Aggregation of meta-technology ratio in DEA framework using the evidential reasoning approach

Abstract

The metafrontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is a popular evaluation technique when different decision-making units (DMUs) may exhibit production technology heterogeneity. In this framework, the group metatechnology ratio (MTR) is an important indicator to help measure the technology gap at the group level. The common approach to the group MTR aggregation is the arithmetic average approach, which requires the MTR of the DMU to satisfy the ‘additive independence’ condition. Because the MTRs are generated from the same data set and linked to each other, the MTRs do not meet the ‘additive independence’ condition. Therefore, a new aggregation approach is needed. This study applies the evidential reasoning (ER) approach to aggregate the group MTR by the transformation of the MTR of DMU to pieces of evidence. Moreover, this study proposes examples that verify the applicability and practicality of the MTR aggregation using the ER approach, including an empirical example of the evaluation practice of the transportation system of 30 provincial regions in mainland China for 2013–2019.