Abstract

This paper evaluates the efficiency level of medical spa businesses operating in Slovakia. The research aims to compile an efficiency ranking of these specific healthcare facilities to apply both methods and analyze their alternative use within the efficiency level measurement. The object of research is the Slovak spa businesses over the years 2014-2018. The study involved the Simplex Method of Linear Programming and the selected Data Envelopment Analysis model. In the study frame, the authors quantified the efficiency of medical spa businesses as the optimization task of SMPL and BCC input-oriented DEA model to identify prosperous businesses from non-prosperous ones. The study applied the Spearman rank correlation to reveal a potential degree of association of business rankings. The calculations were provided by the MS Excel, MS Excel Solver package, and the statistical program Gretl. The findings indicated that the business efficiency measured by SMPL provided similar results to the DEA model. These methods could be considered equivalent. Therefore, their alternative use was confirmed. The obtained results showed that both methods almost equally divided the businesses into two groups: 1) with efficiency score above (10 DMUs) and 2) below the overall achieved average (11 DMUs). According to the average results of both applied methods, the most efficient DMUs were DMU09 (Spa Lúcky, j.s.c.) and DMU03 (Spa Bojnice, j.s.c.), vice versa, the lowest efficiency score was achieved by DMU04 (Spa Brusno, j.s.c.). This research could be considered an important opportunity to identify new gaps in the prior literature and present the need for further development in these specific healthcare facilities, not only in Slovakia. The presented research findings are also beneficial for practice as they may lead to the formulation of recommendations for improvement of the current state of Slovak spa tourism and the spa businesses themselves.   

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, efficiency, inputs, linear programming, medical spa businesses, outputs.

JEL Classification: M21, C10, G39.

Cite as: Cabinova, V., Fedorcikova, R., & Jurova, N. (2021). Innovative methods of evaluating business efficiency: a comparative study. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 2, 133-145. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2021.2-11

