Abstract
Over the past years, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology has registered widespread use among researchers from many fields. Furthermore, it is important to note that the non-Archimedean infinitesimal, ɛ, is a key concept in DEA models. Nevertheless, it is known that some computational difficulties arise when using ɛ in DEA. In this short communication, we show how the non-Archimedean may be voided using a directional distance function approach. Thus, our approach avoids choosing a real number (10−5 or 10−6) as a value for ɛ or estimating the same.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank both the editors and five anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the previous version of this short communication.
Notes
Please note this paper has been re-typeset by Taylor & Francis from the manuscript originally provided to the previous publisher.