Purpose – The paper aims to research the capability of using the tools of domestic and international performance benchmarking for estimation of efficiency, determine its key factors and reveal the full reserves of inputs reduction and potential growth efficiency for gas distribution companies.Design/methodology/approach – In the research, three models of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other tools of performance benchmarking are used to analyse the efficiency of gas distribution companies. Some factors are examined for their impact on efficiency. There are the scale, regional location, property category and other endogenous and exogenous factors. The results are based on the samples of 54 Ukrainian and 20 US gas distribution companies.Findings – International benchmarking vastly expand performance improvement for domestic companies. The results of analysis and tools of this research allows to widen the capability of reduced consumption of various inputs by 10 per cent and provide the general gain of U...

Performance benchmarking in gas distribution industry

The raw material properties of wood develop as the tree grows, laying down wood cells with specific properties, and forming the stem structure that is focal for timber quality. This development is influenced by genetic and environmental factors and forest management practices. It is desirable in growth and yield models intended for the economic assessment of management practices to include some indication of wood quality and how it is affected by genetics, environmental factors and silvicultural measures. 
This paper reviews approaches and models that allow us to consider the development of wood quality in combination with tree growth, and thus to include wood quality in the assessment of the value of the yield. We present such models as classified into three categories based on their complexity and information needs: quality indicators, static quality models, and dynamic quality models. We illustrate three advanced dynamic quality models and their applications with example case studies. These include empirical, hybrid, and mechanistic models applied to predictions of both sawn timber and fibre properties. Finally, we consider the current challenges for wood quality modelling in connection with growth models.

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3394618.pdf

Simulating wood quality in forest management models

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of competitive and international performance benchmarking in order to estimate efficiency, determine key factors, find the internal and foreign benchmarks, and reveal the full reserves of inputs reduction and potential growth efficiency for brewing companies.Design/methodology/approach – Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other tools of performance benchmarking are used to analyse the efficiency of brewing companies. Some key factors are examined for their impact on efficiency: the scale, regional location, proprietors and other endogenous and exogenous factors. The results are based on the samples of 34 Ukrainian brewing companies and 20 foreign brewing companies.Findings – Only one domestic company can be recognized as a world‐class efficient company. The proprietors, location and the scale factors exert sufficient influence on efficiency of the brewing companies. The international benchmarking allows to widen essentially the capability of r...

Improving of the efficiency through benchmarking: a case of Ukrainian breweries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find ways of improving the efficiency of the meatpacking business by achievement of a few sequential aims: an estimation of efficiency, determination of its key factors, revealing of the reserves of input reduction and potential growth of efficiency, and defining the ways of its improvement.Design/methodology/approach – A few models of the data envelopment analysis (DEA), three‐factor production function and other tools of competitive and international benchmarking are used to analyse the efficiency of meatpacking companies. A two‐criteria analysis tool named the efficiency‐profitability matrix is used to determine the factors that influence efficiency. The results are based on the samples of 29 Ukrainian and 53 foreign meatpacking companies.Findings – Significant reserves of inputs reduction by the domestic meatpacking companies are revealed. The offered ways of using the potential of efficiency growth for the Ukrainian meatpacking producers are connected with th...

How to make meat business more effective: A case of Ukraine

Data from a 2004 survey of farms in two districts in Dak Lak Province in Vietnam were used in a two-step analysis to assess the efficiency of smallholder coffee farms. In the first step, technical and cost efficiency measures were calculated using Data Envelopment Analysis. In the second step, Tobit regressions were used to identify factors correlated with technical and cost inefficiency. Results indicate that small farms were generally less efficient than large farms. Inefficiencies observed on small farms appear to be related, in part, to the scale of investments in irrigation infrastructure, education levels and the degree to which households are reliant on coffee.

Farm size, irrigation infrastructure, and the efficiency of coffee production in vietnam

http://www.dii.uchile.cl/~sympfor/CD/files/papers/area01/p-todoroki.pdf

S. D. Carson

Papers

Managing the future forest resource through designer trees