Operational Efficiency Measurement of Agricultural Cooperatives: Application of Super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract The purpose of this study is to measure the operational efficiency of agricultural cooperatives applied of Super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis (SE-DEA). This study also compares the management efficiency of agricultural cooperatives in Uthai Thani Province categorized between large and very large scale sizes. The data used consisted of secondary data from the performance records of agricultural cooperatives in Uthai Thani Province during the fiscal years 2016 to 2018. A total of 30 cooperatives were categorized into 13 large agricultural cooperatives and 17 very large agricultural cooperatives, which were analyzed using SE-DEA model. The results showed that the average operating efficiency score of large agricultural cooperatives was 1.7979, whereas that of very large cooperatives was 2.0034, indicating that very large cooperatives have higher operating efficiency than large ones. Therefore, agricultural cooperatives in Uthai Thani Province can reduce the use of production factors to increase operational efficiency and promote member participation by incentivizing them to engage in cooperative management, share experiences on cooperative operations, and develop guidelines for cooperative advancement.