Finance Function Performance Measurement-A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Abstract

The practice of measuring performance of the finance function as a business support unit is not widespread. This study assessed the importance of measuring finance function performance, by ascertaining whether such measurement facilitates identification of the relative efficiency of business finance functions, and by establishing its impact, if any, on overall company performance. Focussing on a sample of companies in the South African Freight Forwarding industry, a performance metric was developed and implemented to measure finance function performance. Relative finance function efficiency was then evaluated using inputorientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) to identify ‘best in class’ performance and to benchmark participants’ performance. Further, value chain DEA (VC-DEA) was applied to evaluate finance function efficiency simultaneously with overall company efficiency. Results show that implementation of the performance metric together with DEA facilitated the benchmarking of the finance functions of the sample group and the establishment of improvement targets for the finance functions determined as inefficient. In addition, a link between overall company performance and finance function performance in terms of inputs was confirmed; however, this link was not conclusively established as regards finance function performance in terms of outputs. The contribution of the study includes confirmation that implementation of the performance metric together with DEA facilitates the critical evaluation of finance function performance, thus establishing the importance of measuring the performance of the finance functions. In addition, incorporating the use of DEA in a performance framework for the finance function as a business support unit has extended the range of applications of DEA.