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Identifying the Influential Factors in Increasing the Efficiency of Network Systems: A Mixed Binary Linear Programming

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Abstract

Old models in data envelopment analysis (DEA) consider decision-making units (DMUs) as black boxes. Therefore, they do not have a proper efficiency to evaluate network systems. This shortcoming has led to the emergence of network models that take the performance of a system’s processes into account in calculating the performance, and some of which also assign a certain value of performance to the processes. However, no model has examined the effect of intermediate factors in a network system, while the study of these intermediate factors can greatly help to increase the efficiency of a system. In this paper, our aim is to present a mixed binary linear programming that identifies the intermediate factors that are relatively more effective in increasing the performance of a network system. At the end, the new model is implemented on a small network system in order to better describe the performance, as well as on a real-world network system.

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Availability of Data and Material

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments which lead to this improved version of the paper.

Funding

Mehri Bagherian was partly supported by University of Guilan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Science, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

    Reza Feizabadi

  2. Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Science, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

    Mehri Bagherian

Authors
  1. Reza Feizabadi
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  2. Mehri Bagherian
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Contributions

RF created the model and designed the simulation. MB has been involved in designing the model and simulations. Both authors have been involved in drafting and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mehri Bagherian.

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Feizabadi, R., Bagherian, M. Identifying the Influential Factors in Increasing the Efficiency of Network Systems: A Mixed Binary Linear Programming. Oper. Res. Forum 4, 68 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43069-023-00259-8

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