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Ways of sharing information as part of the development and implementation of new evaluation methods were studied in a project involving thirteen public libraries, one polytechnic library, and one university library. The purpose of the project was to initiate collaboration in evaluation and to develop qualitative evaluation tools that would be easy to use. Communities of practice, comprising of representatives of the different libraries, had a focal role in the development work, in which sharing of information was elemental. Qualitative tools consisted of portfolios and various forms for collecting information. In addition, informal consortium benchmarking was applied to evaluate different library tasks. Although small units have rarely been studied with regard to the sharing of knowledge or information or benchmarking, they should be. Moreover, small units may even be able to contribute to development. The study is based on information gathered from participants using interviews and questionnaires as well as project documentation, the contents of which have been analyzed qualitatively.

To examine metrics used for performance measurement, analysis, and decision-making by insurance cooperatives.

A documentary review and semi-structured interviews of three large insurance cooperatives form the basis of the study.

The analysis suggests insurance co-operatives metrics are consistent with investor-owned companies. These measures do not recognize the cooperative principles and values which consistent the formative basis of these insurance co-operatives.

The insurance co-operatives under examination do not engage in a comparison to other insurance co-operatives; rather comparisons are made against investor-owned companies. As this analysis is used in decision-making and strategy formulation, guiding the direction of the co-operatives the questions must be raised: does the co-operative difference exist in the insurance sector and how (and what) performance analysis tools are used to assess their performance?

There is a paucity of research in the area of metrics and analytics of co-operatives. As such this article expands the academic scope of examination of co-operatives in the context of financial and accounting operations. Additionally, it adds to the ongoing discussion in the academy focused on the nature of co-operatives and the nature of the co-operative difference.

The purpose of this paper is to overview the academic literature on benchmarking of best practices tracking the most important articles and understanding the similarity between studies.

The most relevant articles were identified using techniques such as the PageRank algorithm and co-citation maps. An analysis of the most relevant articles presents the main concepts, methods and updated discussions on this research field.

The analysis of academic output substantiates the increase in the production of articles on this research topic. There were identified two main clusters of co-cited articles, one related to data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other that presents a wide variation of methods for benchmarking. There are important critiques towards the past research on benchmarking of best practices, yet, new DEA approaches seem to address most of the criticized issues.

From time to time, a review of the literature of a certain field of knowledge is useful for other researchers to identify and organize its main theories, new trends, most relevant works, influent authors and important publications.

This paper delivers two important values: the updated discussion on benchmarking of best practices, clearing both DEA and non-DEA studies; and the methods adopted to systematically review the literature, which is original on this field of research.

Benchmarking is recognised as an essential tool for continuous improvement of quality. A large number of publications by various authors reflect the interest in this technique. Reviews of literature on benchmarking have been done in the past by a few authors. However, considering the contributions in the recent times, a more comprehensive review is attempted here. In this paper, the authors have reviewed benchmarking literature in a way that would help researchers, academicians and practitioners to take a closer look at the growth, development and applicability of this technique. The authors have examined various papers and have proposed a different scheme of classification. In addition, certain gaps that would provide hints for further research in benchmarking have been identified.

The construction sector is highly prone to accidents, traditionally assessed using subjective qualitative measurements. To enhance the allocation of risk management resources and identify high-risk projects during pre-construction, an objective and quantitative approach is necessary. This study introduces a three-step clustering methodology to quantitatively evaluate accident risk levels in construction projects.

In the first step, accident and total construction revenue by project were collected to calculate accident probabilities. In the second step, accident probabilities were calculated by project type using the data collected in the first step. After that, benchmark models were suggested using clustering methods to identify high-risk project types for risk management. Before suggesting the benchmark models, an uncertainty analysis was conducted due to the limited amount of data. In the third step, the suggested benchmark models were validated for accuracy.

The results categorized risk levels for fatalities and injuries into four distinct groups. Validation through ordinal logistic regression demonstrated high explanatory power, with fatality risk levels ranging from 79.9 to 100% and injury risk levels from 90.3 to 100%.

This benchmark model facilitates effective comparisons and analyses across various construction sectors and countries, offering a robust quantitative standard for risk management. By identifying high-risk projects such as “Dam,” this methodology enables better resource allocation during the pre-construction phase, thereby improving overall safety management in the construction industry and providing a basis for legislative applications.

Technological modernization is increasingly viewed as a premeditated necessity in today's era of growth and prosperity for any country. Telecommunications has entered a new age of development with advanced technology and increased competition with established players. The technological advances in the telecommunication sector are associated with an uninterrupted growth of the mobile sector. The prime focus of the service providers is to create a loyal customer base by benchmarking their performances and retaining existing customers in order to benefit from their loyalty. The paper aims to address these issues.

This paper employs the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compare the relative efficiency of mobile service providers in India. The identification of the strongest and the weakest service providers could be very useful in improving their efficiency and performance. Mathematically, DEA determines the best weights for each input and output for a particular unit under study so as to maximize its relative efficiency.

The results are insightful to the telecom policy planner as benchmark them in terms of their efficiency. It also identifies the inefficient service providers who can improve their efficiency by making the efficient providers as their role model. The paper also identifies some generic insights.

