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Sociotechnical systems (STSs) rely on the collaboration between humans and autonomous decision-making units to fulfill their objectives. Highly intertwined social and technical contextual factors influence the collaboration between these human and engineered elements, and consequently the performance characteristics of the STS. In the next two decades, the role allocated to STSs in our society will drastically increase. Thus, the effective design of STSs requires an improved understanding of the human-autonomy interdependency. This dissertation brings together management science along with systems thinking and uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate the interdependencies between people and the autonomous systems they collaborate within complex socio-technical enterprises. The dissertation is organized in three mutually exclusive essays, each investigating a distinct facet of STSs: safe management, collaboration, and efficiency measurement. The first essay investigates the amount of work allocated to safety-critical decision makers and quantifies Rasmussen's workload boundary that represents the limit of attainable workload. The major contribution of this study is to quantify the qualitative theoretical construct of the workload boundary through a Pareto-Koopmans frontier. This frontier allows one to capture the aggregate impact of the social and technical factors that originate from operational conditions on workload. The second essay studies how teams of humans and their autonomous partners share work, given their subjective preferences and contextual operational conditions. This study presents a novel integration of machine learning algorithms in an efficiency measurement framework to understand the influence of contextual factors. The results demonstrate that autonomous units successfully handle relatively simple operational conditions, while complex operational conditions require both workers and their autonomous counterparts to collaborate towards common objectives. The third essay explores the complementary and contrasting roles of efficiency measurement approaches that deal with the influence of contextual factors and their sensitivity to sample size. The results are organized in a structured taxonomy of their fundamental assumptions, limitations, mathematical structure, sensitivity to sample size, and their practical usefulness. To summarize, this dissertation provides an interdisciplinary and pragmatic research approach that benefits from the strengths of both theoretical and data-driven empirical approaches. Broader impacts of this dissertation are disseminated among the literatures of systems engineering, operations research, management science, and mechanical design. / Doctor of Philosophy / A system is an integrated set of elements that achieve a purpose or goal. An autonomous system (ADS) is an engineered element that often substitutes for a human decision-maker, such as in the case of an autonomous vehicle. Sociotechnical systems (STSs) are systems that involve the collaboration of a human decision-maker with an ADS to fulfill their objectives. Historically, STSs have been used primarily for handling safety critical tasks, such as management of nuclear power plants. By design, STSs rely heavily on a collaboration between humans and ADS decision-makers. Therefore, the overall characteristics of a STS, such as system safety, performance, or reliability; is fully dependent on human decisions. The problem with that is that people are independent entities, who can be influenced by operational conditions. Unlike their engineered counterparts, people can be cognitively challenged, tired, or distracted, and consequently make mistakes. The current dependency on human decisions, incentivize business owners and engineers alike to increase the level of automation in engineered systems. This allows them to reduce operational costs, increase performance, and minimize human errors. However, the recent commercial aircraft accidents (e.g., Boeing 737-MAX) have indicated that increasing the level of automation is not always the best strategy. Given that increasing technological capabilities will spread the adoption of STSs, vast majority of existing jobs will either be fully replaced by an ADS or will change from a manual set-up into a STS. Therefore, we need a better understanding of the relationships between social (human) and engineered elements. This dissertation, brings together management science with systems thinking to investigate the dependencies between people and the autonomous systems they collaborate within complex socio-technical enterprises. The dissertation is organized in three mutually exclusive essays, each investigating a distinct facet of STSs: safe management, collaboration, and efficiency measurement. The first essay investigates the amount of work handled by safety-critical decision makers in STSs. Primary contribution of this study is to use an analytic method to quantify the amount of work a person could safely handle within a STSs. This method also allows to capture the aggregate impact of the social and technical factors that originate from operational conditions on workload. The second essay studies how teams of humans and their autonomous partners share work, given their preferences and operational conditions. This study presents a novel integration of machine learning algorithms to understand operational influences that propel a human-decision maker to handle the work manually or delegate it to ADSs. The results demonstrate that autonomous units successfully handle simple operational conditions. More complex conditions require both workers and their autonomous counterparts to collaborate towards common objectives. The third essay explores the complementary and contrasting roles of data-driven analytical management approaches that deal with the operational factors and investigates their sensitivity to sample size. The results are organized based on their fundamental assumptions, limitations, mathematical structure, sensitivity to sample size, and their practical usefulness. To summarize, this dissertation provides an interdisciplinary and pragmatic research approach that benefits from the strengths of both theoretical and data-driven empirical approaches. Broader impacts of this dissertation are disseminated among the literatures of systems engineering, operations research, management science, and mechanical design.

