Research Article

Fuzzy stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis with application to NATO enlargement problem

¹ Department of Mathematics, Qaemshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran
² Department of Mathematics, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

^* Corresponding author: a.ebrahimnejad@qaemiau.ac.ir

Received: 22 January 2017
Accepted: 4 September 2018

Abstract

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a widely used technique for measuring the relative efficiencies of Decision Making Units (DMUs) with multiple deterministic inputs and multiple outputs. However, in real-world problems, the observed values of the input and output data are often vague or random. Indeed, Decision Makers (DMs) may encounter a hybrid uncertain environment where fuzziness and randomness coexist in a problem. Hence, we formulate a new DEA model to deal with fuzzy stochastic DEA models. The contributions of the present study are fivefold: (1) We formulate a deterministic linear model according to the probability–possibility approach for solving input-oriented fuzzy stochastic DEA model, (2) In contrast to the existing approach, which is infeasible for some threshold values; the proposed approach is feasible for all threshold values, (3) We apply the cross-efficiency technique to increase the discrimination power of the proposed fuzzy stochastic DEA model and to rank the efficient DMUs, (4) We solve two numerical examples to illustrate the proposed approach and to describe the effects of threshold values on the efficiency results, and (5) We present a pilot study for the NATO enlargement problem to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model.