Yao Chen

Bio: Yao Chen is an academic researcher from University of Massachusetts Amherst. The author has contributed to research in topics: Data envelopment analysis & Returns to scale. The author has an hindex of 30, co-authored 87 publications receiving 4189 citations. Previous affiliations of Yao Chen include Nanjing Audit University & Beihang University.

Delta Neighborhood Extension

Abstract: In this chapter, the introduced mathematical model in Chap. 6 is improved to fairly rank firms in various conditions, and the chapter is finished with several outcomes of the model.

Context-dependent DEA

Abstract: In this chapter, the context-dependent DEA is discussed. Since a product can appear attractive in comparison with a contextual of less attractive or unattractive alternatives, the performance of firms can be influenced by the context. For an example, twenty-three Tokyo public libraries are considered and a context-dependent DEA proposed by Chen et al. (2005) is discussed. The attractiveness of each library on a particular performance level in comparison with other libraries are measured. Libraries are classified on several empirical efficient frontiers, where each frontier is used to evaluate the attractiveness. The performance of the technically efficient libraries changes as the technically inefficient libraries change their performance. The context-dependent DEA also represents another view to differentiate the performance of efficient DMUs. When DMUs in a particular level are observed as having the same performance, the attractiveness measure lets us discriminate the “equal performance” based upon the third option or the same particular evaluation context. We also develop the VBA procedure to measure the attractiveness with just one click.

Conclusion and Further Research

Abstract: This book has presented systematical research for several key issues of knowledge flow in University-Industry Collaborative Innovation (UICI) in China.

Differential Game Model of Knowledge Flow in University-Industry Collaborative Innovation

Abstract: The world is currently in the era of grand developments, reforms, and adjustments. Multi-polarization and economic globalization are deepening further, and the international business structure is changing due to fierce competition among national economies. Innovation has become the main driving force of economic social development, and intellectual innovation has become the core factor of national competitiveness. Under such circumstances, each country undertakes a strategy of further exploring human resources to realize innovative development, hence grasping the initiative of global competition.

Shared Resources and Efficiency Decomposition in Two-Stage Networks

Abstract: In many real world scenarios, decision making units (DMUs) may have a two-stage structure with input resources shared by both stages of operations. The distinguishing characteristic is that some of the inputs to the first stage are also consumed by the second stage, and some of the shared inputs cannot be conveniently split up and allocated to operations of the two stages. Recognizing this distinction is critical for these types of DEA applications because measuring the efficiency of the production for first-stage outputs can be misleading and understate the efficiency if DEA fails to consider that some of the inputs generate other second-stage outputs. This chapter presents DEA models for measuring the performance of two-stage network processes with non-splittable shared inputs.

Conceptualising sustainability assessment

Abstract: Sustainability assessment is being increasingly viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainability. However, this is a new and evolving concept and there remain very few examples of effective sustainability assessment processes implemented anywhere in the world. Sustainability assessment is often described as a process by which the implications of an initiative on sustainability are evaluated, where the initiative can be a proposed or existing policy, plan, programme, project, piece of legislation, or a current practice or activity. However, this generic definition covers a broad range of different processes, many of which have been described in the literature as 'sustainability assessment'. This article seeks to provide some clarification by reflecting on the different approaches described in the literature as being forms of sustainability assessment, and evaluating them in terms of their potential contributions to sustainability. Many of these are actually examples of 'integrated assessment', derived from environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), but which have been extended to incorporate social and economic considerations as well as environmental ones, reflecting a 'triple bottom line' (TBL) approach to sustainability. These integrated assessment processes typically either seek to minimise 'unsustainability', or to achieve TBL objectives. Both aims may, or may not, result in sustainable practice. We present an alternative conception of sustainability assessment, with the more ambitious aim of seeking to determine whether or not an initiative is actually sustainable. We term such processes 'assessment for sustainability'. 'Assessment for sustainability' firstly requires that the concept of sustainability be well-defined. The article compares TBL approaches and principles-based approaches to developing such sustainability criteria, concluding that the latter are more appropriate, since they avoid many of the inherent limitations of the triple-bottom-line as a conception of sustainability.

A survey of DEA applications

Abstract: The literature of data envelopment analysis (DEA) encompasses many surveys, yet all either emphasize methodologies or do not make a distinction between methodological and application papers. This study is the first literature survey that focuses on DEA applications, covering DEA papers published in journals indexed by the Web of Science database from 1978 through August 2010. The results show that on the whole around two-thirds (63.6%) of DEA papers embed empirical data, while the remaining one-third are purely-methodological. Purely-methodological articles dominated the first 20 years of DEA development, but the accumulated number of application-embedded papers caught up to purely-methodological papers in 1999. Among the multifaceted applications, the top-five industries addressed are: banking, health care, agriculture and farm, transportation, and education. The applications that have the highest growth momentum recently are energy and environment as well as finance. In addition to the basic statistics, we uncover the development trajectory in each application area through the main path analysis. An observation from these works suggests that the two-step contextual analysis and network DEA are the recent trends across applications and that the two-step contextual analysis is the prevailing approach.

A global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index

Abstract: This paper introduces an alternative environmentally sensitive productivity growth index, which is circular and free from the infeasibility problem. In doing so, we integrated the concept of the global production possibility set and the directional distance function. Like the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, it can also be decomposed into sources of productivity growth. The suggested index is employed in analyzing 26 OECD countries for the period 1990–2003. We also employed the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, the global Malmquist productivity index and the conventional Malmquist productivity index for comparative purposes in this empirical investigation.