A framework for fire departments' performance assessment: a systematic literature review

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to review literature about the performance assessment (PA) in urban fire departments (FDs) to gain state-of-the-art of the fire departments' performance assessment (FDPA) and identify its most applied methods and indicators. Design/methodology/approach: A five-stage structured literature review (SLR) is conducted to review the FDPA-related studies; then, the statistical analysis is applied to reveal more information from the extracted data and design a general framework for FDPA. Findings: The systematic literature review resulted in 336 independent variables for FDPA and finding the data envelopment analysis (DEA) as the most applied FDPA method among the mathematical and statistical models in the reviewed papers. By using analysis outcomes, a general conceptual framework for FDPA is proposed. Research limitations/implications: The reviewed studies were limited to assessments at the strategic level and urban fire protection services. Practical implications: The results of this research can support fire protection service managers, decision-makers, PA researchers and academicians to have a better understanding of FDPA and state-of-the-art in this field. Originality/value: A considerable number of studies have been done about the FDPA to provide methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of FDs. Although there are reviews about PA in fire service areas, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been done about FDPA.