Margareta Gardijan

Measuring the relative efficiency of the food and drink industry in the chosen EU countries using the data envelopment analysis with missing data

The food and drink industry is one of the leading manufacturing sectors in the economies of many EU countries. However, when compared to other global food and drink producers, the EU food and drink industry has been facing a persistent decrease in competitiveness in past decades. In this paper, we analyse companies from the food and drink industry in the selected EU countries. The sample includes more than 6000 companies from the food industry and more than 1000 companies from the drink industry in the selected EU countries in the period from 2011 to 2015. Given the available financial data for the food and drink companies from the Amadeus database, we calculate their liquidity, leverage, activity and profitability ratios and evaluate their relative efficiency using multiple criteria. The efficiency is defined in terms of data envelopment analysis using financial ratios as inputs and outputs in the BCC output-oriented model. Findings reveal which countries have the greatest proportion of efficient companies and what the main areas of (in)efficiency for companies within each country are. The efficiency is analysed with regard to the size of the companies.

Measuring the Efficiency of the Food Industry in Central and East European Countries by using the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach.

The food industry plays an important role in economy of many countries. It is the leading manufacturing industry in EU in terms of turnover, value added and employment. However, it has been facing a decrease in competitiveness lately. In this paper we study the competitiveness of very large companies from the food industry sector in central and east European countries (CEE) by measuring their efficiency within the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. The efficiency analysis is conducted by using the BCC model where certain financial ratios are used as its inputs and outputs. The study includes more than 200 very large companies from 13 CEE countries over time period from 2005-2013. The research results have shown that although some countries were more efficient than the others during the entire research period, no patterns in the efficiency of the food industry subsectors could be recognised. On the other hand, DEA approach enabled recognizing sources of inefficiency on a national level.