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Purpose: Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to further the debate on the relationship between IC and corporate performance from the perspectives of nonlinearity, the capital values of IC and the use of a holistic measure of corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using 1,395 firm-year observations derived from Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, this study focuses on (1) presenting an IC model benchmarked on value-creating expenses; (2) using a directional distance function (DDF)-based stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to scrutinize multiple performance indicators and the capital values of people, structures and relationships simultaneously; and (3) adopting firm-year cluster-robust regressions to analyze the nonlinear association between IC and corporate performance empirically with an appropriate U test. Findings: Results suggest that human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) are the main contributors of high corporate efficiency, whereas only HC and RC contribute to high corporate profitability. These results are absent when this study employs the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is also a multidimensional framework, as the dependent variable. More importantly, IC and its components can improve corporate performance, namely, both corporate efficiency and corporate profitability up to a critical point, after which the effects would drop. Practical implications: Overall, this study highlights not only the need to invest in IC but also its associated costs. That is, policymakers also need to note the marginal cost of investing in IC, which may in the end outweigh the benefits from IC. Originality/value: This study extends IC-related studies by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IC and corporate performance. Moreover, the value of this study also lies in the multidimensional DDF-based StoNED framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious environmental problems have accompanied remarkable global economic growth for decades. To assist managers in the semiconductor industry with economic and environmental management, this study executes DuPont analysis to examine economic impacts from the effective implementation of sustainability initiatives. We propose a two-stage process including economic development efficiency and environmental protection efficiency through the dynamic data envelopment analysis (DDEA) to reflect the characteristics of eco-efficiency. Through DuPont analysis, the main finding shows the potential improvement in firms' return on equity (ROE) by efficiently utilizing assets to generate sales quickly. Relative to economic development efficiency, the firms show lower scores and higher standard deviations in the environmental protection ability, thus denoting a large gap in the level of environmental protection production technology. The findings in this study reveal that the financial foundations and sustainable development of industries should be improved simultaneously even though specific levels of semiconductor industrial eco-efficiency improvement vary among companies in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of intellectual capital efficiency on US multinational software companies' performance from 2012 to 2016 by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA). Design/methodology/approach: It adopts a new slacks-based measure (SBM) to obtain a more accurate performance estimation and rank between companies. Regression analysis is used to test the overall IC and each of its elements (Human Capital, Innovation Capital, Process Capital and Customer Capital). Findings: The univariate result shows that multinational companies are more efficient than non-multinational companies. However, the regression result shows that multinationality can hardly explain the firm efficiency of software firms. Another interesting finding is that intellectual capital has a positive and significant impact on software firm performance in the US human capital influences firm efficiency directly. However, when human capital is combined with the other elements of IC, the contribution of human capital becomes less significant. This is because people may think that innovation capital, process capital and customer capital can replace human capital, but it is not. In short, human capital may affect firm efficiency through other elements of IC (innovation capital, process capital and customer capital) as it is the base of other elements. Research limitations/implications: The results show that multinational companies have higher efficiency scores than non-multinational companies. In addition, Intellectual capital has a positive and significant impact on software firm performance in the US human capital influences firm efficiency directly. However, when human capital is combined with the other elements of IC, the contribution of human capital becomes less significant. This is because people may think that innovation capital, process capital and customer capital can replace human capital, but it is not. In short, human capital may affect firm efficiency through other elements of IC (innovation capital, process capital and customer capital) as it is the base of other elements. Practical implications: Overall, the study highlights the needs of having intellectual capital and its elements (Human Capital, Innovation Capital, Process Capital and Customer Capital) to increase firm efficiency. Originality/value: First, the authors use a more comprehensive elements of IC, which are human capital, innovation capital, process capital and customer capital for a better IC measurement. Second, this study makes the first attempt using the DSBM model via DEA to examine the operating efficiency of US multinational software firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the strategy perspective of intellectual capital, this paper proposes an integrated framework that is practical to estimate the human, physical, and structural capitals (intellectual capital) efficiency performance, at firm level. This paper uses a dynamic network data envelopment analysis model to estimate the intellectual capital efficiency at three levels in the insurance industry over the period of 2005-2012. Within the insurance industry, deficiencies occurred in the human and structural capital stages as opposed to the physical capital stage. A further investigation indicates that total investment is the major concern for the deficiencies. Moreover, the cluster analysis highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the insurers based on their inherently similar efficiencies. Malaysian insurance industry need to translate and promote the existing knowledge-based economy agenda lauded by the government to improve the intellectual capital efficiency, particularly at the human capital level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels, net-zero emissions targets were proposed to assist countries in planning their long-term reduction. Inverse Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) can be used to determine optimal input and output levels without sacrificing the set environmental efficiency target. However, treating countries as having the same capability to mitigate carbon emissions without considering their different developmental stages is not only unrealistic but also inappropriate. Therefore, this study incorporates a meta-concept into inverse DEA. This study adopts a three-stage approach. In the first stage, a meta-frontier DEA method is adopted to assess and compare the eco-efficiency of developed and developing countries. In the second stage, the specific super-efficiency method is adopted to rank the efficient countries specifically focused on carbon performance. In the third stage, carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets are proposed for the developed and developing countries separately. Then, a new meta-inverse DEA method is used to allocate the emissions reduction target to the inefficient countries in each of the specific groups. In this way, we can find the optimal CO 2 reduction amount for the inefficient countries with unchanged eco-efficiency levels. The implications of the new meta-inverse DEA method proposed in this study are twofold. The method can identify how a DMU can reduce undesirable outputs without sacrificing the set eco-efficiency target, which is especially useful in achieving net-zero emissions since this method provides a roadmap for decision-makers to understand how to allocate the emissions reduction targets to different units. In addition, this method can be applied to heterogeneous groups where they are assigned to different emissions reduction targets.

