IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v138y2026ics0305048325001021.html

Dynamic performance evaluation of Taiwan's food industry: ESG insights and strategic implications

Author

Listed:
  • Lu, Wen-Min
  • Chou, Chien-Heng
  • Ting, Irene Wei Kiong
  • Cheng, Ko-Chiang

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the innovation, operational, and sustainability performance of Taiwan’s food industry, addressing the critical need for resource optimization, efficiency enhancement, and sustainable development. Utilizing the Range Directional Measure Network Data Envelopment Analysis (RDM-NDEA) model, combined with truncated regression and multidimensional scaling, the research identifies key ESG variables influencing performance. The study observes a sample of 120 companies in Taiwan's food industry over the period 2017–2021. Findings reveal that operational performance consistently surpasses both sustainability and innovation performance, highlighting the need for managers to focus on innovation-driven strategies. Key ESG issues include energy and water management, and data security under the environmental pillar, as well as product quality, safety, and employee health and safety under the social pillar. These findings provide significant implications for managers and policymakers, offering actionable insights to address performance bottlenecks, enhance competitive advantages, and promote industrial upgrading. The study’s methodology and results contribute to the growing discourse on ESG integration, providing a robust framework for performance evaluation and supporting sustainable development in the food industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu, Wen-Min & Chou, Chien-Heng & Ting, Irene Wei Kiong & Cheng, Ko-Chiang, 2026. "Dynamic performance evaluation of Taiwan's food industry: ESG insights and strategic implications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:138:y:2026:i:c:s0305048325001021
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2025.103376
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048325001021
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2025.103376?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Fischer & Angelika Sawczyn, 2013. "The relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance and the role of innovation: evidence from German listed firms," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 27-52, May.
    2. Kao, Chiang, 2009. "Efficiency decomposition in network data envelopment analysis: A relational model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(3), pages 949-962, February.
    3. Otgontsetseg Erhemjamts & Qian Li & Anand Venkateswaran, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Impact on Firms’ Investment Policy, Organizational Structure, and Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 395-412, December.
    4. Alexandre Sanches Garcia & Renato J. Orsato, 2020. "Testing the institutional difference hypothesis: A study about environmental, social, governance, and financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3261-3272, December.
    5. Gregory, Richard Paul, 2022. "ESG scores and the response of the S&P 1500 to monetary and fiscal policy during the Covid-19 pandemic," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 446-456.
    6. Mohammad Tavassoli & Mahsa Ghandehari & Masoud Taherinia, 2023. "Rang-adjusted measure: modelling and computational aspects from internal and external perspectives for network DEA," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1-34, December.
    7. Golany, B & Roll, Y, 1989. "An application procedure for DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 237-250.
    8. H. Pierre Hsieh & Kuo‐Cheng Kuo & Minh‐Hieu Le & Wen‐Min Lu, 2021. "Exploring the cargo and eco‐efficiencies of international container shipping companies: A network‐based ranking approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 45-60, January.
    9. Qian Long Kweh & Wen-Min Lu & Fengyi Lin & Yung-Jr Deng, 2022. "Impact of research and development tax credits on the innovation and operational efficiencies of Internet of things companies in Taiwan," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(2), pages 1217-1241, August.
    10. M C A Silva Portela & E Thanassoulis & G Simpson, 2004. "Negative data in DEA: a directional distance approach applied to bank branches," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(10), pages 1111-1121, October.
    11. Tadesse Getacher Engida & Alfons G. J. M. Oude Lansink & Xudong Rao, 2022. "A dynamic by‐production framework for measuring productivity change in the presence of socially responsible and undesirable outputs: Evidence from European food processors," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 279-294, April.
    12. Latika Bhatia & Harit Jha & Tanushree Sarkar & Prakash Kumar Sarangi, 2023. "Food Waste Utilization for Reducing Carbon Footprints towards Sustainable and Cleaner Environment: A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-20, January.
    13. Feng‐An Yang & Hung‐Hao Chang & Jiun‐Hao Wang, 2022. "The economic impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Taiwanese food industry: Empirical evidence using business transaction data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(2), pages 376-395, June.
    14. Ding, Huiping & Zhao, Qilan & An, Zhirong & Tang, Ou, 2016. "Collaborative mechanism of a sustainable supply chain with environmental constraints and carbon caps," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(PA), pages 191-207.