This research paper contributes to the literature in two ways: firstly, this research identifies the different parameters for the mobile service providers in India for the benchmarking of the service providers. It also categorises them into various input and output parameters contributing towards the number of subscribers for different service providers. In the next stage, this research takes a further step and examines whether there are differences between the number of subscribers and the performance of the service providers. Benchmarking of the service providers would depend on the efficiency and quality of service. There is still great diversity in the relative performance of various service providers, which is a matter of concern to the telecom planner in this country.

This paper is one of the few published studies that benchmark the performance of Telecom Services in India.

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the benchmarking literature by examining the historical emergence and evolution of benchmarking using the management fashion perspective as a theoretical lens.

The research approach followed in this paper can be characterized as explorative and theoretical. Insights from different data sources have been combined to provide a rich description of the emergence and evolution of benchmarking.

This analysis casts new light on several aspects of benchmarking’s emergence and evolution pattern. The characteristics of the benchmarking idea give it potential as a fashionable management tool. The widespread popularity and longevity of benchmarking can to a large extent be explained by the efforts of various actors to turn benchmarking into an institution.

The paper is explorative and is limited by a reliance on secondary sources.

Although some researchers have noted that benchmarking could be viewed as a management fashion, management fashion theory has, only to a very limited extent, been used as a theoretical lens in the context of benchmarking. This research paper demonstrates that management fashion theory can provide valuable insights for research on benchmarking.

The purpose of the paper is to present and empirically support a theoretically sound, operational, and easy‐to‐implement supplier risk management framework that focuses on supplier development using a benchmarking approach.

The paper develops a five stage framework for supplier risk management, entailing supplier risk identification, assessment of supplier risks, reporting and decision of supplier risks, supplier risk management responses, and supplier risk performance outcomes, that builds on the conceptual approach of Ritchie and Bridley and the approach of the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (AIRMIC). The operation of the framework is illustrated in a single case study of a UK firm.

The paper contributes to research in operations management and particularly in risk management in the specific field of supplier risk management. The study presents details of one of the later stages of the risk framework (i.e. management responses stage) and enhances understanding of how the development of suppliers can be conducted so as to create a viable supplier base.

As an analytical method, the use of factor analysis generally requires metric scaled data, but ordinal‐scaled data were applied to it. Therefore, two‐factor solution with non‐metric multidimensional scaling was confirmed. In addition, the operation of supplier risk framework is demonstrated within one firm only. Further case studies are therefore needed to strengthen the research findings.

Managers can use the supplier risk management framework to develop firm‐specific risk management programs, and to create management responses that influence and improve their relationships with suppliers. The framework is fully operational, easy to implement; and facilitates proactive supplier risk management, rather than reactive crisis management.

The study goes beyond the conceptual discussion of supplier risk management, and demonstrates the activities a firm can undertake in response to supplier risk ratings and assessments.

This conceptual paper aims to propose the evidence-based benchmarking model that bridges standard benchmarking practices with evidence-based management (EBMgt) principles and lessens tensions between two opposite views of benchmarking as a useful management tool vs a management hype and fashion.

This conceptual paper is based on the critical reasoning, analysis and integration of so far largely separated research fields of benchmarking and EBMgt. The author employs a method of conceptual model building to identify connections between standard benchmarking model and EBMgt practices and to explain how a sequence of benchmarking events supplemented by EBMgt principles might lead to more reliable managerial decision-making.

The author argues that although there are no common benchmarking procedures, it is possible to identify a standard benchmarking model that resonates in most contemporary benchmarking procedures and consists of four main phases: plan, do, check and act (PDCA). The author integrated this standard model with EBMgt practices of searching for evidence in four sources of information and a six-step critical thinking process to put forward the model of evidence-based benchmarking.

The proposed model is a novel, comprehensive framework that puts together so far incompatible practices of benchmarking and EBMgt. The model clears up existing conceptual confusions around “casual” benchmarking and advances contemporary understanding of benchmarking practices. The model of evidence-based benchmarking might act as a practical, heuristic tool improving the quality of the managerial decisions and thus positively influencing the bottom line of business performance.

The purpose of this paper is to establish practical guidelines for benchmarking eight total quality management (TQM) practices vital to pharmaceutical companies’ performance. The paper also proposes the use of an analytic total quality index (TQI) as a benchmarking tool and illustrates the importance and effectiveness of this benchmarking methodology by applying it in two comparative studies of three Jordanian pharmaceutical companies.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the data were gathered through a questionnaire that was used to evaluate the gap between the ideal and current status of the quality management system and distributed to the quality units from three companies: pharmaceutical manufacturing company, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company working in the same field and a pharmaceutical service providing research services to a pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. And the mean differences between the current and ideal states for the eight critical TQM practices were compared for these two comparative studies using the t-test.

Each of the two comparisons reveals statistically significant differences regarding the perceptions of actual and ideal scores for manufacturing and service companies on five out of eight critical factors and, on two out of eight critical factors for manufacturing and manufacturing companies.

The pharmaceutical companies, regardless of whether they are manufacturing or service company, can adopt benchmarking techniques which were applied in this case study to improve their performance and their product/service quality.

The consequences of this research can support organization managers and policy makers in effectively benchmarking the identified TQM practices in their organizations using the proposed TQI benchmarking tool.