IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i5p842-d98960.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Forwarders Improve Sustainability Efficiency? Evidence from a European DEA Malmquist Index Calculation

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Klumpp

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems (IEBIS), University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
    Institute for Logistics and Service Management, FOM University of Applied Sciences, Leimkugelstr. 6, 45141 Essen, Germany)

Abstract

Sustainability performance and efficiency is an important topic in transportation and for forwarders. This is shown, for example, by the fact that major logistics service providers LSP publish sustainability reports, often within the annual legal business report. However, in depth research is missing regarding the efficiency of forwarders regarding the established triple bottom line approach for sustainability, including economic, social, and ecology performance areas. This is especially true for a dynamic time-series perspective, as usually only static analyses for one point in time are presented (in most cases single business years). Therefore, the operations research technique of a data envelopment analysis (DEA) Malmquist index calculation is used in order to provide a longitudinal calculation of efficiency, incorporating multiple objectives regarding the triple bottom line approach for European forwarders. Several indicators are tested, including total revenues and assets as input types, profit (EBIT) and dividend volume (economic dimension), employment and gender equality in management (social), and carbon-equivalent emissions (environmental) as output types.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Klumpp, 2017. "Do Forwarders Improve Sustainability Efficiency? Evidence from a European DEA Malmquist Index Calculation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-33, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:842-:d:98960
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/842/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/842/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sneddon, Chris & Howarth, Richard B. & Norgaard, Richard B., 2006. "Sustainable development in a post-Brundtland world," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 253-268, May.
    2. Levallois, Clément, 2010. "Can de-growth be considered a policy option? A historical note on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and the Club of Rome," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 2271-2278, September.
    3. Siano, Alfonso & Vollero, Agostino & Conte, Francesca & Amabile, Sara, 2017. "“More than words”: Expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 27-37.
    4. Olfat, Laya & Amiri, Maghsoud & Bamdad Soufi, Jahanyar & Pishdar, Mahsa, 2016. "A dynamic network efficiency measurement of airports performance considering sustainable development concept: A fuzzy dynamic network-DEA approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 272-290.
    5. Arabi, Behrouz & Munisamy, Susila & Emrouznejad, Ali & Shadman, Foroogh, 2014. "Power industry restructuring and eco-efficiency changes: A new slacks-based model in Malmquist–Luenberger Index measurement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 132-145.
    6. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    7. Al-Shaer, Habiba & Zaman, Mahbub, 2016. "Board gender diversity and sustainability reporting quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 210-222.
    8. Diewert, W. E., 1973. "Functional forms for profit and transformation functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 284-316, June.
    9. Brix-Asala, Carolin & Hahn, Rüdiger & Seuring, Stefan, 2016. "Reverse logistics and informal valorisation at the Base of the Pyramid: A case study on sustainability synergies and trade-offs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 414-423.
    10. Emrouznejad, Ali & Yang, Guo-liang, 2016. "A framework for measuring global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index with CO2 emissions on Chinese manufacturing industries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 840-856.
    11. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel & Shiraz, Rashed Khanjani & Maniadakis, Nikolaos, 2015. "A cost Malmquist productivity index capturing group performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(3), pages 796-805.
    12. Matos, Fernando J.F. & Silva, Francisco J.F., 2011. "The rebound effect on road freight transport: Empirical evidence from Portugal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2833-2841, May.
    13. Örkcü, H. Hasan & Balıkçı, Cemal & Dogan, Mustafa Isa & Genç, Aşır, 2016. "An evaluation of the operational efficiency of turkish airports using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index: 2009–2014 case," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 92-104.
    14. Chang, Rui-Dong & Zuo, Jian & Zhao, Zhen-Yu & Zillante, George & Gan, Xiao-Long & Soebarto, Veronica, 2017. "Evolving theories of sustainability and firms: History, future directions and implications for renewable energy research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 48-56.
