Purpose

This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of the three telecommunications companies in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Mobily and Zain over the period of 2010–2019. This evaluation is a step toward improving the performance of the Saudi telecommunications sector.

Design/methodology/approach

Three multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques were used to calculate technical efficiency. These techniques include the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA), window DEA and analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The three inputs used were total assets, operating expenses and capital expenditures, whereas the two outputs were sales revenue and total stockholders’ equity.

Findings

STC was ranked first using the three techniques, followed by Zain, and then Mobily. According to the DEA window analysis, these three companies were all efficient only in 2012. The efficiency was high in the initial years, 2010–2013, when it was above 0.90, and it dropped below 0.90 in the subsequent years, 2014–2019. In addition, the efficiency of STC remained high, with an average of 0.990. However, the average efficiencies of Zain and Mobily during this period were 0.807 and 0.804, respectively.

Originality/value

This is the first study to use the three MCDM techniques to evaluate the performance of telecommunications providers. The results show that window DEA is better than the other two techniques at evaluating performance over time, as it has a higher discrimination power than either the traditional DEA or AHP.

中文翻译：

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使用窗口 DEA 和 AHP 技术评估沙特阿拉伯电信公司的技术效率

目的

本研究旨在评估沙特阿拉伯三大电信公司：沙特电信公司 (STC)、Mobily 和 Zain 在 2010 年至 2019 年期间的效率。此次评估是提高沙特电信行业绩效的一步。

设计/方法论/途径

使用三种多标准决策（MCDM）技术来计算技术效率。这些技术包括传统的数据包络分析（DEA）、窗口DEA和层次分析法（AHP）。使用的三个输入是总资产、营业费用和资本支出，而两个输出是销售收入和股东权益总额。

发现

STC 在这三种技术中排名第一，其次是 Zain，然后是 Mobily。根据DEA窗口分析，这3家公司仅在2012年才有效率。最初几年，2010-2013年，效率较高，效率在0.90以上，随后几年，2014-2019年，效率下降到0.90以下。此外，STC的效率仍然很高，平均为0.990。然而，Zain 和 Mobily 在此期间的平均效率分别为 0.807 和 0.804。

原创性/价值

这是第一个使用三种 MCDM 技术来评估电信提供商绩效的研究。结果表明，窗口 DEA 在评估随时间变化的绩效方面优于其他两种技术，因为它比传统 DEA 或 AHP 具有更高的区分能力。