Performance Evaluation of Real Estate Investment Trusts using a Hybridized Interval Type-2 Fuzzy AHP-DEA Approach: The Case of Borsa Istanbul

This study proposes a three-stage holistic methodology combining an interval type-2 fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (IT2F-AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to deal with the performance evaluation problems encountered in fuzzy decision environments. In the first stage, prospective inputs and outputs are determined by field studies. The second stage employs IT2F-AHP to identify the most appropriate performance indicators based on vague expert judgements. Finally, DEA is applied to the decision-making units (DMIJs) based on the selected set of input and output measures. The proposed methodology proves its merit on a case study addressing the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Turkey during their 10-year journey of trading on Borsa Istanbul (BIST). The results demonstrate that the average scores for technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies are 66%, 80% and 80%, respectively. Considering the technical efficiency scores, Turkish REITs could have reduced their input factors by an average of 34%. The findings also reveal that the majority of Turkish REITs suffer from economies of scale and could have improved their performance by expansion.