Theoretical Paper
Journal of the Operational Research Society (2009) 60, 983–990. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602638 Published online 9 July 2008
Measuring the performance of nations at the Olympic Games using DEA models with different preferences
D Zhang1,2, X Li1, W Meng1 and W Liu3
- 1Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- 2University of Science and Technology, Hehei, China
- 3University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Correspondence: W Liu, Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7PE, UK. E-mail: w.b.liu@kent.ac.uk
This research is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scholars Fund of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Received August 2007; Accepted March 2008; Published online 9 July 2008.
Abstract
It is well known that Olympic Games often use Lexicographic preference to rank the nations that won the medals. However, Lexicographic preference is not the underlying preference that is used in the standard DEA models. Hence, we discuss the issue of the underlying preferences in DEA models for measuring the performance of nations at the Olympic Games, and then propose new DEA models with Lexicographic preference to measure the performance of the nations.
Keywords:
lexicographic preference, DEA, performance measurement, Olympic Games