    15. Sorrell, Steve, 2009. "Jevons' Paradox revisited: The evidence for backfire from improved energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1456-1469, April.
    16. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    17. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2015. "DEA environmental assessment in time horizon: Radial approach for Malmquist index measurement on petroleum companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 329-345.
    18. Alibeyg, Armaghan & Contreras, Ivan & Fernández, Elena, 2016. "Hub network design problems with profits," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 40-59.
    19. Gambhir, Ajay & Tse, Lawrence K.C. & Tong, Danlu & Martinez-Botas, Ricardo, 2015. "Reducing China’s road transport sector CO2 emissions to 2050: Technologies, costs and decomposition analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 905-917.
    20. Li, Yuan & Chen, Haoxun & Prins, Christian, 2016. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows, profits, and reserved requests," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(1), pages 27-38.
    21. Kuhn, Michael A. & Kuhn, Peter & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2017. "Decision-environment effects on intertemporal financial choices: How relevant are resource-depletion models?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 72-89.
    22. Lehtonen, Markku, 2004. "The environmental-social interface of sustainable development: capabilities, social capital, institutions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 199-214, June.
    23. Clément Levallois, 2010. "Can de-growth be considered a policy option? : A historical note on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and the Club of Rome," Post-Print hal-02313162, HAL.
    24. Perryman, Alexa A. & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam, 2016. "Do gender differences persist? An examination of gender diversity on firm performance, risk, and executive compensation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 579-586.
    25. Zhao, Y. & Triantis, K. & Murray-Tuite, P. & Edara, P., 2011. "Performance measurement of a transportation network with a downtown space reservation system: A network-DEA approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1140-1159.
    26. Feng, Chenpeng & Chu, Feng & Ding, Jingjing & Bi, Gongbing & Liang, Liang, 2015. "Carbon Emissions Abatement (CEA) allocation and compensation schemes based on DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 78-89.
    27. E. Grifell-Tatjé & C. Lovell & J. Pastor, 1998. "A Quasi-Malmquist Productivity Index," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 7-20, July.
    28. Cook, Wade D. & Zhu, Joe, 2007. "Classifying inputs and outputs in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(2), pages 692-699, July.
    29. Luthra, Sunil & Garg, Dixit & Haleem, Abid, 2015. "An analysis of interactions among critical success factors to implement green supply chain management towards sustainability: An Indian perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(P1), pages 37-50.
    30. Jones, Stewart & Finley, Aimee, 2011. "Have IFRS made a difference to intra-country financial reporting diversity?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 22-38.
    31. Robinson, John, 2004. "Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 369-384, April.
    32. Shwartz, Michael & Burgess, James F. & Zhu, Joe, 2016. "A DEA based composite measure of quality and its associated data uncertainty interval for health care provider profiling and pay-for-performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 253(2), pages 489-502.
    33. Mahoney, Lois S. & Thorne, Linda & Cecil, Lianna & LaGore, William, 2013. "A research note on standalone corporate social responsibility reports: Signaling or greenwashing?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 350-359.
    34. Winebrake, James J. & Green, Erin H. & Comer, Bryan & Corbett, James J. & Froman, Sarah, 2012. "Estimating the direct rebound effect for on-road freight transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 252-259.
    35. Ahn, Young-Hyo & Min, Hokey, 2014. "Evaluating the multi-period operating efficiency of international airports using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 12-22.
    36. Matthias Klumpp, 2016. "To Green or Not to Green: A Political, Economic and Social Analysis for the Past Failure of Green Logistics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-22, May.
    37. Vlontzos, G. & Pardalos, P.M., 2017. "Assess and prognosticate green house gas emissions from agricultural production of EU countries, by implementing, DEA Window analysis and artificial neural networks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 155-162.
    38. Wang, Zhaohua & Lu, Milin, 2014. "An empirical study of direct rebound effect for road freight transport in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 274-281.
