Supply Chain and Information System Services: An Efficiency Comparison between Turkish and Bulgarian SMEs

Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) this study attempts to compare the relative efficiencies of supply chain management (SCM) and information system (IS) services of the SMEs operating in Turkey and Bulgaria. Some significant differences have been found between the efficiency levels of SCM services, IS services and SCM&IS services, and the nationality of the sample firms. Turkish SMEs tend to achieve higher efficiency level with respect to each group of input variables. There are also significant differences in returns to scale for each group of input variables with respect to the country of origin of the firms. In general, it would not be unreasonable to argue that Bulgarian SMEs have better potential to improve their operational performance by exerting relatively less effort through incrementing their level of SCM and IS services. The analysis of the improvement potential of inputs indicates that Bulgarian SMEs place more emphasis on managing most of the SCM services to enhance their SCM efficiency. However, no statistically significant differences in general were noted between both groups of firms with regard to the level of resources and efforts exerted on IS and SCM&IS services. In terms of the overall average of output deficits, Turkish SMEs were found to have significantly higher output deficits than Bulgarian SMEs with respect to all three groups of input variables. In other words, the capability of Turkish SMEs to transform input variables into operational performance is far lower than that of Bulgarian SMEs.