A metafrontier model to assess regional efficiency differences

Purpose – The major aim of this paper is to model, estimate and compare the technical efficiency and technology gap ratios of health care foodservice operations that operate in different Australian regions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a metafrontier model to analyse the difference in health care food efficiency across the various Australian regions. The interesting feature of this model is that it allows for the estimation of firms' efficiency in of various groups that might differ in technology and other production environments. In testing the model, cross‐sectional input/output data were used reflecting on the operational characteristics of health care foodservice operations. Findings – The estimation process was initially supported by a hypothesis test which confirmed the validity of the metafrontier model in comparing the efficiency of the different outlined groups. Results showed that operations in the states of NSW and Victoria are producing on average 85.6 per cent of their potential output with respect to the metafrontier technology. The ratio is lower in other states with an average of 73.4 per cent. The average technical efficiency for operations in NSW and Victoria is also higher both in terms of local (87.8 per cent) and metafrontier technologies (66.6 per cent). Originality/value – The paper is the first to introduce the metafrontier model to the health care foodservice area, especially for Australian regions.