Incremental Data Envelopment Analysis Model and Applications in Sustainable Efficiency Evaluation

Energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises (ESEPEs) are one of the most important national green enterprises, and their sustainability has become critical to achieving the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Analyzing an enterprise’s sustainability over time allows leaders to better adjust the operating plan for the next stage. From both optimistic and pessimistic double frontier perspectives, this paper proposes a double frontier incremental data envelopment analysis (DEA) model based on the traditional DEA-CCR model. The proposed model allows a direct assessment of whether the stage efficiency of the ESEPE is efficient or inefficient. To better understand the ranking of each enterprise in the industry, this paper uses a stage cross-efficiency model based on Shapley value from the perspective of a cooperative game, which ranks the enterprises from a neutral standpoint. The proposed double-frontier incremental DEA model is applied in a stage sustainability assessment for 15 ESEPEs. The results show that the proposed DEA model is more direct than the traditional DEA-CCR model in reflecting the enterprise’s stage efficiency. In the three stages, 2012–2015, 2015–2018, and 2018–2021, the majority of the selected 15 ESEPEs have efficient stage efficiency, whereas several enterprises are stage inefficient. The reasons for stage inefficiency stem more from within the enterprise, where the enterprise’s working capital is unstable, goodwill is impaired, and so on, resulting in stagnation of various revenues and funding and investment rounds.