Preferred input-output analysis using inverse DEA: an application to retailer performance assessment

¹ Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
² Department of Mathematics, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran
³ Department of Mathematics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

^* Corresponding author: mgt.ghiasi@gmail.com

Received: 9 January 2024
Accepted: 11 August 2024

Abstract

Inverse data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach deals with the input or output estimation preserving relative efficiency score. In many real-world applications, there is more prior information like price information or managerial preferences, etc. that should be considered in the efficiency analysis. Corporation of this sort of information is not dealt with in the inverse DEA literature, not in the input estimation process nor in the output estimation. Thus, the current paper develops a new inverse DEA model capable of dealing with prior information via weight restrictions. Proposed models are applied in the efficiency and inverse efficiency analysis of a real-world retailer application.