IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i16p10433-d894600.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comparative Study on the Efficiency of R&D Activities of Universities in China by Region Using DEA–Malmquist

Author

Listed:
  • Yamin Du

    (School of Economics and Management, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China
    Graduate School of Management of Technology, Pukyong National University, 365 Sinseon-ro, Nam-gu, Busan 48547, Korea)

  • Wonchul Seo

    (Graduate School of Management of Technology, Pukyong National University, 365 Sinseon-ro, Nam-gu, Busan 48547, Korea
    Major in Industrial Data Science and Engineering, Department of Industrial and Data Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the efficiency of the input and output of R&D activity and the status of its development and management in universities in each region of China and proposes suggestions for improvement. The DEA–Malmquist model was used to analyze the static and dynamic science and technology statistics for universities in each region during 2006–2019 to reveal changes in the input and output of R&D activity. The overall efficiency of the R&D activity of universities in all regions of China was low. Among the 27 regions studied, DEA revealed effective efficiency in 20 regions in 2006, accounting for 74.07%, and in 19 regions in 2019, accounting for 70.37%. The Malmquist index was greater than 1 in 17 regions in 2006–2019, with an average value of 1.023 during 2006–2019. The technological progress of R&D activity in universities in each region plays a major role in the improvement of the overall efficiency. Conclusions: The efficiency of the R&D activity of Chinese universities in all regions is low in general, with large disparities between regions. The R&D activity of Chinese universities lacks scientific management. It is necessary to optimize the allocation of research resources, construct an evaluation system for the efficiency of R&D activity, and offer incentives for research to improve the output and promote the transformation of results in Chinese universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Yamin Du & Wonchul Seo, 2022. "A Comparative Study on the Efficiency of R&D Activities of Universities in China by Region Using DEA–Malmquist," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10433-:d:894600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10433/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10433/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melville L. McMillan & Debasish Datta, 1998. "The Relative Efficiencies of Canadian Universities: A DEA Perspective," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 24(4), pages 485-511, December.
    2. Gary Ferrier & Michael Rosko & Vivian Valdmanis, 2006. "Analysis of uncompensated hospital care using a DEA model of output congestion," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 181-188, May.
    3. Chia-Nan Wang & Hector Tibo & Van Thanh Nguyen & Duy Hung Duong, 2020. "Effects of the Performance-Based Research Fund and Other Factors on the Efficiency of New Zealand Universities: A Malmquist Productivity Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Antreas Athanassopoulos & Estelle Shale, 1997. "Assessing the Comparative Efficiency of Higher Education Institutions in the UK by the Means of Data Envelopment Analysis," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 117-134.
    5. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    6. Chia-Nan Wang & Van Thanh Nguyen & Hoang Tuyet Nhi Thai & Duy Hung Duong, 2018. "Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Approaches for Solar Power Plant Location Selection in Viet Nam," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-27, June.
    7. Wuzhao Xue & Hua Li & Rizwan Ali & Ramiz ur Rehman & Gonzalo Fernández-Sánchez, 2021. "Assessing the Static and Dynamic Efficiency of Scientific Research of HEIs China: Three Stage DEA–Malmquist Index Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    8. Shi, Guang-Ming & Bi, Jun & Wang, Jin-Nan, 2010. "Chinese regional industrial energy efficiency evaluation based on a DEA model of fixing non-energy inputs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6172-6179, October.
    9. Mette Asmild & Joseph Paradi & Vanita Aggarwall & Claire Schaffnit, 2004. "Combining DEA Window Analysis with the Malmquist Index Approach in a Study of the Canadian Banking Industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 67-89, January.
    10. Stefano Nigsch & Andrea Schenker-Wicki, 2015. "Frontier Efficiency Analysis in Higher Education," Springer Books, in: Isabell M. Welpe & Jutta Wollersheim & Stefanie Ringelhan & Margit Osterloh (ed.), Incentives and Performance, edition 127, pages 155-170, Springer.
    11. Worthington, Andrew C. & Lee, Boon L., 2008. "Efficiency, technology and productivity change in Australian universities, 1998-2003," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 285-298, June.
    12. Johnes, Jill, 2006. "Data envelopment analysis and its application to the measurement of efficiency in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 273-288, June.
    13. Schaffnit, Claire & Rosen, Dan & Paradi, Joseph C., 1997. "Best practice analysis of bank branches: An application of DEA in a large Canadian bank," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 269-289, April.
    14. Chia-Nan Wang & Anh Luyen Le, 2018. "Measuring the Macroeconomic Performance among Developed Countries and Asian Developing Countries: Past, Present, and Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    15. Tom Broekel & Nicky Rogge & Thomas Brenner, 2018. "The innovation efficiency of German regions – a shared-input DEA approach," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(1), pages 77-109, February.
    16. Thomas Sexton & Herbert Lewis, 2003. "Two-Stage DEA: An Application to Major League Baseball," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 227-249, April.
    17. Chen, Yao & Iqbal Ali, Agha, 2004. "DEA Malmquist productivity measure: New insights with an application to computer industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 239-249, November.
    18. Wen-Chi Hung & Ling-Chu Lee & Min-Hua Tsai, 2009. "An international comparison of relative contributions to academic productivity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 703-718, December.
    19. Cullinane Kevin & Song Dong-Wook & Ji Ping & Wang Teng-Fei, 2004. "An Application of DEA Windows Analysis to Container Port Production Efficiency," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-23, June.
    20. Ramanathan, Ramakrishnan, 2006. "Evaluating the comparative performance of countries of the Middle East and North Africa: A DEA application," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 156-167, June.
    21. 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.
    22. Yang, Guo-liang & Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Song, Yao-yao, 2018. "Measuring the inefficiency of Chinese research universities based on a two-stage network DEA model," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 10-30.
    23. Stepan Zemtsov & Maxim Kotsemir, 2019. "An assessment of regional innovation system efficiency in Russia: the application of the DEA approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 375-404, August.
    24. Ouellette, Pierre & Vierstraete, Valerie, 2004. "Technological change and efficiency in the presence of quasi-fixed inputs: A DEA application to the hospital sector," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(3), pages 755-763, May.
    25. Tommaso Agasisti, 2011. "Performances and spending efficiency in higher education: a European comparison through non-parametric approaches," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 199-224.
    26. Wei Meng & Zhenhua Hu & Wenbin Liu, 2006. "Efficiency evaluation of basic research in China," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 69(1), pages 85-101, October.
    27. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    28. Weijiang Liu & Yue Bai, 2021. "An Analysis on the Influence of R&D Fiscal and Tax Subsidies on Regional Innovation Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.
    29. Abbott, M. & Doucouliagos, C., 2003. "The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 89-97, February.
    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. Andrea Arbula Blecich, 2024. "The performance of Croatian hotel companies – DEA window and Malmquist productivity index approach," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 42(1), pages 9-38.
    2. Salwaty Jamaludin & Kamarul Hidayah Abdul Hamid & Nazurah Abdul Malek & Muhammad Zaheer Khan & Sharul Shahida Shakrein Safian & Norhasimah Shaharuddin, 2023. "A Study on the Matching Efficiency of Malaysia's Labor Market during the Covid-19 Pandemic using the DEA-Malmquist Productivity Index," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 15(4), pages 1-11.
    3. Goran Radoš, 2024. "Impact of labour income in gross value added on migrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 42(1), pages 149-166.
    4. Chen, Lei & Wang, Ying-Ming, 2023. "Game directional distance function in meta-frontier data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    5. Haiying Liu & Xianzhe Cai & Yajing Hui, 2024. "Have S&T Innovation and Educational Development in China’s Coastal Provinces and Regions Achieved Synchronization? A threshold approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 2808-2835, March.

