TRANSPORT ACTIVITIES FROM HATAY TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND RANKING THE PREFERRED COUNTRIES USING AHP AND TOPSIS METHODS


The specific nature of the logistics sector requires quick decision making that favors companies. However, managing logistics activities in a world made smaller by globalization is not easy; the whole management process becomes complicated due to many criteria such as technology, countries’ infrastructures, relations among countries, country specific rules and regulations, costs that occur during transport processes, security, situation of the routes, liabilities imposed by international agreements etc. Each transport activity turns into multi criteria decisions for the companies in the logistics sector. The companies must evaluate several criteria promptly and simultaneously. Especially, the Syrian Civil War that broke out in 2011 has further complicated the transport processes into the Middle East; significantly affecting Turkey, Europe’s gateway to the Middle East, and in particular the city of Hatay, one of the border cities of Turkey. Hatay and other surrounding cities have been badly affected by the war in terms of logistic activities; however, transport activities continue to be important for the city of Hatay, which has the third biggest road transport fleet in Turkey. The aim of this study is to determine the criteria that the transport activities from Hatay to the Middle East countries are based on, and to rank the preferred countries into which the transports are carried out. In the study, the criteria that the logistics companies in Hatay use during their transport related decision-making processes were determined through literature review and expert opinions. Based on the determined criteria, criteria weights were calculated by measuring the importance levels using AHP pairwise comparison. The weights were then used in the application of TOPSIS method and using this method, the Middle East countries preferred during the transport process were ranked.


Keywords


Logistics, AHP, TOPSIS, Country Selection Criteria, Hatay, Middle East Countries

Author : İpek ÖZENİR -PINAR ELÇİÇEK GÜNEŞ, GÜLSÜN NAKIBOĞLU
Number of pages: 483-502
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/TurkishStudies.22911
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Turkish Studies-Economics,Finance,Politics
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