An improved game cross-efficiency approach with dual-role factors for measuring the efficiency of Chinese “985 project” universities

Evaluating the efficiency of universities is essential to gain sustained competitive advantage for regional/national development, especially from the long-run perspective. In this paper, we develop an improved game cross-efficiency (GCE) approach to assess Chinese “985 Project” universities considering dual-role factors. First, building on the concept of “joint technology” and the GCE approach, we provide a new approach for efficiency analysis with dual-role factors. In addition, we identify a potential inconsistency problem while searching the Nash equilibrium point from a computational perspective. Importantly, we propose an improved searching process that is consistent with the original GCE paradigm. Finally, we illustrate the proposed approach by applying it to “985 Project” universities in China. The findings validate the importance of adopting the proposed improved approach.