optimization. Next, illustrates how index-based...

Purpose – This study investigates functional equivalence between entering money into transaction costs that appears in firms' cost functions and the money in the production function. In light of this model, the purpose of the study is to show the impact of financial account management in...

Purpose – Based on a sample of foreign-financed manufacturing firms in southern China, the purpose of this paper is to study the effects of ISO certification on productivity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs the stochastic frontier approach to estimate frontier efficiency...

Purpose – The paper aims to devote itself to the researching of the changes in firm efficiency in consumer goods industry under the political changes and tightening of competition. This study has for an objective the estimation of the consequences of changes in policy on firm efficiency and...