Technical Efficiency in the European Dairy Industry: Can We Observe Systematic Failures in the Efficiency of Input Use?
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
The manuscript contains interesting research. The structure of the paper is good and it is well written. However, I propose to make a few improvements:
1. The introduction lacks research hypotheses and shows why this research is important. Who can benefit from these research results?
2. What was the selection of countries? Why were these chosen exactly? There is no substantive justification.
3. What percentage of companies in the food and dairy industries were used in the research? What is the percentage of companies in each country? I propose to add this information in table 1.
4.The conclusion section is missing.
5. What are the limitations of the conducted research?
6. What are the implications for politics, companies, management etc.?
7. What is the future research?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to thank you for your valuable comments that led to the improvement of our paper. Below, we response your comments:
„Is the content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background and empirical research (if applicable) on the topic?“ We added Table 1 that highlights the previous studies of the technical efficiency of the European dairy processing industry.
„Is the article adequately referenced?“ More references were added.
„The introduction lacks research hypotheses and shows why this research is important. Who can benefit from these research results?“ It was incorporated, see Chapter 1.
„What was the selection of countries? Why were these chosen exactly? There is no substantive justification.“ It was incorporated, see Chapter 2.
„What percentage of companies in the food and dairy industries were used in the research? What is the percentage of companies in each country? I propose to add this information in table 1.“ The information was added, see Table 2.
„The conclusion section is missing.“ The conclusion section was added, see Chapter 6.
„What are the limitations of the conducted research?“ The limitations are now presented in Chapter 6.
„What are the implications for politics, companies, management etc.?“ The implications were added, see Chapter 6
„What is the future research?“ A comment about future research was added, see Chapter 6.
Reviewer 2 Report
The evaluation of the efficiency of the food or any industry is in a focus of the industrial development. The manuscript is logically structured, presented a detailed up-to-date mathematical background. The conclusions are correct. The rewier has got some questions. Does the technical efficiency contain or relate to financial elements (line 81)? Would the inclusion of the factories with negative or zero profit change the findings? The presentation of some IDF estimates by countries could provide the reader with the insights and means for improving efficiency by countries. The means for the overall technical efficiencies in table 2. vary between 0.92and 0.96, while in table 3. the average is 0.897.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to thank you for your valuable comments that led to the improvement of our paper. Below, we response your comments:
„Does the technical efficiency contain or relate to financial elements (line 81)?“ The confusing statement was corrected.
„Would the inclusion of the factories with negative or zero profit change the findings?“ The firms with negative or zero profit are in the sample. Only those firms with zero and negative values of inputs were excluded, due to the inconsistency with the theoretical assumptions.
„The presentation of some IDF estimates by countries could provide the reader with the insights and means for improving efficiency by countries.“ Due to the extent of the country-specific IDF estimates, we decided not to present them. However, we can provide them on request.
„The means for the overall technical efficiencies in table 2. vary between 0.92and 0.96, while in table 3. the average is 0.897.“ These tables provide different technical efficiency estimates – Table 2: Meta-frontier and Table 3: Country-specific estimates.
Reviewer 3 Report
In paragraph 2 a Table including main updates studies and a graphical scheme of Theoretical Background should be added.
The paragraph 3.2. Data used in the study should be implemented by marking the importance of database development and more examples of existing databases and resources. More details should be give in Table 1
A sectiond Conclusion should be added by highlighting limits, advantages and practical applications
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to thank you for your valuable comments that led to the improvement of our paper. Below, we response your comments:
„In paragraph 2 a Table including main updates studies and a graphical scheme of Theoretical Background should be added.“ The table with the main studies was added – see Table 1. The graphical scheme of stochastic frontier models development was added – see Figure 1.
„The paragraph 3.2. Data used in the study should be implemented by marking the importance of database development and more examples of existing databases and resources. More details should be give in Table 1.“ More details were added about the database – see Table 2 and Table 3.
„A section Conclusion should be added by highlighting limits, advantages and practical applications.“
The conclusion section with limits, advantages and practical applications was added, see Chapter 6.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
The revised version is satisfactory.
