This study proposes a measurement instrument for port performance in the context of container transport logistics (CTLs) by taking perspectives from different port stakeholders. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) is used to develop an analytical tool for investigating the importance and performance (IP) of major container ports in South Korea against individual CTLs criterion. The main originality of this study is the development of a measurement instrument to provide managerial and operational insights to both port managers (i.e. terminal operating companies) and policy makers (i.e. port authorities and government) for stakeholder management in CTLs. The analysis helps port managers and policy makers to converge the different objectives and concerns for better management.

This study develops a new port performance measurement model by taking the perspectives from different port stakeholders. The novelty lies in the modelling of interdependencies among port performance measures, and the combination of weights of interdependent measures with both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the measures from multiple stakeholders for quantitative port performance measurement. It represents an effective performance measurement tool and offers a diagnostic instrument for performance evaluation and/or monitoring of ports and terminals so as to satisfy different requirements of various port stakeholders in a flexible manner.

Port performance measurement (PPM) and comparison research, presenting a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) issue in nature, has been intensively conducted by researchers from both decision science on modelling and port studies from empirical perspectives. Assigning an appropriate weight to each defined port performance indicator (PPI) is essential for rational decision and precise performance measurement. However, PPIs are often presented in a hierarchy, having the interdependency among them ignored. It causes concerns on the accuracy of PPIs' weight allocation and arguments on the performance measurement results, revealing a significant research gap to be addressed. As far as MCDM modelling is concerned, the importance of criteria has been studied utilising either absolute or relative comparisons, while the calculation of their importance also takes into account both independency and interdependency factors. However, there is lack of empirical studies in the literature to provide supporting evidence to distinguish the different impacts of the two factors. This study aims to compare the analysis of PPIs importance when taking into account their independent relationship using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and their interdependent relationship using a decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) incorporating an analytic network process (ANP), respectively. The same domain experts are invited to evaluate the importance of the defined PPIs based on both approaches. The results demonstrate that a similar variance of relative importance across the PPIs but a clear difference on their importance scores and ranking. As a result, the results make contributions to fulfil the research gap on consideration of interdependency among PPIs in PPM and on the provision of convincing empirical evidence to highlight the impact of interdependency of criteria on MCDM modelling. Another practical significance draw from this study is that use of DEMATEL can aid port stakeholders to make more rational decision as to whether the interdependency among PPIs should be taken into account in PPM and/or port choice.

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Strengthening sale and purchase (S&P) capacity has become a fundamental requirement for sustainable growth and corporate competitiveness in the modern shipping market. However, there is a lack of research related to S&P and its priority when shipping companies attempt to implement ship acquisition through S&P activities. To fill this gap, this paper conducts an empirical analysis to analyze priority factors during the acquisition of second-hand ships from the perspective of shipping companies. Business criteria are considered to be the most important factors in the analysis of the priority of ship acquisition and investment in shipping companies. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first exploration covering Korean shipping companies' ship acquisition through S&P activities. This study is expected to contribute to the better understanding of the role of S&P in ensuring the sustainability of shipping companies and to provide stakeholders with valuable insights.