Abstract
There are still important theoretical and empirical gaps in understanding the role of best practices (BPs), such as quality management, lean and new product development, in generating firm's performance advantage and overcoming trade-offs across distinct performance dimensions. We examine these issues through the perspective of performance frontiers, integrating in novel ways the resource-based theory with the emergent practice-based view. Hypotheses on relationships between BPs, performance advantage, and trade-offs are developed and tested with stationary and longitudinal (recall) data from a global survey of manufacturing firms. We use data envelopment analysis, which overcomes limitations of mainstream methods based on central tendency. Our findings support the view that BPs may serve as a source of enduring competitive advantage, based on their ability to lead to a heterogeneous range of dominant and difficult-to-imitate competitive positions. The study provides new insights on contemporary debates about the role of BPs in generating performance advantage and how practitioners can sustain internal support and extract benefits from them.

Abstract
This work delves into the crucial role of service quality in the water supply and sanitation sectur. Despite extensive research and implementation of quality management practices in this sector, a universally accepted definition of quality is still lacking, resulting in varikoza service quality assesunent procedures that are difficult to compam. To address this issue, the World Bank launched the Thility of the Future' (UoF) programme, aiming guide water service providers in their efforts to become future-focused utilities that offer reliable, safe, Inclusive, transparent, and resposesive services through best-fit practices. Building upon the Damework provided by the lof programme, this study proposes the Water Utility Service Quallity Index (WUSOI) composite Indicator that reflects the quality of service provided by water supply and sanitation utilities from a customer perspective. Based on Data Envelopment Analysis, the Benelli-of-the-Douht appenach is employed to assign weights for aggregating the indicators representing the diverse performance dimensions. The study operationalines the WUSOI to assess the quality of Purtuguese wholesale water and wastewater companies using data enflected by the national regulator of water and waste services. A Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis technique, the Deck of Cands method, is used to specify an indicator of transparency from the information made available by the regulated utilities. The results show the effectiveness of this tool for evaluating and measuring service quality at the company level. Additionally, the findings highlight areas for Improvement in the utilities' performance. By enabling companies and regulators to identify areas for improvement, the WUSOI can support the delivery of high-quality services to customers.

Abstract
Nowadays, health systems comprise a series of resources structured to provide healthcare services to meet our health needs. However, premature deaths still occur. To quantify and understand personal healthcare conditions affecting such amenable mortality, the Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQI) was put forward, evaluating 195 countries and territories since 1990. Nevertheless, the literature acknowledges a series of limitations of this framework, such as the drawbacks of using principal component analysis to aggregate individual indicators, the absence of control for financing and environmental conditions, and the presence of a substantial degree of data uncertainty. Accordingly, we propose a methodological alternative to the computation of the HAQI using a novel fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis model to handle the aforementioned shortcomings. We also propose its extension towards the quantification of efficiency (E-HAQI) - in the sense of value for money - by incorporating financial aspects as modelling inputs. This way, we contribute with innovative modelling approaches that can also deal with the high degree of data uncertainty. Furthermore, in a second -stage analysis, the impact of key exogenous factors on healthcare access and quality is assessed via non -parametric hypothesis testing. Our results show positive and significant correlations of both the revisited HAQI and E-HAQI with the original HAQI 2016 dataset. They also reveal a better use of resources by European and Oceanian countries and territories than by Sub-Saharan African ones. Concerning contextual determinants, socio-demographic development, human development, and the type of health system were found to be statistically significant drivers of healthcare access and quality efficiency.

Abstract
The water supply and sewage sector (WSS) is essential for promoting health and providing the population with drinking water and the adequate disposal of effluents. Assessing the evolution of performance in WSS allows for highlighting the best and worst results achieved, identifying benchmarks, and pinpointing sources of improvement for water services. Brazil has a large population and immense freshwater reserves that are unevenly distributed throughout the territory. This situation emanates a challenge that requires the efficient management of water resources. This study develops a composite indicator framework based on the robust Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) approach to estimate the performance of municipalities of the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina from 2009 to 2021, considering financial, operational, and quality dimensions associated with the provision of WSS services. Subsequently, the Global Malmquist Index (GMI) is applied to assess the performance evolution of the municipalities over time. The BoD results enable the quantification of the relative contribution of each sub-indicator to the performance score, allowing the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each municipality. The GMI results show an average performance loss of 3.3% in Santa Catarina state and considerable variability among municipalities, with scores ranging from losses of 54.2% to gains of 109.3% in the period analysed.

Abstract
Health system performance assessment (HSPA) is essential for health planning and to improve population health. One of the HSPA domains is related to effectiveness, which can be represented considering different dimensions. Composite indicators can be used to summarize complex constructs involving several indicators. One example of such efforts is the Healthcare Access and Quality Index from the Global Burden of Diseases Study, in which different causes of mortality amenable to health care are summarized in this index through principal component analysis and exploratory factor analysis. While these approaches use the variance of the indicators, marginal improvement is not considered, that is, the distance to the best practice frontier. In this study we propose an innovative benefit-of-the-doubt approach to combine frontier analysis and composite indicators, using amenable mortality estimates for 188 countries. In particular, we include flexible aggregating weighting schemes and a robust and conditional approach. The dual formulation gives information on the peers and the potential mortality rate reduction targets considering the background conditions. In absolute terms, Andorra and high-income countries are the most effective regarding healthcare access and quality, while sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries are the least effective. North African and Middle Eastern countries benefit the most when epidemiological patterns, geographical proximity, and country development status are considered.

Abstract
In 2010, the European Commission set out the development of an economy based on knowledge and innovation as one of the priorities of its Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. This culminated in the 'Youth on the Move' flagship initiative, aimed at enhancing the performance and international attractiveness of Europe's higher education institutions and raising the Union's overall education and training levels. Therefore, it is relevant to assess the performance of the 'Youth on the Move' initiative via the creation of composite indicators (CIs) and, ultimately, monitor the progress made by European countries in creating a positive environment supporting learner mobility. For this reason, we make use of the CI-building 'Benefit-of-the-Doubt' approach, in its robust and conditional setting to account for outliers and the human development of those nations, to exploit the European Commission's Mobility Scoreboard framework between 2015/2016 and 2022/2023. Furthermore, we incorporate the value judgements of experts in the sector to construct utility scales and compute weight restrictions through multi-criteria decision analysis. This enables the conversion of ordinal scales into interval ones based on knowledgeable information about reality in higher education. In the end, the results point to a slight performance improvement, but highlight the need to improve the 'Recognition of learning outcomes', 'Foreign language preparation', and 'Information and guidance'.