Insurance companies play a pivotal role in the financial systems of developing countries, wielding substantial influence on systemic financial stability. Thus, understanding their efficiency, ...performance, and sustainability is paramount for policymakers and stakeholders alike. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the relative efficiency of insurance companies within the North Macedonian market spanning the years 2018 to 2022. Employing the input-oriented BCC DEA model, the study integrates capital and labour as inputs, while assessing risk-pooling/bearing services and intermediate function as outputs. Our findings underscore the fluctuating efficiency levels within North Macedonia’s insurance sector. Notably, the sector exhibited its peak efficiency in 2018 at 83.62%, dipping to its lowest point of 73.81% in 2020. Moreover, discerning between life and non-life insurers, we observe an average relative efficiency of 0.8067 for non-life insurers, contrasted with a higher average efficiency score of 0.9011 for life insurance companies over the examined period. This study contributes significantly on multiple fronts. Firstly, it pioneers empirical investigation of the efficiency on the North Macedonian insurance market, encompassing pre- and post-COVID efficiency metrics. This fills a notable gap in the literature, particularly within the context of emerging European markets. Secondly, our comprehensive approach facilitates a holistic evaluation of the insurance sector’s performance across a five-year span, offering insights into its overarching dynamics and efficacy. Thirdly, the implications of our findings extend to policymakers, regulators, and insurance company management, aiding in informed decision-making and strategic planning.
The consistent improvements and fast-growing trend of information and communication technology (ICT) have impacted all areas of society and the economy. In 2020, with the sudden pandemic of COVID-19, ...businesses worldwide faced great challenges and had to transform and become digital-native enterprises by using data analytics, digital business platforms and personalized customer approaches. In such a digital era, innovation, entrepreneurial dynamism and ICT are the key ingredients for business' success and sustainability. Furthermore, it has become very clear that the influence of the ICT industry on economic growth is immense. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the interest in research of the ICT industry is great. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the leading non-parametric mathematical technique for assessing performance and measuring efficiency of complex entities called Decision-Making-Units (DMUs), by conversion of multiple input variables to multiple output variables. DEA has experienced rapid growth in use in many areas ever since its introduction by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes in 1978. The purpose of this paper is to present and describe Data Envelopment Analysis as the leading mathematical programming technique for data analysis and to provide an extensive literature review, to identify the studies implementing the DEA methodology in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and to present its findings. Furthermore, this study's goal is to inspire and encourage researchers to employ this methodology in the fields of ICT and to give guidance for future research in this area.
The aim of this paper is to assess the relative efficiency of commercial banks in one developing country, i.e. the Republic of North Macedonia by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) ...technique-window analysis. The selection of inputs and outputs plays a key role when applying DEA for assessing the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs). In the conducted research two inputs and two outputs have been selected. The sample consists of 14 commercial banks and the period that is being observed is an eleven year span from 2007 to 2017. According to the average efficiency score for the whole observed period, the most efficient bank belongs to the group of large banks, which simultaneously shows the highest efficiency. The banking sector in the Republic of North Macedonia, as a whole, showed the highest efficiency in 2007, and the lowest efficiency in 2011.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the relative efficiency of commercial banks in three developing countries in Europe (North Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia) in the period from 2015 to 2019, and to ...provide targets for improvement for the inefficient banks by using DEA. The variables are selected under the income-based approach. Based on the output-oriented BCC model, unusual results are obtained for a few commercial banks in each country, that is, they are BCC relative efficient, which is contrary to the real situation. In order to identify outliers that can affect the efficiency results, a super-efficiency procedure is applied so that banks with a super-efficiency score higher than 1.2 (outliers) or for which a feasible solution was not found are considered in detail and removed, and then the output-oriented BCC model is rerun. Based on the obtained results, the Macedonian commercial banking system shows the highest efficiency (91.1%), followed by the Croatian (90.9%) and the Serbian (81.9%) banking system. The estimated targets for improvement of the inefficient commercial banks could help their top bank management in better resource allocation and making fact-based and faster decisions by which they can improve the operation of the banks they lead and contribute to the stability of the financial system.
Despite the numerous benefits of information and communications technology (ICT) in promoting economic growth and sustainable development, its impacts are insufficiently researched. In particular, ...there have been few attempts to quantity the contribution of ICT sectors to national economies or the level of integration between ICT sectors. In this paper, an alternative model of sector extraction is developed to quantify the importance of ICT sectors in open and closed input--output systems. The proposed model calculates the contribution of ICT sectors to the national gross value added and employment, as well as the cross-sectoral and intra-sectoral deliveries between ICT sectors. The model is applied to study the Croatian ICT sectors in the years 2010 and 2020. The results indicate that the ICT manufacturing industries lag behind ICT service industries in Croatia. The level of integration differs between individual ICT sectors.
