DEA Malmquist productivity measure: Taiwanese semiconductor companies

In this research we employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the Malmquist productivity of semiconductor packaging and testing firms in Taiwan from 2000 to 2003. Malmquist productivity has three components: the measurement of technical change, the measurement of the frontier forward shift, and the measurement of the frontier backward shift of a company over two consecutive periods. This approach not only reveals patterns of productivity change and presents a new interpretation along with the managerial implication of each Malmquist component, but also identifies the strategy shifts of individual companies based upon isoquant changes. Therefore, one can judge with greater accuracy whether or not such strategy shifts are favorable and promising. We use slacks-based measurement (SBM) and Super-SBM models to obtain more accurate measurements. Comparison is made between the results from SBM/Super-SBM and CCR models.