Port Selection and Multicriteria Analysis: An Application to the Montreal-New York Alternative

Emmanuel Guy () and Bruno Urli ()
Additional contact information
Emmanuel Guy: Université du Québec à Rimouski, Québec, Canada.
Bruno Urli: Université du Québec à Rimouski, Québec, Canada.

Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2006, vol. 8, issue 2, 169-186

Abstract: In this paper, our goal is to assess whether the accepted rationale of port selection by shipping lines – based on the combined importance of quality of infrastructures, cost, service and geographical location – is useful to account for the selection behaviour observed in the Northeast of North America, particularly the recent arrival of new global carriers in Montreal. We use a multicriteria approach in combination with scenarios where the relative importance given to selection criteria and the performance of ports are both varied across a wide range. This allows us to assess how port preference is affected by changes in criteria weight (expressing selection rationale) and by changes in evaluation (expressing relative port performance). With criteria weights set to reflect the common selection rationale, our findings suggests that shipping lines should call at New York and bypass Montreal. For Montreal to become the preferred choice, extensive hinterland coverage must be the top criterion for carriers and simultaneously the port must perform better in terms of cost and/or service. We conclude by discussing the implications for the hub-and-spoke paradigm of network evolution. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2006) 8, 169–186. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100152

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v8/n2/pdf/9100152a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v8/n2/full/9100152a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:marecl:v:8:y:2006:i:2:p:169-186

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41278/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Maritime Economics & Logistics is currently edited by Hercules E. Haralambides

More articles in Maritime Economics & Logistics from Palgrave Macmillan, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().