Developing the fifth generation port concept model: an empirical test

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-10-2016-0239
Pages1098-1120
Published date11 June 2018
Date11 June 2018
AuthorPaul Tae-Woo Lee,Jasmine Siu Lee Lam,Cheng-Wei Lin,Kai-Chieh Hu,Inkyo Cheong
Subject MatterLogistics,Management science & operations
Developing the fifth
generation port concept model:
an empirical test
Paul Tae-Woo Lee
Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan, China
Jasmine Siu Lee Lam
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Cheng-Wei Lin
Department of Logistics and Shipping Management,
Kainan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Kai-Chieh Hu
Department of Business Administration,
Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Inkyo Cheong
Department of Economics, INHA University,
Incheon, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper i s to test the 5GP concept wit h measurement of the perf ormance
of Busan, Hong Kong, Sing apore and Shanghai port s, employing a hybrid met hod of consistent
fuzzy preference relation (CFPR), VIsekriterijumska Optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR)
and PROMETHEE.
Design/methodology/approach The authors developed the concept of the fifth generation ports (5GPs),
and apply CFPR, VIKOR and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations
(PROMETHEE) to evaluate the 5GPs.
Findings The performance of the ports of Hong Kong and Singapore is close to meet the definition of 5GP
criteria. On the contrary, ports of Busan and Shanghai are still behind the 5GP stage in light of the majority of
the evaluation criterias performance.
Research limitations/implications This paper studies four ports. More empirical tests are needed to
verify the applicability of the 5GP concept toward other ports.
Practical implications The findings provided port managers with the insight of how to improve their
port to meet the criteria of 5GP.
Social implications New criteria and higher expectations of existing requirements present challenges to
port managers for a need to raise the bar of service standards and develop new competencies.
Originality/value The authors developed the concept of the 5GPs. Newly developed 5GP contributes to
expanding the concepts of first to fourth generation ports developed by UNCTAD.
Keywords Asia, Simulation,
Preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE),
The fifth generation ports (5GPs), VIsekriterijumska Optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR),
Container ports, Consistent fuzzy preference relation (CFPR)
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
A container port has become a key element of the global supply chain system (SCS) in
tandem with international trade development. Therefore, evaluation of a ports
attribution is a focal point in the study of port evolution from the first to the fourth
The International Journal of
Logistics Management
Vol. 29 No. 3, 2018
pp. 1098-1120
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-4093
DOI 10.1108/IJLM-10-2016-0239
Received 25 October 2016
Revised 3 March 2017
29 August 2017
Accepted 17 January 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm
1098
IJLM
29,3
generationsasdevelopedbyUNCTAD (1992, 1999). Due to the increasing importance of a
ports role in the SCS, the ports logistics and supply chain functions are highlighted in
higher port generations. However, while the contemporary port industry has been
facing key challenges such as integrated maritime logistics system (Woo et al., 2011),
terrorist attack and security (Rosoff and Von Winterfeldt, 2007), natural disasters and
resilience system (Zhang and Lam, 2016), changes in structural trade pattern with free
trade agreements (Cheong and Suthiwartnarueput, 2015), global warming issues
(Hallegatte et al., 2011), and fierce port competition with mega carriers (Wang and
Cullinane, 2014), the fourth generation port (4GP) model (UNCTAD, 1999) has not reflected
the contemporary port functions and the latest port developments. In addition, a major
advancement is information technology (IT) which develops very rapidly in major ports
(De Martino et al., 2013). This enhances the integrative logistics functions of a port which
contributes to productivity not only for the port but also the SCS. In recent years, the
pursuit of better environmental performance and sustainable development is also
prevalent in the port industry (Lam and Notteboom, 2014). These new developments
challenge the port sector to go beyond the existing commercial and economic criteria for
managing a port.
Therefore, this paper advances port development and evolution studies and develops the
concept of the fifth generation port (5GP) to cope with the above developments. Modifying
5GP proposed by Flynn and Lee (2010), Flynn et al. (2011) and Lee and Lam (2016) have
further crystallized the concept, adding its attributes and revising related definitions.
However, the limited literature thus far conducted only preliminary conceptual and
qualitative analyses. To validate the concept, a more objective and generalizable
investigation based on well-established theoretical and methodological grounds is required.
Therefore, the study first aims to systematically measure the performance of a 5GP.
It second aims to compare major container ports to identify which ones belong to the 5GP
status. We have chosen Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai which are among the
worlds busiest container ports in terms of cargo volume handled to ensure that they
are comparable in size.
To achieve the objectives of this paper, evaluation methods of alternatives are
adopted. Technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) and
VIsekriterijumska Optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) are popular methods.
The two methods are based on an aggregation function to find the closeness of the
alternatives to an ideal solution identified by the performance of alternatives. However,
Opricovic and Tzeng (2004, 2007) claimed that VIKOR is better than TOPSIS because the
process definition of TOPSIS causes evaluation bias when evaluating the alternatives.
VIKOR and TOSIS are all ranking methods in multiple criteria decision making
(MCDM) area. Generally speaking, TOPSIS is much easier than VIKOR in calculation
process when dealing with decision problems. Of course, TOPSIS is popular in related
research works. However, Opricovic and Tzeng (2004) proved that TOPSIS will cause
evaluation bias. Their paper has been cited over 1,000 times without any paper
criticizing this point. It means that VIKOR is better than TOPSIS when considering the
reliability of research works. This is the main reason why we applied VIKOR instead of
TOPSIS. Therefore, VIKOR is a good method to find the compromise solutions for an
evaluation problem and a useful method to solve the problem having multiple aspects of the
5GP. Some features of 5GP have different characteristic functions which are not
conformed to the two types of membership functions: the triangular or the trapezoidal
membership function. Therefore, preference ranking organization method for
enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) (Brans and Vincke, 1985; Brans et al., 1984) is
also applied in this paper, because it enables us to utilize them to measure the performance
of the 5GP features. Therefore, we apply PROMETHEE and VIKOR to evaluate the
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Developing the
5GP concept
model

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