Productivity in sports organisational training activities: A DEA study

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the productivity of organisational sports training courses implemented by Portuguese sports federations with the aim of improving competitive performance within each respective sport. This training is financed by the State and, depending on the management procedure adopted by the federations, it can induce improvements or deterioration of training productivity. We analyse the efficiency of this activity using a benchmark procedure, data envelopment analysis (DEA), which permits us to separate total productivity into technical efficiency and technological change. We find that there is every possible combination of technical efficiency and technological change In the sample analysed, with only a small group of federations simultaneously exhibiting improvements in both areas, denoting that there is room for further improvement in this activity.