Measuring Progress and Regress of Print Media using Malmquist Productivity Index in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Limitation of resources is an undeniable fact, which is dealt with many organizations such as media organizations. Hence, improving the performance of resource utilization for this organizations is one of the most important concerns of managers. As a result, a manager must evaluate frequently the performance of these organizations. In this paper, we intend to measure the progress and regress of Iranian print newspapers between two time periods (2016-2017). The current study is applied in terms of purpose an applied research and uses the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) which is a very useful approach in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the rate of progress and regress of decision making units (DMUs) under evaluation. The necessary measurement has performed by GAMS software which is a high-level modeling system for mathematical programming and optimization. Also, we have been identified the appropriate indicators with reviewing of performance measurement literature and interview with specialists in the field of media management and experts from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance-Deputy of Press and Information Affairs. The results of the comparison of intra-organizational indicators between two time periods (2016-2017) show that 29 units of the 87 DMUs have progressed and 58 units have regressed. In order to improve inefficient units, an appropriate strategy is suggested.