Objectives
Open call for the formation of
This is an open invitation to researchers active in
measurement, modelling and analysis of performance in
economics and management to join the GAPEM research group.
Rooted in frontier analysis and economics, it will pursue an
interdisciplinary quest to fully address open challenges in
methodology and application.
Performance in Economics and Management: The Quest
for Consolidation
The notion of performance has a long and controversial
history in economics and management as well as in their
respective sub-disciplines. For example, the evaluation of
the performance of financial markets often makes use of
different concepts and methodological tools from the ones
adopted by the accountant when evaluating the performance of
a service organisation. Divergences in definitions and
operational procedures are therefore still widespread.
Performance benchmarking using frontier analysis, either
non-parametric analysis (often known as Data Envelopment
Analysis models), or parametric stochastic frontier
analysis, has reached a certain maturity after a strong
development in the last twenty years. Detailed accounts on
its conception in the 1950s, path breaking papers and the
chronology of events that enabled this surge are given in
e.g. Seiford (1996) and Lovell (2000). These frontier-based
notions of performance have proven successful from both a
theoretical and an empirical point of view in the economics
literature as well as in the management and operations
research literatures.
The very success of these frontier-based performance notions
provides a unique opportunity to bring together researchers
from various disciplines in an interdisciplinary quest on
the foundations of performance. While this development in
itself is unlikely to eradicate existing differences in
performance definitions, we hope that the creation of a
common ground for discussing performance may sharpen the
current conceptions of participants and to create an
environment fostering theoretical and empirical
collaborations in this area, most broadly defined.
The Need for A Regional Group
Labelled one of the “success stories of operations
research”, researchers in frontier analysis are now
organized in the Productivity Analysis Research Network
(PARN) or the EuroDEAPM working group, in addition to
working groups with INFORMS and other organizations. So, why
is there a need for yet another group of performance
analysts?
There are a number of scattered research environments in
Continental Europe (in particular in Belgium, France, and
the Netherlands) with strong attachments to the theoretical
and applied fields that could be promising enablers in the
next wave of frontier research. However, it is the general
feeling that currently no natural focal point exists to
enhance collaborations between these individuals and groups
of researchers. This proposal is an open invitation to these
environments to join in a regional group that intends to
cater for the needs of people broadly situated within
Belgium, the North of France, and the Netherlands. Its main
ambition is to offer a forum for exciting intellectual
discourse on the broader base of efficiency analysis in
theory and application. The “Group for Analysis of
Performance in Economics and Management” (GAPEM) does not
intend to duplicate arrangements and initiatives that are
well established, but to unify and vitalize a potentially
fruitful collaboration in an inter-disciplinary field within
a rather well defined geographical region.
Open Research Challenges: A Few Examples
In spite of its rich literature and widespread empirical
exposure, there are still a number of unresolved and
challenging issues left to address in the field. Many of
these seem to be situated at the interface between economics
and management. For instance, there still seems a wide scope
for frontier applications and extensions in marketing, human
resource management, and finance. This probably just
requires putting the right people originating from several
disciplines together. While many institutions pay lip
service to interdisciplinary work, few small-scale
initiatives really try to bring people together from
different fields in an effort to catalyse research. GAPEM
sees it as one of its tasks to do exactly that.
While such “extra-ordinary” interdisciplinary science may be
much harder to realize that just filling up loopholes within
an existing field, there is still ample scope for
intradisciplinary work to contribute to the objectives of
the group. Just limiting ourselves to the economic field,
which we happen to know best, at least two major issues
concern the economics of production and the activity
analysis.
First, performance evaluation models under various
specifications are widely applied to economic activities
where the evaluation task, the preference structure and the
microeconomic context are ignored, postulated or, at best,
sketched. Although considerable thought has been devoted to
the structural characterization and representation of
frontier models, the body of integrative work is still
modest. The evaluation may be undertaken in a static or
dynamic setting, ex post to determine or inform on the
determination of ex ante budgets, targets, revenues and/or
explicit or implicit incentive systems. In itself, this
evaluation in combination with assumptions on the discretion
and behaviour of the evaluated units gives rise to a number
of relevant questions related to the design, implementation
and dynamics of efficiency measurement systems. One of the
strengths of the non-parametric approach in evaluation of
multi-output multi-input technologies is its ability to
accommodate a family of preference functions. However, apart
from dual neo-classical formulations, this dimension has
rarely been rigorously pursued. Already addressed by the
multicriteria modellers, this field also opens up for
possibilities of theoretical and applied work in fields such
as experimental game theory, economic psychology,
educational psychology and sociology. Further, the
decision-making unit (DMU), the preferences of the operator
and the evaluator are all defined in a microeconomic
context; a firm, a market or an industry. Industrial
organization has a well-established tradition to address and
analyse this context to derive results of descriptive or
normative character. All too often, empirical work in
frontier analysis is detached from this body of literature,
failing to fully explore the challenges of the data to
trigger the excitement of academics and practitioners alike.