Household animal fat has been linked to increased incidence of cancers compared with vegetable fat. However, few epidemiological studies have associated these two cooking oil types with precancerous genotoxic effects, such as occurrence of micronuclei (MN). This study aimed to explore the association between oral MN frequency and household cooking oil type and whether the association can be attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We collected information about individual cooking oil use, measured genotoxic effects by MN tests and urinary PAHs metabolites (OHPAHs) in 245 nonsmokers. The associations between household cooking oil type and MN frequency and OHPAHs were analyzed using generalized linear models (GLMs) and logistic regression models, evaluating odds ratios and coefficient (95% confidence intervals) (ORs, 95% Cls; β, 95% Cls). The odds of animal fat consumers, rather than vegetable fat consumers, was positively associated with higher MN frequency (OR = 1.94, P < 0.05). The associations were discovered in participants only using kitchen ventilation (OR = 2.04, P < 0.05). Animal fat consumers had higher total OHPAHs than vegetable fat consumers (1.58 ± 0.22 mg/mol, Cr vs 1.20 ± 0.12 mg/mol, Cr; P = 0.028). Significant correlations were observed between total OHPAHs quartiles and increased MN frequency (β = 0.38, P-trend = 0.026). After stratifying by household cooking oil type, sensitivity analyses showed that the positive association between total OHPAHs quartiles and increased MN frequency was only observed in animal fat consumers (β = 0.61, P-trend = 0.030). In conclusion, usage of household animal fat was associated with an increased odds of oral MN frequency in Chinese nonsmokers and the odds correlated with increased PAHs exposure. This finding supplemented evidence associating cooking oil type with genotoxic effects and explained its association with PAHs exposure., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study aims to measure the ability of 29 countries in producing competitive products and services that fulfill individual needs and improve the level of welfare with less utilization of natural resources. We build a two-stage network production process model to investigate the ecology efficiency and social welfare efficiency of the countries and then further discriminate the efficient countries in post-analysis. The two-stage network directional distance function is applied to assess the efficiencies of countries, and the network-based ranking approach is used to further discriminate the efficient countries following the panel data between the years 2013 and 2016. Results show that Poland and Spain are strongly referenced by other countries in the ecology stage, whereas Bulgaria, the United States, and Sweden are leaders in the social welfare stage. A remarkable observation is an absence of countries' efficiency in both ecology and social welfare efficiencies. Most of the 29 countries have lower efficiency in the social welfare stage than in the ecology stage. This study suggests the strengths and highlights the weaknesses of the countries to help the governments efficiently improve and operate their countries.

Improving hospital efficiency is an emerging area of interest among policy makers in the new global economy's healthcare system. To ensure accurate efficiency analyses, we consider the nonhomogeneous input/output characteristics of various hospital departments, particularly the Department of Medicine, Department of Surgery, and Department of Other Specialist Medicine. These departments employ co-inputs to produce nonhomogeneous outputs. Specifically, we employ data envelopment analysis to evaluate the efficiency of 15 veterans hospitals in Taiwan. Empirical results show that the performance of the Department of Surgery has higher quality than that of the Department of Medicine and Department of Other Specialist Medicine. In addition, we include another data science technique, namely, impulse response function analysis. The findings indicate that "the New Hospital Accreditation" introduced in 2007 and revised in 2011 improved the efficiency of all departments in their respective first year of introductions. By contrast, the efficiencies of the Department of Surgery and Department of Other Specialist Medicine immediately decreased in the second year after the introductions.

Emergent treatment of source water polluted by representative chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) and Di-ethyl phthalate (DEP) was researched. The results indicate that activated carbon adsorption could achieve high efficiencies to remove the two chemicals. The pseudo second-order adsorption kinetic model and Elovich kinetic model can be used to describe the powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption process of BPA and DEP in raw water. In pilot test, 50 mg/L PAC dosage can get the pollution concentration of 500 microg/L BPA or 3.3 mg/L DEP comply with the requirement of water quality standard. The dynamic adsorption of carbon-sand filter was also studied, and removal efficiencies of BPA and DEP were hardly influenced by their original concentrations and the filtering velocity among 5.1-15.3 m/h of carbon-sand filter. When PAC adsorption was combined with carbon-sand filter, PAC adsorption contributes most to removing pollution, and carbon-sand filter as the supplement of PAC can strengthen safety. DEP can't be oxidized by KMnO4 or Cl2, but 850 microg/L BPA can be almost completely oxidized by 3 mg/L KMnO4 and 1.5 mg/L Cl2. The oxidation products of BPA as well as their toxicity need further study. PAC adsorption combined with 1.5 mg/L KMnO4 preoxidation can't improve the removal efficiency of DEP, but can improve BPA removal efficiency.