Technical efficiency of business administration courses: a simultaneous analysis using DEA and SFA

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the efficiency of higher education institutions. The technical efficiency of higher education has been mostly studied using methods such as data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. Many researchers compare either the efficiency among public education institutions or among departments in a university by using variables that give equal importance to teaching and research. In this paper, both these methodologies are applied to measure the efficiency of higher education courses, especially the business administration courses offered by private for‐profit institutions that focus just on education and are located in the same geographical region. The variables selected covered the specific aspects of these courses and the results showed the complementarities of these two approaches.