۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review

۳- Research methodology

۴- Results

۵- Discussion and conclusion

References

Abstract

Various approaches are used to measure the firms’ performance. Grey relational analysis is one of the multiple attribute decision-making methods and data envelopment analysis is used to calculate the efficiency. Regarding the importance of water and wastewater companies’ services, the present study, evaluates the performance and rank these companies by using grey relational analysis and data envelopment analysis approaches based on balanced scorecard criteria. Besides, balanced scorecard considers all levels of organization. In this research, statistical population includes thirty-five municipal water and wastewater companies in Iran for the year 2017. In order to ascertain grey relational grade, fuzzy normalization method was used then by subtracting normalized numbers from one, reference sequences obtained and in the next step, grey relational coefficient was calculated and finally, grey relational grade was determined by multiplying relative weight from Shannon entropy to relational coefficients. In order to assess companies’ efficiency in data envelopment analysis, after ascertaining input and output indices, with the assumption of constant returns to scale and output-oriented viewpoint, the efficiency scores were calculated. Also, to rank efficient units Anderson-Petersen model implemented. Results demonstrated that, grey relational analysis is a more accurate method to measure the performance of water and wastewater companies.

Introduction

Performance measurement defined as the process of quantifying the efficiency and effectiveness of a past action (Neely, Adams, & Kennerley, 2002). It has been used extensively in public sector in the last two decades (Speklé & Verbeeten, 2014). In many countries, Public sector is responsible for the major part of water and sewage services (Consciência Silvestre, 2012). Moreover, efficient management of water firms is necessary for sustainable municipal water processes (Molinos-Senante, Porcher, & Maziotis, 2018). So, assessing the performance of water industry is needed broadly due to its environmental, economic and social benefits (Nogueira Vilanova, Magalhães Filho, & Perrella Balestieri, 2015). One of the performance measurement methods that have been considered extensively in the recent years is balanced scorecard (BSC). BSC is a strategic planning tool developed by Kaplan and Norton in 1992. It is a promising approach for providing a deep and precise understanding of the past and current status of companies. BSC consists both financial and non-financial aspects (Glykas, Valiris, & Chytas, 2011; Dehghanbaghi, Varmazyar, & Afkhami, 2016). In order to measure the performance of an organization, various criteria are used: such as effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, profitability, etc. In many complicated systems, many parameters affect the system simultaneously. Therefore, in decision-making process we encounter multiple criteria. Various methods used in solving multi criteria tasks such as analytic hierarchy process, the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), data envelopment analysis and so on (Yoon & Hwang, 1995). However, sometimes the grey relationships between indicators, lack of sufficient and clear information or difficulty of collecting experimental and practical data are the problems researchers face in some systems. Thus, to avoid data aggregation and wasting resources, grey relational analysis is an appropriate approach in these conditions (Lin, Chen, & Liu, 2004).