Browsing by Author "Smyrnakis, Michail"

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    Benchmarking the Performance of Productive Units Using Cross-Efficiency Techniques: An Empirical Approach for Water Companies
    (2023) Sala-Garrido, Ramon; Mocholi-Arce, Manuel; Molinos-Senante, Maria; Smyrnakis, Michail; Maziotis, Alexandros
    Water companies provide essential services to society, such as drinking water and sanitation. Improving the management of these companies is fundamental for evaluating their performance. This study employs cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis techniques to assess a sample of water companies during the years 2010-2018. The assessment focuses on three main topics: i) the impact of service quality on water companies' performance; ii) the influence of environmental variables on efficiency and eco-efficiency in water companies and; iii) the effect of ownership on water company performance. The results reveal that service quality significantly influences water companies' performance. Additionally, it demonstrates that customer density and ownership of water companies impact economic and environmental efficiency, with public water companies showing the best performance. However, the quality of service of public water companies had deteriorated over time.
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    Eco-Efficiency of the English and Welsh Water Companies: A Cross Performance Assessment
    (2021) Sala-Garrido, Ramon; Mocholi-Arce, Manuel; Molinos-Senante, Maria; Smyrnakis, Michail; Maziotis, Alexandros
    Analyzing costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be of great importance for the water utilities to supply water services in a healthy and sustainable manner. In this study, we measured the eco-efficiency of several water utilities in England and Wales by incorporating GHG as an undesirable output. For the first time, we evaluated the eco-efficiency of the water production process using robust cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. The further use of clustering and regression techniques allowed us to better understand the drivers of eco-efficiency. The results showed that the mean eco-efficiency of the water sector was 0.748, which indicates that costs and GHG emissions could be reduced by 25.2% to generate the same level of output. Large water companies with high energy costs and levels of GHG emissions belonged to the less eco-efficient group. Environmental factors related to density, topography, and treatment complexity further impacted eco-efficiency. Finally, we linked our results to the regulatory cycle and discuss some policy implications.