La presente investigación es un estudio para determinar la eficiencia de los recursos públicos invertidos en el Hospital General de Jaén, entre los años 2020 – 2021, sólo para el área COVID – 19, en el cual su metodología es de tipo cuantitativa no experimental, donde se utilizarán la base de datos brindado por el Hospital General de Jaén, y luego se utilizará la herramienta Solver, el cual se encuentra en Microsoft Excel, el cual ayuda a poder filtrar y seleccionar un rango de datos necesarios para las diferentes variables que se necesitan para determinar la eficiencia. Además, para determinar la eficiencia utilizaremos el método Análisis Envolvente de Datos, el cual nos dará resultado los veinticuatro meses de los dos años si han sido eficientes sí o no, donde el número 1 representará que ha sido eficiente, y los números que salgan alejados del 1 significarán que no ha sido eficiente. / The present investigation is a study to determine the efficiency of public resources invested in the General Hospital of Jaén, between the years 2020 - 2021, only for the COVID - 19 area, in which its methodology is quantitative, non-experimental, where The database provided by the General Hospital of Jaén will be used, and then the Solver tool will be used, which is found in Microsoft Excel, which helps to filter and select a range of data necessary for the different variables that are needed to determine efficiency. In addition, to determine efficiency we will use the Data Envelopment Analysis method, which will give us results for the twenty-four months of the two years if they have been efficient yes or no, where the number 1 will represent that it has been efficient, and the numbers that come out further away of 1 will mean that it has not been efficient.

Although the German framework of incentive-based energy regulation appears to be well-defined because it draws from international experience and eliminates several present drawbacks existing with revenue-cap regulation doubts of industry and politicians concerning the application of benchmarking techniques and more importantly, the future industry structure, remain. The regulation scheme is based on experience with energy sector reforms in the US due to it being a precursor in this regard, e.g. by introducing incentive-based regulation as early as 1994 and publishing the relevant data in a very detailed way. This thesis therefore brings together the two issues of certain efficiency measurement problems and the industry restructuring in Germany and the US in order to contribute to the current discussion of robust benchmarking and to provide political implications related to the industry’s structure. Therefore, the application of DEA and SFA constitutes the heart of the whole study. These techniques are applied on German electricity DSOs as well as on data for US electricity DSOs and US gas TSOs. The application to US data can then be used to derive information about business strategies and their success in a sector that is being restructured. The US experience will lead to relevant German policy implications with respect to the future structure of the energy industry in Germany. / Der deutsche Regulierungsansatz erscheint im Allgemeinen als ausgewogen, da er zum einen internationale Erfahrungen mit einbezieht und zum anderen bestehenden Schwächen der Erlös-Obergrenzenregulierung berücksichtigt. Dennoch bestehen Zweifel seitens Industrie- und Politvertretern bezüglich der Anwendung von Benchmarking-Techniken und noch bedeutsamer der zukünftigen Industriestruktur. Der regulatorische Rahmen basiert auf Erfahrungen aus der Regulierung der Energiewirtschaft aus den USA, da diese eine Vorreiterrolle in dieser Hinsicht innehaben, beispielsweise aufgrund der frühen Einführung der Anreizregulierung in 1994 und der sehr detaillierten Veröffentlichung der relevanten Daten. Diese Arbeit verknüpft daher diese zwei Aspekte zum einen der Existenz gewisser Problemfelder bei der Effizienzmessung als auch der Umstrukturierung der deutschen Industriestruktur in der Energiewirtschaft. Damit trägt sie zu der aktuellen Diskussion mit Bezug auf robustes Benchmarking bei und liefert zudem politische Implikationen bezüglich der Industriestruktur. Zu diesem Zweck steht die Anwendung der für die deutsche Regulierung der Energienetze relevanten Benchmarking-Techniken (Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) und Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)) im Zentrum der gesamten Studie. Die empirischen Analysen beziehen sich dabei auf deutsche Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreiber sowie auf Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreibern und Ferngasgesellschaften aus den USA. Die Analysen von US Daten können dann genutzt werden, um gehaltvolle Informationen über Unternehmensstrategien und deren Erfolg in einem restrukturierten Sektor zu gewinnen. Diese Erfahrungen münden dann in Schlussfolgerungen und Empfehlungen für die deutsche Regulierung und Industriestruktur der deutschen Energienetzwirtschaft.

