Economic performance in European telecommunications, 1978‐1998: a comparative study

Abstract

The European telecommunications sector is undergoing major structural change in the face of new technology, privatisation and European Commission directives requiring market liberalisation. This study considers the comparative performance of the major European telecommunications operators between 1978 and 1998. This period encompasses an era of state monopolies, market liberalisation initiatives and a number of privatisations. The objectives are to assess: the extent so far to which market liberalisation and privatisation have impacted on the efficiency with which telecommunications services are provided in Europe; and changes in the performance of the different telecommunications operators over time with a view to providing an insight into the comparative efficiency performance of the different telecommunications operators in Europe. Performance is measured in terms of profit margins and labour and total factor productivity.

Organisational status change and performance: The case of Ireland’s national telecommunications operator

“…In an analysis of the productivity of major European telecoms operators, Daßler, Parker, and Saal (2002) found that labour productivity and TFP growth in Ireland surpassed that of every country over the period 1979-1998. In addition, a study on the operational efficiency of the main European telecoms firms using data envelopment analysis by Pentzaropoulos and Giokas (2002) found Telecom É ireann to be fully efficient relative to its peers in the year it was privatised (1999).…”

“…The approach adopted in the estimation of productivity follows that of Martin and Parker (1997) and Daßler, Parker, and Saal (2002). Labour productivity (LP) growth is calculated as follows:…”

“…The empirical literature on the performance of national telecommunications operators has tended to concentrate on a number of aspects such as: the impact of privatisation on the performance of British Telecom, since it was the first major UK privatisation in 1984 (Bishop & Thompson, 1992;Foreman-Peck & Manning, 1988;Martin & Parker, 1997;Parker, 1994); cross-country comparisons of the impact of privatisation on performance (Bortolotti, D'Souza, Fantini, & Megginson, 2002), and cross-country studies of productivity and performance in general (Daßler, Parker, & Saal, 2002); and cross-country comparisons of the impact of competition and regulation on telecommunications operators (Boylaud & Nicoletti, 2000).…”

The impact of large-scale employee share ownership plans on labour productivity: the case of Eircom

“…Many empirical studies on the drivers of productivity change in the European telecommunications industry have struggled with separating the impact of factors such as changes in competition, ownership and technology on company performance (see, for example, Bortolotti, D'Souza, Fantini andMegginson 2002, Daßler, Parker andSaal 2002). In the case of Eircom, Palcic and Reeves (2010) adopted a model of organisational change to disentangle the impact of privatisation from other factors that influenced the company's labour and total factor productivity from 1985-2001.…”

Restructuring among mobile service providers: a ten-year perspective

“…Financial data are frequently aggregated and consolidated, with the result that there is insufficient detail to determine the revenues and profits of specific investments. Dassler et al (2002) and Gerpott and Jakopin (2005) are able to conduct their financial analyses of operators only by limiting their samples to American, European and Japanese companies whose financial reporting requirements are comparatively onerous and hence provide relatively detailed data.…”