Finance, Ownership, Executive Remuneration, and Technical Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) of Thai Listed Manufacturing Enterprises

This study employs a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to predict the technical efficiency of Thai listed manufacturing enterprises, using unbalanced panel data for 178 enterprises covering the years 2000 to 2008. The empirical findings indicate that these enterprises have been operating under “decreasing returns to scale”, and rely heavily on labour input. Managerial ownership, controlling ownership, type of firm ownership, executive remuneration and firm size are found to have a significant and positive correlation with technical efficiency. Firm leverage is also found to be positively correlated with technical efficiency, but is not statistically significant, and liquidity is found to have a significant negative correlation with firm technical efficiency. Both internal and external financing have a significant negative correlation with technical efficiency, but external financing is less important. The paper also provides evidence-based policy recommendations to enhance the technical efficiency and competitiveness of Thai listed manufacturing enterprises.