Efficiency of Cultural and Creative Industries: A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Guided Systematic Review of Data Envelopment Analysis Applications

This article identifies and analyses the applications of the main non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the efficiency measurement of the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The overarching goal of this study is to survey all the relevant published studies in this area and present and analyse their results to synthesise the state of knowledge in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. Moreover, another goal is to provide a theoretical background to the creative and cultural industries and the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. This article conducts Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis – a guided systematic review with stringent selection criteria to include relevant Data Envelopment Analysis applications in the creative and cultural industries. The methodology resulted in 13 relevant articles regarding the efficiency of creative and cultural industries and the application of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in the creative and cultural industries and sectors. The main findings reveal that there are no studies employing the Data Envelopment Analysis method in the creative and cultural industries and sectors prior to 2012, which raises many issues for future consideration. Moreover, all the different perspectives on the efficiency evaluation of the creative and cultural industries are presented. The ultimate objective is to point out to academic members, researchers and analysts globally to apply the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology more often in the creative and cultural industries and sectors and refer to future research priorities in this field.