Although the German framework of incentive-based energy regulation appears to be well-defined because it draws from international experience and eliminates several present drawbacks existing with revenue-cap regulation doubts of industry and politicians concerning the application of benchmarking techniques and more importantly, the future industry structure, remain. The regulation scheme is based on experience with energy sector reforms in the US due to it being a precursor in this regard, e.g. by introducing incentive-based regulation as early as 1994 and publishing the relevant data in a very detailed way. This thesis therefore brings together the two issues of certain efficiency measurement problems and the industry restructuring in Germany and the US in order to contribute to the current discussion of robust benchmarking and to provide political implications related to the industry’s structure. Therefore, the application of DEA and SFA constitutes the heart of the whole study. These techniques are applied on German electricity DSOs as well as on data for US electricity DSOs and US gas TSOs. The application to US data can then be used to derive information about business strategies and their success in a sector that is being restructured. The US experience will lead to relevant German policy implications with respect to the future structure of the energy industry in Germany. / Der deutsche Regulierungsansatz erscheint im Allgemeinen als ausgewogen, da er zum einen internationale Erfahrungen mit einbezieht und zum anderen bestehenden Schwächen der Erlös-Obergrenzenregulierung berücksichtigt. Dennoch bestehen Zweifel seitens Industrie- und Politvertretern bezüglich der Anwendung von Benchmarking-Techniken und noch bedeutsamer der zukünftigen Industriestruktur. Der regulatorische Rahmen basiert auf Erfahrungen aus der Regulierung der Energiewirtschaft aus den USA, da diese eine Vorreiterrolle in dieser Hinsicht innehaben, beispielsweise aufgrund der frühen Einführung der Anreizregulierung in 1994 und der sehr detaillierten Veröffentlichung der relevanten Daten. Diese Arbeit verknüpft daher diese zwei Aspekte zum einen der Existenz gewisser Problemfelder bei der Effizienzmessung als auch der Umstrukturierung der deutschen Industriestruktur in der Energiewirtschaft. Damit trägt sie zu der aktuellen Diskussion mit Bezug auf robustes Benchmarking bei und liefert zudem politische Implikationen bezüglich der Industriestruktur. Zu diesem Zweck steht die Anwendung der für die deutsche Regulierung der Energienetze relevanten Benchmarking-Techniken (Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) und Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)) im Zentrum der gesamten Studie. Die empirischen Analysen beziehen sich dabei auf deutsche Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreiber sowie auf Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreibern und Ferngasgesellschaften aus den USA. Die Analysen von US Daten können dann genutzt werden, um gehaltvolle Informationen über Unternehmensstrategien und deren Erfolg in einem restrukturierten Sektor zu gewinnen. Diese Erfahrungen münden dann in Schlussfolgerungen und Empfehlungen für die deutsche Regulierung und Industriestruktur der deutschen Energienetzwirtschaft.

隨著台海兩岸經貿往來密切，發展迅速，客觀上對銀行業提出了許多服務要求，為兩岸金融業的合作提供了廣闊的空間。本文通過採用數據包絡分析法和共同邊界成本函數比較分析了兩岸商業銀行的成本結構及效率差異，實證結果表示大陸商業銀行的成本效率要高於台灣銀行。對這一結果的可能性解釋是大陸銀行的資產規模要遠高於台灣銀行。銀行總資產越高，其獲取低投入要素價格的市場能力越強，因此生產成本更低，成本效率更高。台灣和大陸商業銀行有必要發揮自身的優勢，通過各種方式和渠道，加快兩岸銀行界合作的進程。 / With cross-strait rapid economic development and trade exchanges, huge business investments have induced a great demand for financial services and provided a broad space for cross-strait cooperation. This paper adopts data envelopment analysis and meta-frontier cost function to compare and analyze the different cost structure and efficiency of mainland and Taiwan commercial banks. The empirical results reveal that cost efficiency of mainland commercial banks is higher than Taiwanese ones, which is maybe caused by the larger bank size and total assets. The larger the size of banks, the higher the market power for reaping the benefits of low input prices, thereby resulting in a lower cost of production and a higher cost efficiency. It is necessary for mainland and Taiwan commercial banks to develop their own strengths to accelerate the process of cross-strait cooperation in the banking sector through various means and channels.

