We consider a multilinear kernel operator between Banach function spaces over finite measures and suitable order continuity properties, namely
$T:X_{1}(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{1})\times \cdots \times X_{n}(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{n})\rightarrow Y(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{0})$
. Then we define, via duality, a class of linear operators associated to the
$j$
-transpose operators. We show that, under certain conditions of
$p$
th power factorability of such operators, there exist vector measures
$m_{j}$
for
$j=0,1,\ldots ,n$
so that
$T$
factors through a multilinear operator
$\widetilde{T}:L^{p_{1}}(m_{1})\times \cdots \times L^{p_{n}}(m_{n})\rightarrow L^{p_{0}^{\prime }}(m_{0})^{\ast }$
, provided that
$1/p_{0}=1/p_{1}+\cdots +1/p_{n}$
. We apply this scheme to the study of the class of multilinear Calderón–Zygmund operators and provide some concrete examples for the homogeneous polynomial and multilinear Volterra and Laplace operators.