IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/marpmg/v46y2019i5p529-544.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meta-frontier function approach to operational efficiency for shipping companies

Author

Listed:
  • Su-Han Woo
  • Po-Lin Lai
  • Ying-Hsiu Chen
  • Ching-Chiao Yang

Abstract

This study uses a meta-frontier function approach to estimate operational efficiency and technology gaps for shipping companies. Researchers have evaluated the relative efficiency of shipping firms with the assumption that shipping firms operate under one frontier technology. However, the assumption of one frontier technology is being argued by efficiency literature. Therefore, this study estimates relative efficiency of shipping firms in different market segments (dry bulk, liquid bulk, and containerized cargo), possibly operating with different technologies and, hence, under different frontiers. This study uses a meta-frontier function approach that allows us to distinguish separate frontiers for different groups and decompose efficiency scores relative to the meta-frontier. Data used in this study is collected from Thomson One Banker from 2001-2013 in the form of unbalanced panel data. Empirical results suggest that dry bulk firms’ production technology is more advanced than others and the production frontier is the closest to that of the meta-frontier. In addition, efficiency scores are all low, but containerized cargo firms achieve higher technological efficiency than the other two groups. It is also suggested that containerized cargo and liquid bulk firms should prioritize improvements in their production technology and dry bulk firms should prioritize improving group efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Su-Han Woo & Po-Lin Lai & Ying-Hsiu Chen & Ching-Chiao Yang, 2019. "Meta-frontier function approach to operational efficiency for shipping companies," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(5), pages 529-544, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:marpmg:v:46:y:2019:i:5:p:529-544
    DOI: 10.1080/03088839.2019.1594424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03088839.2019.1594424
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03088839.2019.1594424?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Bor-Hong Lin & Hsuan-Shih Lee & Cheng-Chi Chung, 2020. "The Construction and Implication of Group Scale Efficiency Evaluation Model for Bulk Shipping Corporations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Arthur J. Lin & Hai-Yen Chang & Brian Hung, 2022. "Identifying Key Financial, Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), Bond, and COVID-19 Factors Affecting Global Shipping Companies—A Hybrid Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-29, April.
    3. Su-Han Woo & Min-Su Kwon & Kum Fai Yuen, 2021. "Financial determinants of credit risk in the logistics and shipping industries," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 23(2), pages 268-290, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:marpmg:v:46:y:2019:i:5:p:529-544. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TMPM20 .

    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.