Efficiency Evaluation of Cultural Services in the Czech Republic via Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Abstract

Culture is an irreplaceable means of transferring information between generations. The development of culture, the cultural environment, and the effect of culture exist over the long term. The results are not shown immediately, whereas the economics of subjects of this area (including theatres) are subject to public control. Public control forces these entities to use public finances efficiently, economically, and effectively. A sample of 11 indicators showing techniques and financial efficiency was chosen to conduct a complex evaluation of the economy of Czech theatres. The importance of the indicators was set by three objective methods used in combination by the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for the evaluation of management. We show significant differences among the results; in our opinion, it is not possible to exactly set the best method that could be applied in general. Every method can potentially serve as a tool for complex comparison among homogeneous groups of theatres of the Czech Republic, depending on the preferences of their founder, in the public sector such as a municipality, region, or state.

The Technical and Allocative Efficiency of the Regional Public Galleries in the Czech Republic

“…A question for a broader discussion is whether, regarding the social benefit and interest, the inefficiency of public galleries is less significant than the positive externalities being produced by them in the form of accessible cultural services. This is discussed by Vavrek and Bečica (2020) within the context of public theaters, and by Vrabková (2019) in relation to public libraries. Another perspective to be applied to the above-stated situation is that if positive externalities of galleries or other cultural services being supported from the public budgets cannot be exactly measured, then the most reliable indicator of their efficiency as well as the level of positive externalities is represented by the number of visitors (users) of these cultural services.…”

Determination of Objective Weights Using a New Method Based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC)

“…Another study was performed on the dimensions of cultural environment and development. To evaluate the Czech theatres' economy, Vavrek and Bečica [31] selected 11 criteria related to financial and technical efficiency. Three objective weighting methods, including Coefficient of Variation, Standard Deviation, and Mean Weight (Equal Weights) methods, were applied to determine the selected criteria' importance and the variation coefficient indicated that financial criteria are more significant than technical criteria, but standard deviation gave importance to technical criteria.…”

Application of Multi-Criteria Analysis on Theatres’ Efficiency – Czech and Polish Comparative Case Studies

“…variants that can be real but fictitious as well), and the longest distance to a negative ideal solution. This method is tackled more deeply in Shih, Shyur & Lee ( 2007), Seyedmohammadi and colleagues (2018), Vavrek and Bečica (2020a), and is calculated as follows.…”