本研究欲了解有無集團企業背景對本國產險公司經營效率之影響，並透過本國有無集團企業背景產險公司之效率比較，求證關於代理理論之審慎管理假說及費用偏好假說是否成立。本研究運用資料包絡分析法(Data envelopment Analysis, DEA)及cross-frontier analysis評估民國81至90年，17家本國產險公司具集團背景及無集團背景各年度效率情況。另外，採用多元迴歸分析討論產險公司不同經營特性對經營效率的影響。本文亦利用Malmquist生產力指數分析具集團背景及無集團背景產險公司十年來生產力的變動。 　　本研究之實證研究結果如下： 一、於技術效率，具集團背景及無集團背景產險公司無技術效率差異，表示不論有無集團背景，皆有各自的經營技術優勢，符合審慎管理假說。於成本效率，發現81至85年時具集團背景產險公司之成本結構於生產無集團背景產險公司的產出相對較具成本效率，符合費用偏好假說；但86至90年時，則無集團背景產險公司之成本結構對於自己的產出較具成本效率，不符合費用偏好假說。 二、以多元迴歸分析於81至85年、86至90年，影響無集團背景產險公司效率之因素。本文發現於86至90年，當無集團背景產險公司總資產越小、再保比例越高，其以自己的成本結構進行生產，越顯著較以具集團背景產險公司的成本結構進行生產來得具成本效率。 三、二類產險公司於民國81至90年間生產力皆呈現衰退，且具集團背景產險公司衰退情況較嚴重。二類產險公司生產力衰退主因皆為生產技術的衰退；此外，具集團企業背景產險公司十年來的技術效率有衰退的趨勢，而無集團背景產險公司之技術效率則持續進步。若綜合前面成本效率的結果，則十年來具集團背景產險公司平均效率表現沒有進步跡象；而無集團背景產險公司有改善其效率。 / The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of“group”background on the property-liability insurance industry in Taiwan. We test the managerial discretion hypothesis and the expense preference hypothesis by comparing the efficiency of the group and independent property-liability insurers. Using the property-liability insurance industry in Taiwan from 1992-2001 as our sample, we use DEA and cross-frontier analysis, and adapt multiple regression analysis to examine the variables which affect the efficiency performance in the property insurance company. We also measure the productivity changes of the group firms and independent firms over ten years. The empirical results are summarized as follow. First, we find that the technical efficiency results are consistent with the managerial discretion hypothesis, in that there is no difference in the technical efficiency between the group firms and independent firms. The results of cost efficiency between 1992 and 1996 show that the group frontier dominates the independent frontier for independent outputs, supporting the expense preference hypothesis. However, the results of cost efficiency between 1997 and 2001 no more support the expense preference hypothesis in that the independent frontier dominates the group frontier for independent outputs. Second, we find that the independent firms tend to have a comparative advantage over the group firms in the independent cost frontier when the independent firm’s size is smaller or when its reinsurance proportion is higher. Finally, the results of the Malmquist productivity analysis show that the productivity of group firms declines in 1992-2001, and the decay is due to their technical efficiency decreases. Conversely, the productivity of the independent firm improves.

本研究依據2003年「行政院新聞局廣播電視白皮書」、「公開上市、上櫃資訊觀測網站有線電視系統業者財務報告書」等文獻資料，先以資料包絡分析法評估個別系統業者的技術效率，再應用Tobit截斷迴歸方法，探討影響台灣有線電視系統業者經營效率的因素。 評估結果顯示，造成個別有線電視系統業者經營技術無效率的因素，主要歸咎於浪費資源所造成之無效率，而非因生產規模不適當所造成之無效率，迴歸結果發現，營業收入與技術效率間具正向關係，而頻道數、廣告密集度、經營區面積、集團化及業務集中度對技術效率間具負向關係。 / Based on the information of 2003 “The Broadcasting television paper of Government Information Office of Executive Yuan” and “Finance Statements of The Cable System Operators of Listed Companies and OTC Listed Companies from Market Observation Post System in Taiwan”, this study first uses DEA to assess technical efficiency of cable system operators, and then applies the Tobit censored regression technique to investigate the determinants of technical efficiency. The efficiency-evaluating result shows that the main factor, which causes inefficient management, is an ineffective use of resource; an improper production scale has less impact on it. The regression result also shows that the revenue has a positive impact on technical efficiency, but the number of channels, Area, the density of advertisement, conglomeration, and business focus has negative impacts on technical efficiency.