The overarching objective of this paper is to survey, identify and present the most relevant papers that have applied the leading non-parametric methodology (namely, the Data Envelopment Analysis, ...hereafter DEA) in the research field of multimedia. Another goal is to provide a theoretical background to the DEA methodology and the literature on multimedia.This systematic literature review has applied the PRISMA guidelines to include relevant DEA applications in multimedia-related studies. For this purpose, the most relevant and globally renowned scientific databases Clarivate Web of Science and the Scopus database have been explored with the use of the keywords "DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS" and "MULTIMEDIA". The review and survey have resulted in six published papers regarding multimedia with the application of DEA. Their findings, the used DEA models, and different perspectives of DEA application have been presented and analysed in more detail. All of the six surveyed papers have been published after 2005 (i.e. from 2006 to 2019) and their modest number implies that the DEA methodology, even though very well-known and quite popular in the literature for over three decades, has been neglected by researchers in the multimedia-related research. Hence, this paper represents an incentive and an inspiration to other scholars to implement the DEA methodology more often in their multimedia research and any other research for that matter.
The supplier selection process is a strategic decision-making process that influences the company’s sustainability. Lately, the sustainability concept has been highlighted as an organization’s source ...of success and profitability. Therefore, the selection of a sustainable supplier has become an imperative for organizations and is the focus of this manuscript. Suppliers are key stakeholders in the supply chain, and their proper selection is a key factor in a successful and sustainable supply chain. For this reason, it is crucial to determine how and which methods are mostly used by companies when choosing sustainable suppliers with the aim of examining whether the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) contributes to the same. This article is the first to present a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 87 articles dealing with the application of DEA in the sustainable supplier selection in the period 2010–2022, with the application of the keywords “Data Envelopment Analysis”, “Supplier”, and “Sustainable” in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The main goal of this manuscript is to explore the applications of DEA in a sustainable supplier selection and to provide an analysis and visualization of bibliometric data to reveal the annual trends of published articles in this area, the top contributing journals, the most cited papers, the most contributing authors, citations, affiliations, and countries’ analysis, and an in-depth keyword visualization analysis. The findings of this study provide valuable insights and emphasize the ever-growing trend toward the selection of sustainable partners and suppliers in business using DEA methodology. Notably, this work shows the applicability and efficacy of DEA in specialized areas of supply chain management and should contribute to the construction of an overview of the existing literature on DEA studies regarding the process of selection of sustainable suppliers in supply chain management as well as stimulate the interest in the topic. This article gives an overview of a research field that is actually insufficiently explored through the scientific literature and presents a wide area and guidelines for future work.
This paper aims to assess and compare the relative efficiency of commercial banks in six Western Balkan developing countries (North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), ...Kosovo1, and Albania), using the leading nonparametric methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the period 2016-2020, and investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemics on the performance of banking systems in these countries. The output-oriented DEA model has been implemented with interest expenses and non-interest expenses as inputs and interest revenue and non-interest revenue as outputs. Our findings show that the average efficiency of the six Western Balkan banking systems differs, and Kosovo's banking system has noted the highest average efficiency in the whole observed period (2016-2020). In contrast, the banking system in Bosnia and Herzegovina noted the lowest average efficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic decreased the relative efficiency of the banking sectors in all six of the Western Balkan countries observed, except Kosovo. However, additional research that includes all pandemic years is recommended to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the banking systems in the Western Balkans. This study provides invaluable insights for academic members, banking management and regulatory bodies, governments, and the interested public. It is the first empirical study that includes a glimpse of the first impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on banking systems in the developing countries of the Western Balkans.
How efficient are banks in Croatia? Fotova Cikovic, Katerina; Cvetkoska, Violeta
Ekonomski vjesnik,
01/2022, Letnik:
35, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Web Resource
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Purpose: This paper measures the relative efficiency of commercial banks in the Republic of Croatia in a period of eleven years (2009-2019) by using the leading non-parametric Data Envelopment ...Analysis (DEA) methodology.Methodology: In the selection of variables (inputs and outputs) and the DEA model, we have followed Banker et al. (2010).Results: Based on the results obtained, we have found that the average efficiency of the Croatian banking sector in the observed period is 92%. The highest (96%) and the lowest (90%) mean efficiency score were achieved in 2009 and in 2017, respectively. In addition, we have analyzed several banks that show significant changes in the efficiency scores, and provided targets for improvement of their efficiency.Conclusion: Croatia is a developing country characterized by a bank-based financial system and this study shows that its banking system is highly efficient, but certain relatively inefficient banks should improve their efficiency. Therefore, our findings provide valuable information for regulators, policymakers and bank management in order to take proper actions to maintain the stability of the key players in the financial system in Croatia.
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