Ranking of factors contributing to higher performance in the ocean transportation industry: a multi-attribute utility theory approach

Ocean transportation has been mainly studied from an economic and strategic point of view. This paper adopts an operations management approach aiming at the identification of the value-adding attributes that characterize the ocean transportation industry. This is achieved by using Johansson et al.'s 1 four value metrics—service, quality, cost, time—which are used for the identification of the contribution that different factors make to the total created value. In this paper, multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) has been used to measure and compare the value of different processes of various sectors of the ocean transportation industry. The application of MAUT methodology is illustrated with an example from the four sectors of the industry: liner, dry bulk, liquid bulk and specialized. Results suggest that there is strong emphasis placed by ocean transportation companies on quality and that there is differentiating importance put on service and cost by different sectors. Time is seen as the lowest value contributor by all four sectors of the surveyed companies.