1,720,974 research outputs found
Effectiveness-efficiency nexus in municipal solid waste management: A non-parametric evidence-based study
No full textThe scope of this work is to present a comprehensive approach to analyze the effectiveness-efficiency nexus in the evaluation of the performance of municipal solid waste (MSW) management. The rate of separate MSW collection is used to measure service effectiveness. A multiple set of non-parametric indicators is employed to obtain measurements of technical, scale and congestion efficiencies of waste service provision. This approach was implemented to conduct an empirical study to evaluate the performance of MSW management in 258 municipalities in the Apulia region (Southern Italy) from 2010 to 2017. The study was organized in two phases. In the first phase, measures for the three efficiency indicators were calculated applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with an output-oriented model specification. In the second phase, Panel Tobit analysis with random parameters was employed to examine the effectiveness-efficiency one way nexus, considering both municipalities’ heterogeneities and context-specific variables. The efficiency analysis shows that several municipalities are still far from achieving acceptable performance scores. Between 2010 and 2017 the average rate of separate MSW collection increased only from 16.6% to 39.6%, while the average loss of technical efficiency ranged from 27% to 39%. On average, such inefficiency was due to an important extent to the low pure technical efficiency that ranged from about 69% to 81%, and to a lesser extent to scale and congestion inefficiencies. Indeed, scale efficiency was between 85.4% and 92.6%, whereas congestion efficiency was higher than 99%. The study also highlights that there is no trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency. For the largest part of the municipalities, high levels of effectiveness and efficiency can be achieved at the same time. For about 83% of the municipalities the decrease of the sorted waste collection rate is associated to a decrease of the pure technical efficiency. A drop of the output congestion efficiency due to a relatively high collection of the unsorted fraction of waste reduces the rate of the sorted waste collection for most of municipalities (77.3%). Results also indicate that for many municipalities (about 87%) improving the MSW service effectiveness necessarily requires reducing the average quantity of waste generated by people
Productivity Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Collection in Italy using SBM DEA Malmquist Index
No full textThis paper presents a productivity analysis of municipal solid waste collection in Italian provinces from 2010 to 2019. Particularly, the total factor productivity was measured by computing the non-parametric Global Malmquist Productivity Index implementing Slack Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA). Findings show that the productivity of the sorted waste collection service slightly grew from 2010 to 2019. Such growth was due to an increase of the technical efficiency and an improvement of the service technology. However, in some years the efficiency changes and productivity increase were affected by the rise of the per capita production of waste
Eco-productivity analysis of the municipal solid waste service in the Apulia region from 2010 to 2017
Get PDFThis paper presents a dynamic efficiency study of the solid waste management in the municipalities of the Apulia region (Southern Italy). The study employs the non-parametric Global Malmquist Index to measure the change in productivity of the municipal solid waste service from 2010 to 2017. Three different DEA-based models are implemented to measure productivity. The first model computes the service productivity solely from the economic perspective, while the second and third models compute the service productivity from both the economic and environmental perspectives. Adopting two distinct perspectives provides a more comprehensive insight into the performance of the waste management service considering the productivity and the eco-productivity of service provision. The results from the productivity analysis show that, between 2010 and 2017, the municipal solid waste sector was still facing a transitional period characterized by low cost-efficiency and productivity growth measurements. Vice versa, the efficiency and productivity indicators improve when the analysis is performed accounting for the environmental impact. Indeed, both the eco-efficiency and eco-productivity measures increase from 2010 to 2017. Findings demonstrate the critical importance to include environmental indicators in the efficiency and productivity analysis
Performance evaluation of social service provision in Italian major municipalities using Network Data Envelopment Analysis
No full textThis paper employs Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) to measure the municipality performance. The NDEA approach allows to have a more comprehensive evaluation of the municipality performance if compared to traditional DEA. The proposed NDEA model aims at shedding new light on the efficiency-effectiveness relationship in the provision of social services by municipalities. Municipal efficiency and effectiveness are combined to generate a single performance measure which can be considered as a proxy measure of the value for money of municipality services. A sample including 103 major Italian municipalities is used as a case to implement the proposed model. Findings indicate that there is no trade-off between the efficiency and effectiveness components of the overall municipal performance score, but rather they appear to be preconditions of each other. Therefore, higher level of performance can be achieved without conflicting one against the other. Furthermore, only 6 municipalities achieve the highest performance level, suggesting that there is still room for improving the performance of a great number of municipalities
Measuring the efficiency of the urban integrated water service by parallel network DEA: The case of Italy
No full textIn 1994 the Galli Law started an in-depth transformation of the Italian urban water industry in search for a better performance. However, after more than two decades, there is still much debate about the appropriateness of the regulatory framework. This paper contributes to this debate carrying out an efficiency analysis of the Italian urban water industry, employing data for fiscal years 2011 and 2017 and an extended parallel network DEA model that allows have a more comprehensive overview of the industry performance. The proposed DEA model addresses the inadequacies in the conventional DEA models because it takes into account the different nature of the three basic services provided by the urban water service utility (drinking water, sewerage, and wastewater treatment), and computes both the efficiencies of such individual basic services, and the global efficiency of the utility. Thus, it provides a more detailed picture and shed new light on the real performance of the Italian water industry. The efficiency analysis indicates that the average global efficiency of the water utilities is still low, although it slightly increased from 2011 to 2017. Efficiency scores calculated using the proposed DEA model result reduced by about 32.6% in 2011 and 15.9% in 2017 in comparison to conventional DEA models. Additionally, the study shows that the efficiency measurements relative to the three basic water services differ largely for several utilities. Findings also suggest that size may support efficiency improvement