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References

1. Balios, D., Eriotis, N., Fragoudaki, A., & Giokas, D. (2015). Economic efficiency of Greek retail SMEs in a period of high fluctuations in economic activity: A DEA approach. Applied Economics, 47(33), 3577-3593. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
2. Barchue, W. J., & Aikaeli, J. (2016). Efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises in Liberia: The case of Monrovia. Business Management Review, 18(2). [Google Scholar]
3. Benkova, E., Gallo, P., Balogova, B., & Mihalcova, B. (2019). Effects of using strategic planning as a managerial tool: A case of industrial companies. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 20. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
4. Buchner, V. A., Hinz, V., & Schreyögg, J. (2016). Health systems: changes in hospital efficiency and profitability. Health care management science, 19(2), 130-143. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
5. Buyukkeklik, A., Dumlu, H., & Evci, S. (2016). Measuring the efficiency of turkish SMEs: A data envelopment analysis approach. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 8(6), 190-200. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
6. Canto, M. B., & Lydia, B. L. L. (2018). Ranking of global efficiency of the best universities in Europe. Marketing and Management of innovations, 3, 34-47. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
7. Carstina, S., Siminica, M., Circiumaru, D., & Tanasie, A. (2015). Correlation Analysis of the Indicators of Asset Management and Profitability. International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), 3(2), 3-21. [Google Scholar]
8. Cyrek, M. (2017). Social efficiency of employment in three sectors—a comparison of Polish regions. Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 12(3), 417-432. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
9. Denes, R. V., Kecskes, J., Koltai, T., & Denes, Z. (2017). The application of data envelopment analysis in healthcare performance evaluation of rehabilitation departments in hungary. Quality Innovation Prosperity, 21(3), 127-142. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
10. Derco, J. (2014). The Slovak spas in the light of the health care system. Tourism Planning & Development, 11(2), 243-252. [Google Scholar] [Google Scholar]
11. Derco, J., & Pavlisinova, D. (2017). Financial position of medical spas–the case of Slovakia. Tourism economics, 23(4), 867-873. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
12. Dougherty, F. L., Ambler, N. P., & Triantis, K. P. (2017). A complex adaptive systems approach for productive efficiency analysis: building blocks and associative inferences. Annals of Operations Research, 250(1), 45-63. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
13. Dryglas, D., & Salamaga, M. (2017). Applying destination attribute segmentation to health tourists: A case study of Polish spa resorts. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 34(4), 503-514. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
14. Ermolina, L. V., Golikov, V. V., Kozenko, Z. N., & Ponosova, E. V. (2018). Role of human capital among the indicators of enterprise’s strategic effectiveness. Quality-Access to Success, 19(162), 92-95. [Google Scholar]
15. Fenyves, V., Tarnoczi, T., & Zsido, K. (2015). Financial Performance Evaluation of agricultural enterprises with DEA Method. Procedia Economics and Finance, 32, 423-431. [Google Scholar][CrossRef]
16. Fitzpatrick, T., & McQuinn, K. (2008). Measuring bank profit efficiency. Applied Financial Economics, 18(1), 1-8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
17. Gallo, P., Balogova, B., Tomcíkova, L., & Nemec, J. (2019). The Impact of the Innovative Total Quality Management Tool in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 4, 22-30. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
18. Gandhi, A. V., & Sharma, D. (2018). Technical efficiency of private sector hospitals in India using data envelopment analysis. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 25(9), 3570-3591. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
19. Grell, M., & Hyranek, E. (2012). Matrix Models Measuring the Performance of Production Systems. E + M Ekonomie a Management, 15(1), 73-87. Retrieved from [Link]
20. Grmanova, E., & Strunz, H. (2017). Efficiency of insurance companies: Application of DEA and Tobit analyses. Journal of International Studies, 10(3). [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
21. Herrera-Restrepo, O., & Triantis, K. (2019). Enterprise design through complex adaptive systems and efficiency measurement. European Journal of Operational Research, 278(2), 481-497. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
22. Jablonsky, J. (2007). a Spreadsheet-Based System for DEA Models. Multiple Criteria Decision Making/University of Economics in Katowice, 3, 51-64. [Google Scholar]
23. Karagiannis, R. (2015). A system-of-equations two-stage DEA approach for explaining capacity utilization and technical efficiency. Annals of Operations Research, 227(1), 25-43. [Google Scholar] {crossRef]
24. Kocisova, K. (2015). Application of the DEA on the measurement of efficiency in the EU countries. Agricultural Economics, 61(2), 51-62. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
25. Kuzysin, B., Sip, M., Ježek, V., Hangoni, T., & Busova, N. (2021). The inter-disciplinary nature of spiritual/religious counselling in the cybernetic/media or cyberspace field. European Journal of Science and Theology, 17(1), 103-124. Retrieved from [Link]
26. Lee, J., Kim, C., & Choi, G. (2019). Exploring data envelopment analysis for measuring collaborated innovation efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea. European journal of operational research, 278(2), 533-545. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
27. Lo Storto, C., & Goncharuk, A. G. (2017). Efficiency vs Effectiveness: A Benchmarking Study on European Healthcare Systems. Economics and Sociology, 10 (3), 102-115. [Google Scholar][CrossRef]
28. Lubowiecki-Vikuk, A., & Dryglas, D. (2019). Central and Eastern Europe as a medical tourism destination: A case study of Poland. Almatourism-Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development, 10(19). [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
29. Mihalcova, B., Gallo, P., & Pružinsky, M. (2017). Measurement of Company Performance in a Health Resort in Slovakia taken as an Example. Calitatea, 18(158), 79. [Google Scholar]
30. Oikonomou, N., Tountas, Y., Mariolis, A., Souliotis, K., Athanasakis, K., & Kyriopoulos, J. (2016). Measuring the efficiency of the Greek rural primary health care using a restricted DEA model; the case of southern and western Greece. Health care management science, 19(4), 313-325. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
31. Paleckova, I. (2017). Efficiency change of banking sectors and banks in the financial conglomerates in Visegrad group countries. Ekonomicky casopis, 65(01), 79-92. [Google Scholar]
32. Panayides, P. M., & Lambertides, N. (2011). The relative efficiency of maritime firms: evidence from container lines. The Singapore Economic Review, 56(04), 503-522. [Google Scholar][CrossRef]
33. Pilar, P. G., Marta, A. P., & Antonio, A. (2018). Profit efficiency and its determinants in small and medium-sized enterprises in Spain. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 21(4), 238-250. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
34. Poldrugovac, K., Tekavcic, M., & Jankovic, S. (2016). Efficiency in the hotel industry: an empirical examination of the most influential factors. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 29(1), 583-597. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
35. Popova, L., F. (2018). The Evaluation of the Quality Management System Effectiveness. Quality – Access to Success, 19(165), 51-56. Retrieved from [Link]
36. Samut, P. K., & Cafrı, R. (2016). Analysis of the efficiency determinants of health systems in OECD countries by DEA and panel tobit. Social Indicators Research, 129(1), 113-132. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
37. Seiford, L. M., & Thrall, R. M. (1990). Recent developments in DEA: the mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis. Journal of econometrics, 46(1-2), 7-38. [Google Scholar][CrossRef]
38. Sendek, S. (2014). Efficiency evaluation of hospitals in the environment of the Slovak Republic. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 62(4), 697-706. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
39. Sendek, S., Svitalkova, Z., & Angelovicova, K. (2015). Efficiency evaluation of hospitals in the environment of the Czech and Slovak Republic. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 63(6), 2109-2118. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
40. Sharma, J. K. (2007). Business Statistics, New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. [Google Scholar]
41. Shyfrina, N. I., Ukrainska, L. O., Marchenko, O. S., & Cherkashyna, T. S. (2019). Improvement of economic efficiency of the business based on automation of management of motivation of personnel. Financial and credit activity: problems of theory and practice, 3(30), 196-205. [CrossRef]
42. Szabo, S., Mihalcova, B., Gallo, P., & Ivanickova, M. (2018). Evaluating Efficiency in Specialized Hospital Facilities-Developing the Model by Way of the Discriminant Analysis. E+ M Ekonomie a Management, 21(3), 88. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
43. Zarutska, O., Pavlova, T., Sinyuk, A., Khmarskiy, V., Pawliszczy, D., & Kesy, M. (2020). The Innovative Approaches to Estimating Business Models of Modern Banks. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 2, 26-43. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]