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
The field of project management has undergone very important developments during the last 10 years, if one considers the very large amount of activities that it has generated and continues to generate (papers in journals, dedicated journals, books, meetings, applications, etc.). Even if project management has reached some maturity—due to the construction of a common referential, a common body of knowledge called A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK® Guide)—its future is subject to questions and debate among its researchers. What is the evolution of the field? What is its structure? Is it integrating new topics that correspond to management by project? In order to answer such questions at least partially, we have studied project management literature by the method of associated words (scientometric analysis) and the software, “Leximappe.” All the papers that are relative to project management and included in the bibliographic ABI-INFORM database from 1987 to 1996 have been analyzed. In this paper, we present the main results of this study.
Today, more and more companies are moving towards a project-oriented way of managing their businesses. It sets certain challenges to companies. How to make sure that the selected projects are implementing the strategy of the company? Are the scarce resources (financial, human capital) allocated to the right projects? Which projects to select, which projects to pursue and which to kill? Project portfolio management tackles these problems and has become an important topic in recent years. Nevertheless, different empirical studies highlighted the fact that these models are not used in practice. We propose an approach based on the generation of efficient portfolios by the metaheuristic SSPMO 1 and on an ''objective'' analysis of these portfolios in order to make good recommendation to the portfolio committee or the decision makers.
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