    39. Rahman, Sajjadur & Serletis, Apostolos, 2010. "The asymmetric effects of oil price and monetary policy shocks: A nonlinear VAR approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1460-1466, November.
    40. Yi Zheng & Huchang Liao & Xue Yang, 2016. "Stochastic Pricing and Order Model with Transportation Mode Selection for Low-Carbon Retailers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, January.
    41. AfDB AfDB, . "Annual Report 2012," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 461.
    42. Wanke, Peter & Barros, C.P. & Nwaogbe, Obioma R., 2016. "Assessing productive efficiency in Nigerian airports using Fuzzy-DEA," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 9-19.
    43. Mwangi, John Kennedy & Lee, Wen-Jhy & Chang, Yu-Cheng & Chen, Chia-Yang & Wang, Lin-Chi, 2015. "An overview: Energy saving and pollution reduction by using green fuel blends in diesel engines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 214-236.
    44. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    45. Bolli, Thomas & Olivares, Maria & Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Daraio, Cinzia & Aracil, Adela Garcia & Lepori, Benedetto, 2016. "The differential effects of competitive funding on the production frontier and the efficiency of universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 91-104.
    46. Chavez-Baeza, Carlos & Sheinbaum-Pardo, Claudia, 2014. "Sustainable passenger road transport scenarios to reduce fuel consumption, air pollutants and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 624-634.
    47. Pires, Heloisa Márcia & Fernandes, Elton, 2012. "Malmquist financial efficiency analysis for airlines," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1049-1055.
    48. Grund, Christian, 2015. "Gender pay gaps among highly educated professionals — Compensation components do matter," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 118-126.
    49. Walmsley, Michael R.W. & Walmsley, Timothy G. & Atkins, Martin J. & Kamp, Peter J.J. & Neale, James R. & Chand, Alvin, 2015. "Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis for emissions reductions in the New Zealand transport sector through to 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 569-576.
    50. De Nicola, Arianna & Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2013. "Airport quality and productivity changes: A Malmquist index decomposition assessment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 67-75.
    51. Yu-Ying Lin, Eugene & Chen, Ping-Yu & Chen, Chi-Chung, 2013. "Measuring green productivity of country: A generlized metafrontier Malmquist productivity index approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 340-353.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske, 2021. "Sustainability and Resilience Revisited: Impact of Information Technology Disruptions on Empirical Retail Logistics Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Yuanyuan Lin & Nianqi Deng & Hailian Gao, 2018. "Research on Technological Innovation Efficiency of Tourist Equipment Manufacturing Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Matthias Klumpp, 2018. "How to Achieve Supply Chain Sustainability Efficiently? Taming the Triple Bottom Line Split Business Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Ying-yu Lu & Yue He & Bo Wang & Shuang-shuang Ye & Yidi Hua & Lei Ding, 2019. "Efficiency Evaluation of Atmospheric Pollutants Emission in Zhejiang Province China: A DEA-Malmquist Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Fayu Chen & Jinhao Liu & Xiaoyu Liu & Hua Zhang, 2023. "Static and Dynamic Evaluation of Financing Efficiency in Enterprises’ Low-Carbon Supply Chain: PCA–DEA–Malmquist Model Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Hongyou Lu & Yunchan Zhu & Yu Qi & Jinliang Yu, 2018. "Do Urban Subway Openings Reduce PM 2.5 Concentrations? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-24, November.
    7. Andreas Dellnitz & Andreas Kleine & Wilhelm Rödder, 2018. "CCR or BCC: what if we are in the wrong model?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(7), pages 831-850, September.
