Explaining Grower’s Performance in Different Marketing Channels for Greenhouse Vegetables

During the last years, supply chain performance measures have been in the spotlight of many authors. A large number of various performance measures have been utilised. In this paper a measure of efficiency is used as an indicator of performance in the vegetable supply chain. The study consists of two stages. The first stage involves Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which evaluates technical and scale efficiency of the Dutch vegetable sector considering the final distribution (mixed marketing channels versus traditional auctions). In the second stage of analysis the Truncated Regression Model (TRM) is applied to explain efficiency of growers from the managerial point of view. The results of the first stage show that growers who sell their product through the auction are less efficient. The results of the second stage reveal that variables such as firm-size, firm-year, ownership structure and distribution channel significantly contribute in explanation of technical efficiency of the growers, while the location of the firm together with firm size and firm-year explains the scale efficiency of the growers.