**4.1 Relative efficiency of HEIs**

The efficiency measurement of HEIs was carried out through the output orientation DEA model. The teaching, research, and overall efficiency of 40 HEIs under observation are given in **Table 1**.

As we observed from the result of the efficiency scores of HEIs in **Table 1**, the mean and minimum score of the overall(join) efficiency of HEIs is greater than the mean and minimum score of teaching efficiency of HEIs. And also, the mean and minimum score of the overall(join) efficiency of HEIs is greater than the mean and



*Perspective Chapter: Complementarities of Teaching and Research on Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109456*

#### **Table 1.**

*Relative efficiency scores of HEIs.*

minimum score of the research efficiency of HEIs. Moreover, there are some HEIs that are efficient in either teaching or research is also efficient in their overall efficiency. This implies that each activity has a positive impact on the overall efficiency, and institutions that execute both activities simultaneously have better efficiency scores rather than adopting any one activity. Therefore, the institutions adopting both activities simultaneously are more beneficial rather than adopting a single activity. This indicates that the joint adoption of both activities follows economies of scale.

The number of faculty members is a proxy for the size of the HEI. Overall efficiency results indicate that smaller HEIs or universities with a smaller number of faculty members were performing better in transforming input resources into higher outcomes. Bigger HEIs might be restructured to new demands with lesser difficulty as they have established flexible structures. Our findings are in line with the theory of economies of scope. That is, HEIs seem to benefit from the reduction of cost per unit of output by adopting the other activity when one is in practice. This also strengthens the theory of complementarity, where one activity gives more power to output when the other activity is already in practice. Our results are in line with the finding concluded by Long [56] that economies of scope exist for the adoption of teaching and research in combination. However, these results should be generalized with caution of heterogeneity. HEIs would further increase efficiency by giving the same emphasis on teaching and research because the implementation of these activities simultaneously allows them to build their own core skills and gain more benefits. Therefore, institutes that have jointly adopted both activities are substantially more likely to achieve higher performance in those activities.
