The determination of closest efficient targets has attracted increasing interest of researchers in recent Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) literature. Several methods have been introduced in this respect. However, only a few attempts exist that analyze the implications of using closest targets on...

In two recent papers, Lozano and Villa [Centralized resource allocation using data envelopment analysis. Journal of Productivity Analysis 2004;22:143-61. [1]] and Lozano et al. [Centralized target setting for regional recycling operations using DEA. OMEGA 2004;32:101-10. [2]] introduce the concept of...

There have been many criticisms of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act passed in July of 2002 to correct business accountability and performance practices. The act has a major emphasis on accounting and its practices. This paper attempts a response to these criticisms by investigating changes in...

The February 2002 issue of Omega contains an article by M.N. Nickel and M.C. Rodriguez which reviews and evaluates research dealing with what is called the "Bowman Paradox" in the literature of strategic management. Using accounting reports from business firms this paradox arises from the...

This study proposes a use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure Returns to Scale (RTS) of US coal-fired power plants. The power plants produce not only desirable outputs (e.g., electricity) but also undesirable outputs (e.g., CO2 and NOx) as a result of their plant operations. Therefore,...

A new use of the nonparametric statistic, referred to as the "Kruskal and Wallis rank test", is proposed in this study. The nonparametric statistic examines whether or not any frontier shift occurs among observed periods. To document its practicality, the proposed statistic is incorporated into...

DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is a management science method that has been widely applied for performance analysis in various sectors. A shortcoming of previous DEA applications is that it has been used to mainly evaluate ex ante performance. Believing that future planning is more important...