Consistent Aggregation of Generalized Sustainable Values from the Firm Level to Sectoral, Regional or Industry Levels

doi:10.3390/su5041568

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Sustainability 2013, 5(4), 1568-1576; doi:10.3390/su5041568

Article

Consistent Aggregation of Generalized Sustainable Values from the Firm Level to Sectoral, Regional or Industry Levels

Natalia Kuosmanen^1,* , Timo Kuosmanen² and Timo Sipiläinen³

¹ MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Economic Research, Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790 Helsinki, Finland ² Aalto University School of Business, P.O. Box 21220, 00076 Aalto, Helsinki, Finland ³ University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 11 February 2013; in revised form: 28 March 2013 / Accepted: 28 March 2013 / Published: 11 April 2013

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainability: Selected Papers from the Second World Sustainability Forum (2012))

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Abstract: This study presents a systematic method for aggregating firm level sustainable value indicators to sector, region or industry levels. The proposed method applies the generalized sustainable value that is based on frontier production functions. The method is illustrated by an empirical application to the Finnish crop and dairy sectors, where the benchmark technology is estimated by data envelopment analysis. Our efficiency assessment shows that the representative crop farm achieves only about a half of its potential output. Efficiency of the representative dairy farm is somewhat higher.

Keywords: sustainability assessment; sustainable value; productive efficiency analysis

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MDPI and ACS Style

Kuosmanen, N.; Kuosmanen, T.; Sipiläinen, T. Consistent Aggregation of Generalized Sustainable Values from the Firm Level to Sectoral, Regional or Industry Levels. Sustainability 2013, 5, 1568-1576.

AMA Style

Kuosmanen N, Kuosmanen T, Sipiläinen T. Consistent Aggregation of Generalized Sustainable Values from the Firm Level to Sectoral, Regional or Industry Levels. Sustainability. 2013; 5(4):1568-1576.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kuosmanen, Natalia; Kuosmanen, Timo; Sipiläinen, Timo. 2013. "Consistent Aggregation of Generalized Sustainable Values from the Firm Level to Sectoral, Regional or Industry Levels." Sustainability 5, no. 4: 1568-1576.

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