Abstract
Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 16-27 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Socio-Economic Planning Sciences |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2011 |
Funding
The authors are grateful to REF - The TUSIAD Sabanci University Competitiveness Forum -for their help in gathering and providing the data for this study. Füsun Ülengin is Professor of Operations Research, Industrial Engineering Department, Dogus University. Istanbul, Turkey. She acts as the Dean of the Engineering Faculty as well as the Head of the Industrial Engineering Department. She earned ar B.S. in managerial engineering from Istanbul Technical University, and an M.Sc. In industrial engineering from Bosphorus University, Istanbul. She pursued her Ph.D. education at Waterloo University, Ontario, Canada (Engineering Faculty, Department of Management Sciences) and received her degree from Istanbul Technical University, Management Faculty, Turkey. Professor Ulengin did post-doctoral research, on logistics, at Birmingham University, UK, Department of Production Engineering, as an Honorary Research Fellow. Her research focuses on the multiobjective evaluation of macrosystems in general, and transportation and logistics systems, in particular. Professor Ulengin also has interests in multi-attribute and group decision-making models, decision support systems, as well as neural networks. Her refereed articles have appeared in a variety of journals including Omega, Journal of the Operations Research Society, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, and Transportation Research-E .She acted as international program chair of the World Confrence of Transportation Research (WCTR’2010) as well as Odyseus 2010 (Workshop on Logistics) and the IFAC Symposium on Computational Economics and Financial and Industrial Systems - CEFIS ’07. She is currently the vice-chair of the WCTR Society. Özgür Kabak is a Lecturer in the Industrial Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering, both from Istanbul Technical University. His Ph.D. work focused on supply chain plannig with probabilistic linear programming. Professor Kabak did Postdoc research at Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK*CEN) with the support of Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO). His current research interests include fuzzy decision making, mathematical programming, and supply chain management. Şule Önsel is an Associate Professor in the Industrial Engineering Department, Dogus University. Istanbul, Turkey. She acts as the Vice-Dean of the Engineering Faculty. She received her B.S., M.Sc. and Ph.D., all from Istanbul Technical University (Management Faculty, Department of Industrial Engineering). Professor Onsel’s doctoral thesis analyzed inflation in Turkey with the help of artificial neural networks. Her areas of research interest include decision- making, neural networks, scenario analysis, cognitive mapping, and Bayesian causal maps. Her most recent publication, “A problem-structuring model for analyzing transportation–environment relations” appears in European Journal of Operational Research . She is currently Deputy Topic Area Manager for Topic Area of Transport in Developing Countries within the World Conference of Transportation Research (WCTR) Society. Emel Aktas is a Lecturer of Sustainability and Operations Management at Brunel Business School, London, UK. She earned her B.S., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. Her B.S. degree focused on logistics management,while her M.Sc. dealt with healthcare management, and her Ph.D. degree involved supply chain contracting. Professor Aktas’ research focuses on supply chain management, transportation networks, sustainable system design, healthcare management, and competitiveness of nations. She also has interests in multi-attribute and group decision-making models, decision support systems, and policy making. She took part as a researcher in both public and private funded projects in areas as diverse as location selection, shift scheduling, and transportation master plan strategy. Her refereed articles have appeared in a variety of journals including European Journal of Operational Research, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, and Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice . Barnett R. Parker is Professor, Department of Health Administration, School of Graduate Studies and School of Business and Economics, Pfeiffer University, Charlotte and RTP, NC. He was formerly Professor, Department of Health Policy and Administration, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Professor Parker earned a B.S.Ch.E. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MBA and Ph.D., both from The Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, NY. His research interests focus on the application of OR/MS, marketing, and strategic planning models to problems of service and health care delivery, with an emphasis on developing country settings. Professor Parker also presents short courses and seminars on the writing, editing, and delivery of scholarly manuscripts for publication in English language journals. His work has taken him to nearly 50 countries on five continents under funding by such agencies as USAID, WHO, PAHO, The World Bank, and many universities and foreign governments. His research has appeared in a wide variety of refereed journals, including Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, OMEGA, Computers and Operations Research, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Journal of Health Administration Education, The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Medical Systems, World Health Forum, and Public Health Nursing . He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, and is on the Editorial Boards of International Journal of the Society of Systems Science and International Journal of Information Systems & Social Change. Professor Parker is a professional photographer who has had numerous showings and exhibitions of his work. In conjunction with this work, he enjoys ‘adventure travel’ worldwide.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Belgian Nuclear Research Centre | |
| Belgian Federal Science Policy Office |
Keywords
- Artificial neural networks
- Competitiveness of nations
- Data envelopment analysis
- Human development