Applying Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate the Operation Performance of Taiwan’s TFT-LCD Industry After Post-Global Financial Crisis: A Longitudinal Study

After the global financial crisis occurred in 2008, thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry, one of the major industries in Taiwan, has been subject to mass production and low-price competition by manufacturers in China. As a result, companies are facing an increasingly tough operating environment and some of them had to conduct merger/acquisition and transformation and even went bankruptcy ultimately due to unbearable long-term losses. This study aims to apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to evaluate changes in operation performance and productivity of listed companies operating in Taiwan TFT-LCD industry during the period between 2008 and 2017, and research results thereof could provide companies with a reference for organizing adjustment and developing strategies. According to research results: (1) among the six evaluated TFT-LCD manufacturers, TFT-LCD manufacturer F enjoys the best operation performance, and its overall technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency are above the average in the industry; therefore, TFT-LCD manufacturer F is considered as the benchmark enterprise among companies; (2) at the same technical level, both inputs of research and development (R&D) and human resources failed to be effectively utilized, which demonstrates that there is still a lot of room for improvement in operation efficiency of inefficient manufacturers.