Application of axiomatic design and TOPSIS methodologies under fuzzy environment for proposing competitive strategies on Turkish container ports in maritime transportation network

0957-4174/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.05.033 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 216 395 1064; fa E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Celik). The strategic positions and geographical advantages of the Turkish container ports in the world transportation network create an excessive demand which seek urgent development strategies for managing ongoing problems in operational and administrative level. This paper proposes a hybrid approach on ensuring the competitiveness requirements for major Turkish container ports by utilizing fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methodologies to manage strategic decision-making with incomplete information. The outcomes of the quantitative models are utilized as data input for SWOT analysis that provide additional contributions for identifying the development strategies on container ports. The proposed strategies on Turkish container ports can be originally recommended as guidelines both for port administrations and new enterprises in Turkish maritime industry. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.