Measuring Scientific Productivity in China Using Malmquist Productivity Index

摘要

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the scientific productivity of China’s science system.Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs the Malmquist productivity index(MPI) based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).Findings: The results reveal that the overall efficiency of Chinese universities increasedsignificantly from 2009 to 2016, which is mainly driven by technological progress. From theperspective of the functions of higher education, research and transfer activities performbetter than the teaching activities.Research limitations: As an implication, the indicator selection mechanism, investigationperiod and the MPI model can be further extended in the future research.Practical implications: The results indicate that Chinese education administrativedepartments should take actions to guide and promote the teaching activities and formulatereasonable resource allocation regulations to reach the balanced development in Chineseuniversities.Originality/value: This paper selects 58 Chinese universities and conducts a quantifiedmeasurement during the period 2009–2016. Three main functional activities of universities(i.e. teaching, researching, and application) are innovatively categorized into differentschemes, and we calculate their performance, respectively.