Emrouznejad A. and E. Cabanda (2015). Introduction to Data Envelopment Analysis and its applications, in Osman et al. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Strategic Performance Management and Measurement Using Data Envelopment Analysis: 235-255. IGI Global, USA.
This chapter provides the theoretical foundation and background on data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and some variants of basic DEA models and applications to various sectors. Some illustrative examples, helpful resources on DEA including DEA software package are also presented in this chapter. DEA is useful for measuring relative efficiency for variety of institutions and has its own merits and limitations. This chapter concludes that DEA results should be interpreted with much caution to avoid giving wrong signals and providing inappropriate recommendations.
