Is mobile jumping more efficient? Evidence from major Asia-Pacific telecommunications firms

This study investigates the efficiency of 17 well-known telecom operators in the Asia-Pacific region from 2007 to 2016, dividing the sample into mobile jumping and non-mobile jumping countries. Mobile jumping countries refer to the phenomenon that people directly become mobile communication users without experiencing the transition stage from using fixed-line telephones to mobile phones. Adopting the slack-based DEA model of Tone (2001) and total factor input efficiency (TFIE) of Hu and Wang (2006), we compute the operating efficiency and disaggregate input efficiency of these Asia-Pacific telecom operators. The results show that the TFIE scores for the total assets among the companies operating in mobile jumping countries significantly differ from those in non-mobile jumping countries, revealing that companies operating in countries with a lower penetration rate for fixed lines are more likely to have higher total asset efficiency. This research is one of the first efforts to investigate differences in efficiency between mobile jumping economies and non-mobile jumping economies in the Asia-Pacific region.