Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach

Piracy attacks constitute a serious threat against which ships must be ready to defend themselves, particularly given the financial, political and logistical challenges involved in ensuring internationally coordinated protection. Yet, defense is highly challenging given the range of ship types, diff...

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Main Authors: Po-Hsing Tseng, Zhao-Chao Her, Nick Pilcher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-01-01
Series:Maritime Transport Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X21000125
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spelling doaj-232f5c8a13ac4d8d85aebf9b2b2e3fc82021-05-24T04:32:27ZengElsevierMaritime Transport Research2666-822X2021-01-012100020Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approachPo-Hsing Tseng0Zhao-Chao Her1Nick Pilcher2Department of Shipping & Transportation Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, No.2, Beining Rd., Keelung 202-24, Taiwan; Corresponding author.Pilot Office, Taichung Port, No.2, Sec. 10, Taiwan Blvd., Wuqi Dist., Taichung City 435, TaiwanThe Business School, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH14 1DJ, United KingdomPiracy attacks constitute a serious threat against which ships must be ready to defend themselves, particularly given the financial, political and logistical challenges involved in ensuring internationally coordinated protection. Yet, defense is highly challenging given the range of ship types, differing levels of government support, a constantly adapting pirate body, and pressures on costs and resources. Indeed, despite much guidance to deal with piracy, attacks continue unabated, and ships must defend themselves. To complement such guidance and suggest priorities for ship defense, this paper adopts a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and in-depth interviews to identify key strategic criteria against piracy attacks. Questionnaire responses were from 14 shipping operators and 7 academics. Subsequently, highly experienced government officials (n=3) and shipping operators (n=3) were interviewed to provide additional depth and perspectives. Results show key criteria are international conventions and policy, followed by defense strategies in perilous water areas, and ship's hardware and software. Regarding implementation, it is suggested shipping companies take ownership of any measures introduced, and outlined how they can do so. Also, managerial implications for shipping companies, governments, international bodies and researchers are outlined.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X21000125PiracyShipping companiesDefense strategiesFuzzy analytic hierarchy processInterviews
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Po-Hsing Tseng
Zhao-Chao Her
Nick Pilcher
spellingShingle Po-Hsing Tseng
Zhao-Chao Her
Nick Pilcher
Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
Maritime Transport Research
Piracy
Shipping companies
Defense strategies
Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process
Interviews
author_facet Po-Hsing Tseng
Zhao-Chao Her
Nick Pilcher
author_sort Po-Hsing Tseng
title Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
title_short Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
title_full Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
title_fullStr Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
title_full_unstemmed Piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: A mixed empirical approach
title_sort piracy defense strategies for shipping companies and ships: a mixed empirical approach
publisher Elsevier
series Maritime Transport Research
issn 2666-822X
publishDate 2021-01-01
description Piracy attacks constitute a serious threat against which ships must be ready to defend themselves, particularly given the financial, political and logistical challenges involved in ensuring internationally coordinated protection. Yet, defense is highly challenging given the range of ship types, differing levels of government support, a constantly adapting pirate body, and pressures on costs and resources. Indeed, despite much guidance to deal with piracy, attacks continue unabated, and ships must defend themselves. To complement such guidance and suggest priorities for ship defense, this paper adopts a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and in-depth interviews to identify key strategic criteria against piracy attacks. Questionnaire responses were from 14 shipping operators and 7 academics. Subsequently, highly experienced government officials (n=3) and shipping operators (n=3) were interviewed to provide additional depth and perspectives. Results show key criteria are international conventions and policy, followed by defense strategies in perilous water areas, and ship's hardware and software. Regarding implementation, it is suggested shipping companies take ownership of any measures introduced, and outlined how they can do so. Also, managerial implications for shipping companies, governments, international bodies and researchers are outlined.
topic Piracy
Shipping companies
Defense strategies
Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process
Interviews
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X21000125
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