    15. Chen, Zhongfei & Xie, Guanxia, 2022. "ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    16. Rajinder Kaur & Jolly Puri, 2024. "Analysing cost-effectiveness in dynamic network DEA: a directional distance function approach," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1-31, December.
    17. Caroline Flammer & Pratima Bansal, 2017. "Does a long-term orientation create value? Evidence from a regression discontinuity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(9), pages 1827-1847, September.
    18. Sadikoglu, Esin & Zehir, Cemal, 2010. "Investigating the effects of innovation and employee performance on the relationship between total quality management practices and firm performance: An empirical study of Turkish firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 13-26, September.
    19. Bowlin, W. F., 1995. "A characterization of the financial condition of the United States' aerospace-defense industrial base," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 539-555, October.
    20. Abagail McWilliams & Donald Siegel, 2000. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 603-609, May.
    21. Jun Xie & Wataru Nozawa & Michiyuki Yagi & Hidemichi Fujii & Shunsuke Managi, 2019. "Do environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 286-300, February.
    22. Qian Long Kweh & Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Chunya Ren & Wen-Min Lu, 2024. "Environmental, social, and governance and corporate efficiency: mediating role of R&D in achieving sustainable development goals," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(51), pages 6347-6359, November.
    23. Warren Torgerson, 1952. "Multidimensional scaling: I. Theory and method," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 17(4), pages 401-419, December.
    24. Catherine M. Paul & Donald Siegel, 2006. "Corporate social responsibility and economic performance," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 207-211, December.
    25. Nisar Ahmad & Asma Mobarek & Naheed Nawazesh Roni, 2021. "Revisiting the impact of ESG on financial performance of FTSE350 UK firms: Static and dynamic panel data analysis," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1900500-190, January.
    26. Monika Hartmann, 2011. "Corporate social responsibility in the food sector," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 38(3), pages 297-324, August.
    27. Magdalena Kapelko & Alfons Oude Lansink, 2022. "Measuring firms' dynamic inefficiency accounting for corporate social responsibility in the U.S. food and beverage manufacturing industry," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1702-1721, December.
    28. Sofik Handoyo & Syaiful Anas, 2024. "The effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) on firm performance: the moderating role of country regulatory quality and government effectiveness in ASEAN," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 2371071-237, December.
    29. Shiping Mao & Marios Dominikos Kremantzis & Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos & George Vlontzos, 2022. "R&D Performance Evaluation in the Chinese Food Manufacturing Industry Based on Dynamic DEA in the COVID-19 Era," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, November.
    30. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    31. 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.
    32. Glauber, Joseph W. & Laborde Debucquet, David, 2023. "The Russia-Ukraine conflict and global food security," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 9780896294394, December.
    33. Emrouznejad, Ali & De Witte, Kristof, 2010. "COOPER-framework: A unified process for non-parametric projects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1573-1586, December.
    34. Chia-Nan Wang & Minh Nhat Nguyen & Anh Luyen Le & Hector Tibo, 2020. "A DEA Resampling Past-Present-Future Comparative Analysis of the Food and Beverage Industry: The Case Study on Thailand vs. Vietnam," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-24, July.
    35. Milton Friedman, 2007. "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits," Springer Books, in: Walther Ch Zimmerli & Markus Holzinger & Klaus Richter (ed.), Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, pages 173-178, Springer.
    36. Guijun Li & Daohan Huang & Yulong Li, 2016. "China’s Input-Output Efficiency of Water-Energy-Food Nexus Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-16, September.
    37. Rim Makni & Claude Francoeur & François Bellavance, 2009. "Causality Between Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: Evidence from Canadian Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(3), pages 409-422, October.
    38. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    39. Bingwen Zheng, 2016. "Population ageing and the impacts of the universal two-child policy on China’s socio-economy," Economic and Political Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 434-453, October.
    40. Yung-Ming Shiu & Shou-Lin Yang, 2017. "Does engagement in corporate social responsibility provide strategic insurance-like effects?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 455-470, February.
    41. Chen, Zhiyao & Harford, Jarrad & Kamara, Avraham, 2019. "Operating Leverage, Profitability, and Capital Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 369-392, February.
    42. Ruiyue Lin & Qian Liu, 2022. "Directional distance based efficiency decomposition for series system in network data envelopment analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(8), pages 1873-1888, August.
    43. Marco Fasan & Elise Soerger Zaro & Claudio Soerger Zaro & Barbara Porco & Riccardo Tiscini, 2021. "An empirical analysis: Did green supply chain management alleviate the effects of COVID‐19?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2702-2712, July.