本研究係以民國81年1月1日至民國90年12月31日間曾從事併購行為之國內53家上市櫃公司為研究樣本，取其併購前後五年之財務資料，利用資料包落分析法計算其整體技術效率、純技術效率、規模效率值，再依據目標公司是否位於國內為併購類型的分類標準，探討併購活動與併購類型是否影響主併公司績效。 本研究實證結果如下： 一、在不考慮併購類型的情況下，併購前後對於整體技術效率、純技術效率與規模效率呈現不顯著的正向關係，表示併購後效率雖然有提升，但未達顯著水準。 二、在未區別併購前後的情況下，雖然併購類型對於整體技術效率與純技術效率均呈正向關係，與規模效率則呈負向關係，但三種效率值皆未達到統計上顯著水準，表示進行國內併購與跨國併購的主併公司在效率上沒有太大差異。 三、跨國併購後在整體技術效率、純技術效率與規模效率均呈現正向關係，並且在整體技術效率與純技術效率達到統計上顯著水準，表示「國際化網路」假說確實存在。 / In this research, we based on the companies that listed in Taiwan Security Exchange or the OTC which had domestic or foreign acquisitions over the period from 1992 to 2001. Using these firms’ five years financial data before and after acquisitions, we apply Data Envelopment Analysis to measure efficiency and compare the performance of firms following domestic or foreign acquisitions. The major research finding as follows. First, if we do not consider the type of acqusiontion, domestic or foreign, the results denote that there is no efficiency difference before or after acquisitions. Second, after we control before or after acquisitions, the results demonstrate that there is no efference difference between domestic and foreign acquisions. Third, after we control the cross effects between acquisition time and acquisition types, the results show that after foreign acquisitions the merger companies increase efficiency significantly, which confirms “Positive Multinational Network Hypothesis”.

犯罪防治在各縣市警察機關勤務中具有一定的重要性，本研究目的在於評估各縣市警察機關執行治安與犯罪預防之相對效率。因為內政部將各縣市警察機關分成直轄市、甲級與乙級等三級制，故相對警力投入非常不一致，對犯罪預防效率會產生干擾，為將此項外在環境因素所造成的干擾排除，本研究採取三階段資料包絡分析法，針對臺灣23個縣市警察局，在民國93至95年間，建立評估相對效率之實證模型。研究結果發現未排除環境因素干擾前，臺灣地區各縣市警察局的治安與犯罪預防之平均相對規模效率高於純技術效率，顯示治安與犯罪預防之無效率應為生產技術的影響；此外，甲級縣市警察局的總技術效率值最高，反之，直轄市警察局的治安與犯罪防治效率為最低。在排除環境因素干擾後，臺灣地區各縣市警察局平均治安與犯罪預防相對效率有輕微下降現象，其中，乙級縣市警察局的治安與犯罪防治效率，反而上升到為最高。此外，乙級縣市警察局呈現高比例的規模報酬遞減現象，表示乙級縣市警察局應縮減其所分配到的經費規模，反之，甲級縣市警察局呈現高比例的規模報酬遞增現象，表示甲級縣市警察局應相對增加所得到經費；至於，直轄市警察局的治安與犯罪防治效率並不好，並且，在第三階段分析結果顯示應該再增加直轄市警察局的經費投入，方有助於提升其治安與犯罪防治效率，但是目前直轄市警察局所分配到的警力與經費，已高於甲級與乙級縣市警察局很多，可知，目前直轄市警察局的高額警力投入，可能不完全為提升與改善治安與犯罪防治效率，而應還有其它的重要工作項目，如政府維安，交通維護等。 / The role of crime prevention plays an important role for each county’s police department in Taiwan. This study employs three-stage data envelopment analysis to evaluate the relative crime prevention efficiency among 23 counties police departments in Taiwan from 2004 to 2006. National Police Agency classifies these 23 counties police departments by three categories, A, B and C, in terms of the amount of police force investment. Based on the first-stage analysis, it concludes that relative crime prevention inefficiency for each county comes from the inappropriate police force investment. There are no significant different results in the third-stage analysis. A class, Taipei City and Kaohsiung City police departments which have highest police force investment, have relative lower crime prevention efficiency. However, the C class counties’ police departments, such as Yunlin County and Pingtung County, with lowest police force investment have better performance with highest crime prevention efficiency. And, B class counties’ police departments, such as Taipei County, Kaohsiung County, and Taichung City, with relative higher police force investment have second best performance in crime prevention efficiency. Therefore, this study suggests that the budget of police force investment needs reallocation among three different categories of police departments; the police departments of Taipei City and Kaohsiuang City may consider cutting down some non-related crime prevention services.