Efficiency of apparel retail at the firm level-- an evaluation using data envelopment analysis (DEA)

In this study, the author employed data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the productivity efficiency of the top apparel retailers in the world. Four input variables and two output variables are chosen to do the empirical study; the data are retrieved from Capital IQ database in the University of Manchester. The result shows that 19 apparel retailers are efficient among the 42 samples that this study identified. Meanwhile, the benchmark targets are proposed for the remaining 23 less efficient companies, they can improve their productivity efficiency either by decrease the spending on specific input variables or by increase their outcome after review the value chain. This study contributes to the understanding of apparel retail performance at corporate level. It is expected the findings can have profound implications for companies being analyzed to understand the efficiency of utilizing resources into measurable outcomes and how to improve their efficiency.