    44. Joe Zhu, 2022. "DEA under big data: data enabled analytics and network data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 309(2), pages 761-783, February.
    45. Manning, Willard G. & Mullahy, John, 2001. "Estimating log models: to transform or not to transform?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-494, July.
    46. Balaji S. Chakravarthy, 1986. "Measuring strategic performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(5), pages 437-458, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mergoni, Anna & Emrouznejad, Ali & De Witte, Kristof, 2025. "Fifty years of Data Envelopment Analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 326(3), pages 389-412.
    2. Li, WeiWei & Padmanabhan, Prasad & Huang, Chia-Hsing, 2024. "ESG and debt structure: Is the nature of this relationship nonlinear?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Broadstock, David C. & Matousek, Roman & Meyer, Martin & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility impact firms' innovation capacity? The indirect link between environmental & social governance implementation and innovation performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 99-110.
    4. Chomachaei, Fahimeh & Kaffash, Sepideh & Ertugrul, Mine, 2026. "Sustainability and financial performance: How efficiency mediates the ESG-financial performance relationship in the Airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Lu, Wen-Min & Chou, Chien-Heng & Ting, Irene Wei Kiong & Liu, Shang-Ming, 2025. "A New Integrated Approach for Evaluating Sustainable Development in the Electric Vehicle Sector," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    6. Shiu-Wan Hung & Kai-Chu Yang & Wen-Min Lu & Minh-Hieu Le, 2025. "A chance-constrained network DEA approach for evaluating medical service and quality efficiency: a case study of Taiwan," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 99-118, March.
    7. Juan Aparicio & Magdalena Kapelko, 2019. "Enhancing the Measurement of Composite Indicators of Corporate Social Performance," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 807-826, July.
    8. Qian Long Kweh & Wen-Min Lu & Kaoru Tone & Hsian-Ming Liu, 2024. "Evaluating the resource management and profitability efficiencies of US commercial banks from a dynamic network perspective," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Ozgur Ozdemir & Fatemeh Binesh & Ezgi Erkmen, 2022. "The effect of target’s CSR performance on M&A deal premiums: a case for service firms," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1001-1034, May.
    10. Sun, Lihua & Bai, Chunguang & Sarkis, Joseph, 2025. "Corporate ESG performance and operational efficiency: The moderating effect of supply chain concentration," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    11. Hui-Ju Tsai & Yangru Wu, 2022. "Changes in Corporate Social Responsibility and Stock Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 735-755, July.
    12. Michali, Maria & Emrouznejad, Ali & Amin, Gholam R., 2026. "Revisiting the inverse transformation of undesirable factors in data envelopment analysis: A novel iterative algorithm," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 331(2), pages 587-600.
    13. Kwon, He-Boong & Lee, Jooh, 2019. "Exploring the differential impact of environmental sustainability, operational efficiency, and corporate reputation on market valuation in high-tech-oriented firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1-14.
    14. V. Veeravel & E. K. S. Sadharma & Bandi Kamaiah, 2024. "Do ESG disclosures lead to superior firm performance? A method of moments panel quantile regression approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 741-754, January.
    15. H. Pierre Hsieh & Yueh‐Cheng Wu & Wen‐Min Lu & Yao‐Chieh Chen, 2020. "Assessing and ranking the innovation ability and business performance of global companies in the aerospace and defense industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 952-963, September.
    16. Khurram, Muhammad Usman & Chen, Lifeng & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul & Adu, Douglas A. & Lucey, Brian, 2024. "ESG disclosure and internal pay gap: Empirical evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 228-244.
    17. Liu, Frank Hong & Wu, Qiang & Zhou, Yue, 2024. "Bank deregulation and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Petridis, Konstantinos & Tampakoudis, Ioannis & Drogalas, George & Kiosses, Nikolaos, 2022. "A Support Vector Machine model for classification of efficiency: An application to M&A," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Ming-Fu Hsu & Ying-Shao Hsin & Fu-Jiing Shiue, 2022. "Business analytics for corporate risk management and performance improvement," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(2), pages 629-669, August.
    20. Wai‐Peng Wong & Qiang Deng & Ming-Lang Tseng & Loo‐Hay Lee & Chee‐Wooi Hooy, 2014. "A Stochastic Setting To Bank Financial Performance For Refining Efficiency Estimates," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 225-245, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:jomega:v:138:y:2026:i:c:s0305048325001021. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    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.