Assessing the research efficiency of Canadian scholars in the management field: Evidence from the DEA and fsQCA

This study combines a data envelopment analysis (DEA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to assess the research efficiency of Canadian scholars in the management field and examine the combination of causal conditions that might improve/hinder this efficiency. The DEA results indicate that there is substantial room for improvements of research efficiency within this field. Moreover, we obtained evidence showing that three determinants individually explain differences in research efficiency among scholars: seniority, public funding, and business school's reputation. The fsQCA was used to further pursue this direction and identify how these three variables and scholars' social capital interact to provide alternative routes to research efficiency. The fsQCA results show that none of the variables are necessary conditions for high research efficiency. However, three combinations of these variables are sufficient conditions for explaining high research efficiency.