IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v137y2012i1p84-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance assessment of construction companies: A study of factors promoting financial soundness and innovation in the industry

Author

Listed:
  • Horta, I.M.
  • Camanho, A.S.
  • Moreira da Costa, J.

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to examine trends in the performance of the Portuguese construction industry, and identify the factors that promote excellence and innovation in the sector. From a methodological perspective, this study enhances the construction of composite indicators using the principles of the “benefit of the doubt” weighting. This involves the use of Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate weights for aggregating the key performance indicators of the construction companies. The paper also proposes a new DEA-based method to assess innovation within an industry, identifying the innovative companies and the extent of innovation. The determinants of good performance and innovation are examined using regression techniques and the statistical significance of the results is ensured by the use of bootstrapping. The study reveals that the Portuguese construction industry experienced a remarkable performance improvement during the 1990s, but this growth trend in performance slowed down in recent years. It is concluded that company performance is strongly affected by the national economic context, and that small specialized companies and large contractors tend to achieve the best performance levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Horta, I.M. & Camanho, A.S. & Moreira da Costa, J., 2012. "Performance assessment of construction companies: A study of factors promoting financial soundness and innovation in the industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 84-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:137:y:2012:i:1:p:84-93
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.01.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527312000175
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.01.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laure Latruffe & Sophia Davidova & Kelvin Balcombe, 2008. "Productivity change in Polish agriculture: an illustration of a bootstrapping procedure applied to Malmquist indices," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 449-460.
    2. Odeck, James, 2008. "How efficient and productive are road toll companies?: Evidence from Norway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 232-241, July.
    3. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2009. "Large Employers Are More Cyclically Sensitive," NBER Working Papers 14740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    5. Knox Lovell, C. A. & Pastor, Jesus T. & Turner, Judi A., 1995. "Measuring macroeconomic performance in the OECD: A comparison of European and non-European countries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 507-518, December.
    6. Soderbom, Mans & Teal, Francis, 2004. "Size and efficiency in African manufacturing firms: evidence from firm-level panel data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 369-394, February.
    7. Odeck, James, 2006. "Identifying traffic safety best practice: an application of DEA and Malmquist indices," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 28-40, January.
    8. Henry Tulkens & Philippe Eeckaut, 2006. "Nonparametric Efficiency, Progress and Regress Measures For Panel Data: Methodological Aspects," Springer Books, in: Parkash Chander & Jacques Drèze & C. Knox Lovell & Jack Mintz (ed.), Public goods, environmental externalities and fiscal competition, chapter 0, pages 395-429, Springer.
    9. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    10. Ma, Jinlong & Evans, David G. & Fuller, Robert J. & Stewart, Donald F., 2002. "Technical efficiency and productivity change of China's iron and steel industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 293-312, April.
    11. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    12. Mukherjee, Kankana & Ray, Subhash C. & Miller, Stephen M., 2001. "Productivity growth in large US commercial banks: The initial post-deregulation experience," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 913-939, May.
    13. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    14. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2009. "An evaluation of European airlines' operational performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 525-533, December.
    15. Johan Maes & Luc Sels & Filip Roodhooft, 2005. "Modelling the Link Between Management Practices and Financial Performance. Evidence from Small Construction Companies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 17-34, August.
    16. Léopold Simar, 2003. "Detecting Outliers in Frontier Models: A Simple Approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 391-424, November.
    17. Cazals, Catherine & Florens, Jean-Pierre & Simar, Leopold, 2002. "Nonparametric frontier estimation: a robust approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 1-25, January.
    18. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    19. Halkos, George Emmanuel & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2007. "Productivity efficiency and firm size: An empirical analysis of foreign owned companies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 713-731, December.
    20. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    21. Wilson, Paul W., 2008. "FEAR: A software package for frontier efficiency analysis with R," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 247-254, December.
    22. Wegelius-Lehtonen, Tutu, 2001. "Performance measurement in construction logistics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 107-116, January.
    23. Laurens Cherchye & Wim Moesen & Tom Van Puyenbroeck, 2004. "Legitimately Diverse, yet Comparable: On Synthesizing Social Inclusion Performance in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 919-955, December.
    24. THIRY, Bernard & TULKENS, Henry, 1992. "Allowing for inefficiency in parametric estimation of production fucntions for urban transit firms," LIDAM Reprints CORE 994, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    25. Subhash Ray, 2007. "Are some Indian banks too large? An examination of size efficiency in Indian banking," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 41-56, February.
    26. Chen, Po-Chi & Yu, Ming-Miin & Chang, Ching-Cheng & Hsu, Shih-Hsun, 2008. "Total factor productivity growth in China's agricultural sector," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 580-593, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cull, Robert & Navajas, Sergio & Nishida, Ippei & Zeiler, Renate, 2015. "A New Index of the Business Environment for Microfinance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 357-388.
    2. José Giménez & Antonia Madrid-Guijarro & Antonio Duréndez, 2019. "Competitive Capabilities for the Innovation and Performance of Spanish Construction Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A comprehensive review of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1298-1322.