Growth strategy as practice in small firm as knowledge structure
No full textIn this explorative research, based on a study of 80 Information and Communication Technology Small Firms (ICT SFs), a framework to inquire into strategic management of SFs is proposed, moving from the idea that a more coherent and careful conceptualisation of relationships between the firms’ growth strategies, and their knowing process is operationalisable. A ‘strategy as practice’ approach is proposed to deal with some open problems both in theoretical and empirical studies related to specific issues of SFs’ strategies, capabilities, and processes, and a model of ‘small firm as knowledge structure’ is defined. Results coming from the empirical research indicate that the knowledge structure profile affects the growth strategy performance of the firm, while the Entrepreneurial and Management Group (EMG) faces severe limitations to design an effective knowledge structure. Data analysis also suggests some guidelines for policy makers involved in local development of areas with a strong potential of ICT SFs. © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact of land logistics systems in the EU: A DEA-based dynamic mapping
No full textPurpose
The main purpose of this study is to carry out an international benchmarking study to compare the performance of land national logistics systems of the 28 EU countries from 2010 to 2017. Land national logistics systems are compared with respect to infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality, and their impact on environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was employed to generate measurements of the infrastructure efficiency for the road and rail transport modes. The individual efficiency indicators were combined together using the Shannon's entropy procedure in order to obtain a single composite index measuring the logistics system infrastructure efficiency. The World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) was used to measure the quality of the logistics service provided in each country. A DEA-like methodology assuming a “benefit of the doubt” evaluation perspective was applied to generate a unique General Performance Index (GEPI) accounting for the operational efficiency and quality of logistics. Finally, data on greenhouse gases and air polluting emissions were used to develop a spatial concentration index of emission to estimate the impact on road and rail freight transport in each country.
Findings
This study analyzed infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact of land logistics systems in the EU countries. The results achieved in comparing individual efficiency indicators indicate that without a satisfactory level of infrastructure efficiency, the service component alone is not enough to ensure and sustain the competitiveness of national logistics systems. When jointly considering the general performance and the environmental indexes, it emerged that few countries were able to improve operational and environmental performance simultaneously. The vast majority of countries show difficulties in disentangling the strategy aimed at improving the operational performance from the strategy aimed at reducing the environmental impact.
Practical implications
Based on the results achieved, this study provides several suggestions for policy-makers in order to integrate environmental sustainability issues in defining policy measures to improve freight transport and logistics performance at national level.
Originality/value
This study presents multiple points of originality. From the methodological point of view the approach used in this paper allows to overcome the methodological drawback of the relatively large number of inputs and outputs compared to the small number of decision-making units (DMUs). On the other hand, there are few research works that have performed benchmarking studies at the country level using different indicators to compare national logistics systems in terms of infrastructure efficiency, logistics quality and environmental impact. Most of the existing studies are generally focused on the assessment of logistics network efficiency in cities or in single transport modes
The impact of software capability maturity model on knowledge management and organisational learning: empirical findings and useful insights
No full textThis paper, using qualitative and quantitative data relative to the software process improvement initiative in which the Italian branch of a multinational software company was engaged from January 1997 to May 2001, investigates the impact of Capability Maturity Model (CMM) certification on organisational learning. A knowledge management perspective is adopted to explain the software development process increase in productivity. Data suggest that CMM can effectively support and address knowledge management and learning within a software organisation. Disciplined methods and practices are expected to result in better control over the software development process and organisations using a well-structured process model such as the CMM can use the process infrastructure it provides for organisational learning. © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Exploring social sustainability and economic practices: Multi-journal compendium
No full textIn consideration of the three pillars of sustainability, alongside the environment, social and economic dimensions interplay valuable insight into how society is molded and what key components should be considered. In terms of social sustainability, there are processes and framework objectives that promote wellbeing integral to the balance of people, planet, and profit. Economic practices consider the system of production, resource allocation, and distribution of goods and services with respect to demand and supply between economic agents. As a result, an economic system is a variant of the social system in which it exists. At present, the forefront of social sustainability research partially encompasses the impact economic practices have on people and society-with notable emphasis centered on the urban environment. Specific interdisciplinary analyses within the scope of sustainability, social development, competitiveness, and motivational management as well as decision making within the urban landscape are considered. This book contains nine thoroughly refereed contributions that interconnect detailed research into the two pillars reviewed
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