Second, especially non-parametric analysis draws on a
heritage from operations research that involves a certain
pragmatism in the model formulation. Albeit reasonable in
some context of highly experienced modellers, it is
surprising not to find more work on the fundamentals of
activity analysis to systematize the modelling for
practitioners. Even elementary decisions such as the
selection and specification of variables and technology are
left at the discretion of the modeller. Our belief is that
consolidating work on these issues will inspire and anchor
both methodological and applied research. Certainly, the
much acknowledged but yet unresolved issue of treatment of
data uncertainty in non-parametric method, as well as the
less addressed structural choice in parametric analysis,
could benefit from revisiting the roots of activity
analysis. Other important challenges that await operations
researchers are related to consistent
aggregation-disaggregation metrics in time and space,
stability and dominance metrics and modelling of
decentralized decision making under anticipation of DEA
control.
It goes without saying that both of these research questions
in themselves could fill an individual career. Hence, we
would hope a few people would be interested to share part of
what could become an exciting venture.
Activities
Rather than over subscribing and under delivering, we
purport to a realistic, yet critical activity level. In
particular we foresee GAPEM activities on three levels.
1. Seminars
Within the network of participating research groups and
universities, we will organize bimonthly seminars on the
topics of interest, inviting all members. The seminars may
consist of invited speakers, local group members, or
workshops by doctoral students.
2. Regional Level Activities
GAPEM has arranged a website that will be located at IFRESI
or IAG. It serves to disseminate information on scientific
activities in various sub-domains of frontier research. The
site will also furnish a bibliography as well as vitae and
contact information on affiliated members.
A refereed discussion papers series, which may be a subset
of the discussion papers issued at member’s institutions,
will also be disseminated on the website, along with the
possibility to subscribe to a regular newsletter for the
group’s activities (in a later stage).
GAPEM intends to organize two annual workshops (in April and
October, say) in a member university to gather all members.
Both theoretical and applied presentations are encouraged
and a rotating schedule ensures proper coverage of themes in
the group.
3. International Level Activities
GAPEM will encourage and support international collaboration
through IFRESI, open for participating group members and
institutions. The working languages are English and French,
where English is recommended for written communication and
publications.
Naturally, GAPEM will be actively participating in the
international conferences such as EWEPA (European Workshop
on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis) and NAPW (North
American Productivity Analysis Workshop). Moreover, the
group could potentially be a candidate organizer for an
upcoming EWEPA workshop.
Organization: A Lean Structure to Serve All
GAPEM will have an administrative centre (IFRESI located at
Lille) and several research locations supporting the group
(the first centre to join is IAG located at Université
Catholique de Louvain)
GAPEM is suggested to be administratively run by an
Executive Committee consisting of an elected president and
two directors in charge of research and administration. The
members of this Committee serve a three-year mandate and
will be located physically at one of the initial group
centres (IFRESI and IAG). Committee members serve 3-year
mandates to ensure a good representation of the
participating bodies. The Executive Committee handles the
operative decisions on behalf of the group and coordinates
information and meetings.
Without spelling out all details, the charter of the group
(in attachment or on website) is aimed at promoting a
representative and flexible governance: it is ultimately
focused at facilitating scientific discourse and
collaboration.
Per AGRELL Université Catholique de Louvain / IAG / CORE
Kristiaan KERSTENS CNRS-LEM / IESEG
Philippe VANDEN EECKAUT Université de LILLE III / GREMARS
References:
Seiford, L. (1996) Data Envelopment Analysis: The Evolution
of the State of the Art (1978-1995), Journal of Productivity
Analysis, 7(2-3), 99-137.
Lovell, C.A.K. (2000) Measuring Efficiency in the Public
Sector, in: J.L.T. Blank (ed) Public Provision and
Performance: Contributions from Efficiency and Productivity
Measurement, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 23-53.
|
|
