Two-stage performance model for evaluating the managerial efficiency of higher education: Application by the Taiwanese tourism and leisure department

Numerous Taiwanese universities have rapidly established tourism and leisure departments to train human resources for tourism industries in recent times. The proliferation of these programs has raised the question of whether these tourism and leisure departments efficiently allocate education resources to train labour. This study constructs a two-stage performance evaluation model composing of research and development performance on first stage and teaching performance on second stage. In addition, the relational two-stage data envelopment analysis is applied to evaluate 34 tourism and leisure departments in Taiwanese technology universities. The study results indicate that the two-stage performance evaluation model is superior to the single-stage model. Additionally, 34 tourism and leisure departments are divided into four categories including benchmark, R&D-oriented, teaching oriented, and follower. Finally, this study recommends how each tourism and leisure department can improve its performance. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.