Efficiency evaluation of the high-tech industry chain with a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach

The efficiency evaluation of the high-tech industrial chain was crucial to optimize the regional industrial structure and improve economic development quality. This paper used the two-stage correlation DEA method to evaluate the efficiency of the high-tech industrial chain in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and constructed a Tobit regression model to study the external factors of the efficiency in each stage. The results were presented as follows. First, the low efficiency of the high-tech industry chain was caused by the low efficiency in the industrialization stage. Second, the average overall efficiency of high-tech industrial chain in the three regions was the highest in Hebei Province, followed by Tianjin city, and the lowest in Beijing city, while the mean efficiency in the innovation stage was the highest in Tianjin city, followed by Beijing city and the lowest in Hebei Province, and the mean efficiency in the industrialization stage was the highest in Hebei Province, followed by Beijing city and the lowest in Tianjin city. The final analysis concluded that the level of economic development, industrial structure, property rights structure, financial support, and educational support were important external factors that influenced the efficiency of the industrialization stage. These findings provided policy recommendations for high-tech development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.