Administrative processes in the productivity of microenterprises in La Maná
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70577/cieninter.v4i3.47Keywords:
Technical efficiency; administrative processes; data envelopment analysis; microenterprises; panel data.Abstract
Latin American microenterprises account for a large share of aggregate employment, yet display chronic productivity deficits rooted in internal organizational shortcomings rather than macroeconomic constraints. The objective was to estimate pure technical efficiency scores for microenterprises in La Maná canton (2020–2025) and isolate the marginal effects of administrative processes on performance. We udes the methods a two-stage framework was applied to an unbalanced panel of 84 valid firm-year observations (28 firms) drawn from official financial records of the Superintendency of Companies, Securities and Insurance. The first stage used an output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model under variable returns to scale (BCC); the second stage used a random-effects panel Tobit regression. Mean technical efficiency was 0.421. Liquidity ( ) and operating efficiency ( ) showed significant positive effects, while human capital and inventory turnover were not significant, reflecting structural informality. The efficiency frontier is not dictated by asset endowment but by the administrative execution of the working-capital cycle, suggesting that public policy should be redirected toward cash-flow standardization and budgetary control.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Paco Alexander Changoluisa Franco , Gabriela Abigail León Quirola , Patricio David Reyes Cevallos , Rodrigo Arturo Reyes Armas
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