Ranking industries using a hybrid of DEA-TOPSIS

Ranking industry normally helps find hot sectors and attract potential investors to invest in appropriate plans. Ranking various industries is also a multiple criteria decision making problem. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to rank different industries using the art of data envelopment analysis (DEA). The inputs of our proposed DEA model include capital, employment and importance coefficient and outputs are exports, ecological effects and added value. In addition, exports, value added and environmental investment are used as outputs of DEA method. Since the results of DEA may consider more than one efficient unit, so we implement Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique to rank efficient units. In our case study, there were 15 different sectors from various industries and the implementation of DEA technique recommends 8 efficient units. The implementation of TOPSIS among these efficient units has suggested that Chemical industry could be considered as the most attracting industry for investment.