INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 11(6)(2022) 74-85 * Corresponding author. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1236-1212 © 2022 by the authors. Hosting by SSBFNET. Peer review under responsibility of Center for Strategic Studies in Business and Finance. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i6.1979 Measuring the technical efficiency of the listed it companies: Evidence from Bangladesh Mohammad Kamal Hossain (a)* Md Abdus Salam (b) Afsana Nahid (c) (a,b) Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Jashore 7408, Bangladesh. (c) Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Jashore 7408, Bangladesh A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 16 July 2022 Received in rev. form 23 August 2022 Accepted 01 September 2022 Keywords: Technical Efficiency, Information Technology, Data Envelopment Analysis, Bangladesh JEL Classification: C61, G21, O39 A B S T R A C T This study aimed to measure the technical efficiency of information technology (IT) companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in Bangladesh. It included ten listed IT companies for the period 2016–2020. The input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach was used to measure technical efficiency. This study used two inputs, such as fixed assets and capital expenditure, and three outputs, such as return on equity, return on assets, and total income, to measure technical efficiency. All the required data were collected from publicly available annual reports, the sample companies’ websites, and the website of DSE. The study found that Bangladeshi-listed IT companies were not adequately technically efficient, with an average efficiency score of 56.6 percent, requiring a 43.6 percent improvement in efficiency during the period 2016–2020. This inefficiency was due primarily to pure technical inefficiency followed by scale inefficiency. The findings of the study are expected to provide important and useful information to the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), the ICT Division of the Bangladesh government, and the sample companies. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee SSBFNET, Istanbul, Turkey. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Introduction In the twenty-first century, information technology (IT) is the world’s fastest-expanding industry (Shinkai & Hossain, 2011). The global IT industry provides services such as system architecture, networking, security, and data and information systems maintenance, as well as sells various products and services to corporations and other organizations worldwide. However, the concept of information technology has changed and expanded over time. It includes a broad range of information processing systems and computer applications used in organizations, including information systems, the internet, information and communication technologies, and their infrastructure, such as computer software, networks, and hardwires that transmit data to improve the efficiency of individuals and organizations (Onn & Sorooshian, 2013). There is a profound relationship between the development of the national economy and the development of the IT sector because it provides quick and easy access to information, which is critical for a country’s development (Helal & Rahman, 2016). By creating employment, increasing the share of service trade, and adopting appropriate information technologies, the sector contributes to the economic development of countries (Shinkai & Hossain, 2011). In line with other countries, Bangladesh’s IT industry contributes Research in Business & Social Science IJRBS VOL 11 NO 6 (2022) ISSN: 2147-4478 Available online at www.ssbfnet.com Journal homepage: https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs