This disclosure relates to method and system for improving performance of an artificial neural network (ANN). The method may include generating a weight matrix comprising weights of neural nodes in a given layer for each layer of the ANN, determining a marginal contribution value of a given neural node for each neural node in the given layer with respect to other neural nodes in the given layer, executing an elimination decision for each neural node in each layer based on the corresponding marginal contribution value, determining a distributed surplus value of a given remaining neural node in a given layer based on the marginal contribution values of a coalition of remaining neural nodes in the given layer for each remaining neural node in each layer, and updating the weight matrix based on the distributed surplus value of each remaining neural node in each layer.