1. ¹Nankai University, P.R. China
2. ²Nanjing University, P.R. China

Correspondence: Lei Fang, International Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin City, 300071, P.R. China. E-mail: fanglei@nankai.edu.cn

Received April 2005; Accepted March 2007; Published online 20 June 2007.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to a resource-allocation problem that typically appears in organizations with a centralized decision-making environment, for example, police stations, banks, and universities. The central unit is assumed to be interested in maximizing both the total efficiency and the efficiency of the individual unit by allocating available resources to them. Building upon this, we present a data envelopment analysis-based model for allocating input resources to DMUs (the decision-making units) under the framework of multiple objective programming. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the approach.