A review of DEA approaches applying a common set of weights: The perspective of centralized management

Mohsen Afsharian, Heinz Ahn and Sören Guntram Harms

European Journal of Operational Research, 2021, vol. 294, issue 1, 3-15

Abstract: The vast majority of DEA approaches assume that the decision making units under assessment possess total autonomy in terms of resource allocation and production planning according to their individual preferences. In contrast to these cases of a fully decentralized management, our review focuses on DEA approaches that imply a certain kind of centralized management by applying a common set of input/output weights. In this scenario, a central authority has at least partial control over the resource usage and output production of the units under consideration. Based on a comparison of the aspects of centralization within the contexts of organization theory and DEA literature, we derive a scheme to classify respective DEA approaches according to the way they derive input/output weights. On this basis, a Scopus database search identifies 135 unique publications that implicate various degrees of centralization. We analyze these publications especially with respect to different research streams and citation patterns. In addition to reflecting the current state of the art of DEA approaches applying a common set of weights, our review also aims at enhancing the awareness of the topic amongst scientists as well as practitioners and at encouraging further research.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis; Common set of weights; Degrees of centralization; Centralized management; Hybrid management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221721000011
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:294:y:2021:i:1:p:3-15

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2021.01.001

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Operational Research is currently edited by Roman Slowinski, Jesus Artalejo, Jean-Charles. Billaut, Robert Dyson and Lorenzo Peccati

More articles in European Journal of Operational Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().