    8. Yingkai Tang & Kun Wang & Xuanming Ji & He Xu & Yangqing Xiao, 2021. "Assessment and Spatial-Temporal Evolution Analysis of Urban Land Use Efficiency under Green Development Orientation: Case of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    9. Derek Wang & Tianchi Li, 2018. "Carbon Emission Performance of Independent Oil and Natural Gas Producers in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    10. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske, 2021. "Long-Term Economic Sustainability of Humanitarian Logistics—A Multi-Level and Time-Series Data Envelopment Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-19, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Klumpp, 2018. "How to Achieve Supply Chain Sustainability Efficiently? Taming the Triple Bottom Line Split Business Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Matthias Klumpp, 2016. "To Green or Not to Green: A Political, Economic and Social Analysis for the Past Failure of Green Logistics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Fragoudaki, Alexandra & Giokas, Dimitrios, 2020. "Airport efficiency in the dawn of privatization: The case of Greece," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Maiquiel Schmidt de Oliveira & Mauro Lizot & Hugo Siqueira & Paulo Afonso & Flavio Trojan, 2023. "Efficiency Analysis of Oil Refineries Using DEA Window Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Malmquist Productivity Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Adel Hatami-Marbini & Aliasghar Arabmaldar & John Otu Asu, 2022. "Robust productivity growth and efficiency measurement with undesirable outputs: evidence from the oil industry," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 44(4), pages 1213-1254, December.
    6. Murat Kucukvar & Khalel Ahmed Alawi & Galal M. Abdella & Muhammet Enis Bulak & Nuri C. Onat & Melih Bulu & Murat Yalçıntaş, 2021. "A frontier‐based managerial approach for relative sustainability performance assessment of the world's airports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 89-107, January.
    7. Mohsen Afsharian & Heinz Ahn, 2015. "The overall Malmquist index: a new approach for measuring productivity changes over time," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 226(1), pages 1-27, March.
    8. Maria Rosa Nieto & Rafael Bernardo Carmona-Benítez, 2021. "An Approach to Measure the Performance and the Efficiency of Future Airport Infrastructure," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(16), pages 1-28, August.
    9. Tsaples, G. & Papathanasiou, J., 2021. "Data envelopment analysis and the concept of sustainability: A review and analysis of the literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Chen, Xiang & Grifell-Tatjé, Emili & Fu, Tsu-Tan, 2023. "A profit difference decomposition model for measuring group performance: an application to Chinese and Taiwanese commercial banks," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    11. Zaiwu Gong & Xiaoqing Chen, 2017. "Analysis of Interval Data Envelopment Efficiency Model Considering Different Distribution Characteristics—Based on Environmental Performance Evaluation of the Manufacturing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-25, November.
    12. Mahmoudi, Reza & Emrouznejad, Ali & Shetab-Boushehri, Seyyed-Nader & Hejazi, Seyed Reza, 2020. "The origins, development and future directions of data envelopment analysis approach in transportation systems," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Zhang, Ganggang & Wu, Jie & Zhu, Qingyuan, 2020. "Performance evaluation and enrollment quota allocation for higher education institutions in China," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Georgios Tsaples & Jason Papathanasiou & Andreas C. Georgiou, 2022. "An Exploratory DEA and Machine Learning Framework for the Evaluation and Analysis of Sustainability Composite Indicators in the EU," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(13), pages 1-27, June.
    15. Reza Fallahnejad & Mohammad Reza Mozaffari & Peter Fernandes Wanke & Yong Tan, 2024. "Nash Bargaining Game Enhanced Global Malmquist Productivity Index for Cross-Productivity Index," Games, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Wang, Zhanwei & Song, Woon-Kyung, 2020. "Sustainable airport development with performance evaluation forecasts: A case study of 12 Asian airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Khalil Md Nor & Seyed Meysam Khoshnava, 2018. "Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    18. Santos, Sérgio P. & São José, José M.S., 2018. "Measuring and decomposing the gender pay gap: A new frontier approachAuthor-Name: Amado, Carla A.F," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(1), pages 357-373.
    19. Llorca, Manuel & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2017. "Energy efficiency and rebound effect in European road freight transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 98-110.
    20. Silva, Haroldo José Torres da & Marques, Pedro Valentim, 2021. "Heterogeneity in the productivity of sugar-energy mills in Brazil," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 24(3), February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:842-:d:98960. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.