Coordination efficiency in two-stage network DEA: application to a supplier–manufacturer sustainable supply chain

Performance or efficiency evaluation is of great importance for effective supply chain management, especially in the context of sustainable development and platform economy. In existing literature, two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely used for supply chain efficiency evaluation. Although existing supply chain DEA usually assumes two-stage systems resolve the inherent conflicts between two stages, e.g. the supplier and manufacturer in a two-echelon supply chain, the relation of supply chain DEA to traditional ‘black box' DEA remains unclear. Moreover, the coordination effect between the two stages is ignored. In this paper, we define the coordination efficiency and propose a DEA-based approach for measuring the coordination effect of supply chain systems. We prove that the proposed multiplier DEA approach is equivalent to the envelopment DEA one. The proposed approach in this paper is verified via a numerical example from a supplier–manufacturer sustainable supply chain on resin companies finally.