Measuring the performance of manufacturing firms with super slacks based model of data envelopment analysis: An application of 500 major industrial enterprises in Turkey

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a mathematical programming technique which has a wide application area. There are many applications of DEA to measure firms’ performance. Balance sheet data is frequently used in order to measure performance of firms through DEA. So it is the characteristic of balance sheets that assets and liabilities amount to the same value. When the data for inputs and outputs are selected from both assets and liabilities sections of the balance sheet, it is important that more attention be paid to the analysis since values assigned to inputs and outputs could be included in assets and liabilities at the same time. Such a situation could create problems concerning the conclusions drawn as a result of analysis.This study recommends appropriate inputs and outputs to measure firms’ performance under different perspective. In addition, the obtained data reveled that by using super slacks based model in DEA solver pro 4.1, the outputs could take negative or zero values. Furthermore, the model allows getting a ranking of efficient firms. Data obtained from 500 major industrial enterprises of Turkey were used in this analysis so as to apply the model.