Evaluating the service requirements of dedicated container terminals: a revised IPA model with fuzzy AHP

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the service requirements of dedicated container terminals (DCTs). In this article, the service attributes (SAs) of DCTs were first discussed. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model was then constructed to measure the users’ perceived importance and dissatisfaction for each of the SAs. Based on these two measurements, a revised importance-performance analysis model was proposed to identify the SAs that should be improved. To validate the model, the dedicated container terminal of Evergreen Marine Corp. (EMC DCT) at Kaohsiung Port and its users were empirically investigated. With respect to the empirical results, managerial implications of the findings in improving service quality for the EMC DCT are discussed.

Keywords:

• container terminal
• service attribute
• IPA
• fuzzy
• AHP

ORCID

Wen-Kai K. Hsu http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0120-2731

Show-Hui S. Huang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4774-5830

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 98-2410-H-022-007).