A new fuzzy network data envelopment analysis model for measuring efficiency and effectiveness: assessing the sustainability of railways

Mohammad Tavassoli, Reza Farzipoor Saen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sustainability assessment of organizations in terms of technical efficiency (TE) and service effectiveness (SE) for non-storage goods has always been an interesting topic for managers and scholars. This paper develops a novel non-radial network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) model to assess the performance of railways in terms of overall efficiency (OE), TE, SE, and technical effectiveness (TEF) with sustainability considerations. Then, the fuzzy version of our proposed NDEA model is introduced. Our fuzzy NDEA model is based on the slacks-based measure (SBM) model. The developed model can deal with both qualitative and quantitative criteria and has important features, including unit invariant, monotone, projection, benchmarking, and factor efficiency index. A case study shows the applicability of the proposed model. The results reveal that the highest and the lowest average sustainability scores belong to TE and TEF, respectively. After identifying the weaknesses of railways, we discuss how to improve their sustainability.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12
Pages (from-to)13634-13658
Number of pages25
JournalApplied Intelligence
Volume52
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Keywords

  • Data envelopment analysis (DEA)
  • Fuzzy network slacks-based measure (SBM)
  • Service effectiveness
  • Sustainability
  • Technical effectiveness
  • Technical efficiency

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence

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