    4. Horta, Isabel M. & Camanho, Ana S., 2015. "A nonparametric methodology for evaluating convergence in a multi-input multi-output setting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(2), pages 554-561.
    5. Jing Feng & Longlong Geng & Hui Liu & Xuehua Zhang, 2022. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Efficiency evaluation of the high-tech industry chain with a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1071-1080, December.
    6. Kapelko, Magdalena & Oude Lansink, Alfons & Stefanou, Spiro E., 2014. "Assessing dynamic inefficiency of the Spanish construction sector pre- and post-financial crisis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(1), pages 349-357.
    7. Jian Hou & Heng Chen & Jianzhong Xu, 2017. "External Knowledge Sourcing and Green Innovation Growth with Environmental and Energy Regulations: Evidence from Manufacturing in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Cesaroni, Giovanni & Kerstens, Kristiaan & Van de Woestyne, Ignace, 2019. "Short- and long-run plant capacity notions: Definitions and comparison," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 387-397.
    9. Pereira, Miguel Alves & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2022. "The ‘Sustainable Public Health Index’: What if public health and sustainable development are compatible?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Magdalena Kapelko, 2018. "Measuring inefficiency for specific inputs using data envelopment analysis: evidence from construction industry in Spain and Portugal," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(1), pages 43-66, March.
    11. Ioannis E. Tsolas, 2020. "Financial Performance Assessment of Construction Firms by Means of RAM-Based Composite Indicators," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-16, August.
    12. Silva, Elvira & Lansink, Alfons Oude & Stefanou, Spiro E., 2015. "The adjustment-cost model of the firm: Duality and productive efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 245-256.
    13. Weng Hoe Lam & Weng Siew Lam & Kah Fai Liew & Pei Fun Lee, 2023. "Decision Analysis on the Financial Performance of Companies Using Integrated Entropy-Fuzzy TOPSIS Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Teodor HADA & Nicoleta BARBUTA-MISU & Teodora Maria AVRAM, 2016. "Financial CEMATT Method: a New Approach for Performance Assessment using Accounting Information," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 10-17.
    15. Garrido, Laura & Gomez, Juan & Baeza, María de los Ángeles & Vassallo, José Manuel, 2017. "Is EU financial support enhancing the economic performance of PPP projects? An empirical analysis on the case of spanish road infrastructure," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 19-28.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. I. Horta & A. Camanho & Jill Johnes & Geraint Johnes, 2013. "Performance trends in the construction industry worldwide: an overview of the turn of the century," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 89-99, February.
    2. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    3. Teodor HADA & Nicoleta BARBUTA-MISU & Teodora Maria AVRAM, 2016. "Financial CEMATT Method: a New Approach for Performance Assessment using Accounting Information," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 10-17.
    4. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    5. Amir Moradi-Motlagh & Ali Emrouznejad, 2022. "The origins and development of statistical approaches in non-parametric frontier models: a survey of the first two decades of scholarly literature (1998–2020)," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 713-741, November.
    6. Endre Bjoerndal & Mette Bjoerndal & Astrid Cullmann & Maria Nieswand, 2016. "Finding the Right Yardstick: Regulation under Heterogeneous Environments," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1555, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. L Cherchye & W Moesen & N Rogge & T Van Puyenbroeck & M Saisana & A Saltelli & R Liska & S Tarantola, 2008. "Creating composite indicators with DEA and robustness analysis: the case of the Technology Achievement Index," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(2), pages 239-251, February.
    8. Emrouznejad, Ali & De Witte, Kristof, 2010. "COOPER-framework: A unified process for non-parametric projects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1573-1586, December.
    9. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "An assessment of the waste effects of corruption on infrastructure provision," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 813-843, August.
    10. Dana PANCUROVA & Stefan LYOCSA, 2013. "Determinants of Commercial Banks’ Efficiency: Evidence from 11 CEE Countries," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 63(2), pages 152-179, May.
    11. Simões, Pedro & Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2012. "Performance assessment of refuse collection services using robust efficiency measures," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 56-66.
    12. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499.
    13. Santos, Joana & Simões, Pedro & Costa, Álvaro & Cunha Marques, Rui, 2010. "Efficiency of the Portuguese metros. is it different from other European metros?," MPRA Paper 34904, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Kristof De Witte & Rui Marques, 2010. "Designing performance incentives, an international benchmark study in the water sector," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 18(2), pages 189-220, June.
    15. Cordero Ferrera, Jose Manuel & Alonso Morán, Edurne & Nuño Solís, Roberto & Orueta, Juan F. & Souto Arce, Regina, 2013. "Efficiency assessment of primary care providers: A conditional nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 51926, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Rita Bastião & Nuno de Sousa Pereira, 2020. "Performance in the Delivery of Primary Health Care Services: A Longitudinal Analysis," CEF.UP Working Papers 2002, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    17. Sokol, Ondřej & Frýd, Lukáš, 2023. "DEA efficiency in agriculture: Measurement unit issues," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Bjørndal, Endre & Bjørndal, Mette & Cullmann, Astrid & Nieswand, Maria, 2018. "Finding the right yardstick: Regulation of electricity networks under heterogeneous environments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 710-722.
    19. Calogero Guccio & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "Evaluating the efficiency of public procurement contracts for cultural heritage conservation works in Italy," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 43-70, February.
    20. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Luisa Monaco, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of the Bologna Process on the efficiency convergence of Italian universities: a non-parametric frontier approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 275-298, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:137:y:2012:i:1:p:84-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.