    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. Chia-Nan Wang & Hector Tibo & Van Thanh Nguyen & Duy Hung Duong, 2020. "Effects of the Performance-Based Research Fund and Other Factors on the Efficiency of New Zealand Universities: A Malmquist Productivity Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    3. Anis Mardiana Ahmad & Noor Saifurina Nana Khurizan, 2024. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Higher Education: A Systematic Review of the 2018–2022 Literature and Bibliometric Analysis of the Past 30 Years of Literature," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, September.
    4. Sanjeet Singh & Prabhat Ranjan, 2018. "Efficiency analysis of non-homogeneous parallel sub-unit systems for the performance measurement of higher education," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 269(1), pages 641-666, October.
    5. Sun, Yu & Yang, Feng & Wang, Dawei & Ang, Sheng, 2023. "Efficiency evaluation for higher education institutions in China considering unbalanced regional development: A meta-frontier Super-SBM model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2014. "Handling negative data using Data Envelopment Analysis: a directional distance approach applied to higher education," MPRA Paper 55570, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Mehdi Rhaiem, 2017. "Measurement and determinants of academic research efficiency: a systematic review of the evidence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 581-615, February.
    8. Mehdi Rhaiem & Nabil Amara, 2020. "Determinants of research efficiency in Canadian business schools: evidence from scholar-level data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 53-99, October.
    9. Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2016. "Measuring Efficiency in Higher Education: An Empirical Study Using a Bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 22(1), pages 11-33, February.
    10. Y. c{C}inar, 2016. "Research and Teaching Efficiencies of Turkish Universities with Heterogeneity Considerations: Application of Multi-Activity DEA and DEA by Sequential Exclusion of Alternatives Methods," Papers 1701.07318, arXiv.org.
    11. Barra, Cristian & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Zotti, Roberto, 2018. "Does econometric methodology matter to rank universities? An analysis of Italian higher education system," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-120.
    12. Kudła Janusz & Stachowiak-Kudła Monika & Figurski Adam, 2016. "Quality of Teaching and Research in Public Higher Education in Poland: Relationship with Financial Indicators and Efficiency," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 24(4), pages 88-108, December.
    13. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    14. Marcel Clermont, 2016. "Effectiveness and efficiency of research in Germany over time: an analysis of German business schools between 2001 and 2009," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1347-1381, September.
    15. Martín Rivero, Raquel, 2007. "La eficiencia productiva en el ámbito universitario: aspectos claves para su evaluación/The Productive Efficiency in the University: Key Aspects for its Evaluation," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 25, pages 793-812, Diciembre.
    16. Yolanda Fernández Santos & Almudena Martínez Campillo & José Miguel Fernández Fernández, 2013. "Evaluación de la eficiencia y el cambio de productividad en el sistema universitario público español tras la implantación de la LOU," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 205(2), pages 71-98, June.
    17. Stepan Zemtsov & Maxim Kotsemir, 2019. "An assessment of regional innovation system efficiency in Russia: the application of the DEA approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 375-404, August.
    18. Aparicio, Juan & López-Torres, Laura & Santín, Daniel, 2018. "Economic crisis and public education. A productivity analysis using a Hicks-Moorsteen index," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 34-44.
    19. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2020. "Measuring and explaining the production efficiency of Spanish universities using a non-parametric approach and a bootstrapped-truncated regression," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 825-846, February.
    20. Mishra, Neelesh Kumar & Chakraborty, Abhishek & Singh, Sanjeet & Ranjan, Prabhat, 2023. "Efficiency analysis of engineering colleges in India: Decomposition into parallel sub-processes systems," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10433-:d:894600. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.