A Principle Component Analysis — Numerical Taxonomy Approach for Export Performance Assessment: The Case of Iranian Chemical Units

This paper presents an integrated approach for assessment of export performance based on principal component analysis (PCA) and Numerical Taxonomy (NT). The integrated assessment is influenced by shaping factors such as export value, production value, export growth, R&D expenditure and value added. Iranian chemical industries are selected as a case study according to the format of International Standard for Industrial Classification (ISIC) for a five-year period. The modeling approach of this paper could be used for analyzing other sectors and countries. This study shows how total export efficiency is obtained through the proposed approach whereas previous studies consider conventional productivity approach by a single indicator.