A research on a trade-off in allocation of resources regarding the maximization of added values in ports

Nowadays, all institutions and organizations do a great number of studies and researches on a very important subject, added value, to increase their incomes and strengthen their competitiveness. In the market, where a challenging competition is taking place, there are many quests for how organizations can optimally use scarce resources and which new types of services can increase their incomes. In this context, this study tries to show how the maximization of the added value can be achieved with the exchange balance of resources, in other words, the optimum utilization of the scarce resources, in the port industry, which is one of the building stone of the economical country. For the purpose of the research, the relationship between the added value maximization and the port efficiency and efficiency factors, and port performance was examined. It has been tried to be put forward that an effective and efficient port is an element that increases the added value. Because as considering to the problem of the investigation, the thesis's highlight is that the meaning of value-added maximization is "the higher value added at port, the higher the port performance" and the greatest created value-added reaches with optimum resource allocation. That's why; in order to maximize value-added, it is emphasized the optimization of resource allocation. In addition, it has been researched how resource allocation among services can be achieved through exchange balance by examining what additional services can generate added value outside of these main activities. Furthermore, the significance of the added value concept has been examined under the logistic approaches of the ports identified as a crucial point. As regarding to the study, the Delphi technique has been applied to investigate the relationship dimension of these expressions. The sample of the study consisted of senior and mid-level managers in port operations in Turkey and Europe and an important expert that consults ports in Europe. The Delphi work consists of two stages. In the first stage of Delphi, the open-ended questions were addressed to the participants. In the second stage, open-ended questions having the characteristics such as multiple-choice expressions, ranking expressions, and control (verification) questions were addressed to the participants in the light of the results obtained in the first stage. The data obtained in the first stage were analyzed with the content analysis method and the Nvivo software was used in the analysis. The multiple-choice questions in the second stage were analyzed with the consensus formula. No method was applied for the other remaining expressions and the obtained data were analyzed only by being compared with each other. In the first part of the study, the port industry was examined economically and the indicators of port efficiency and performance were presented. These concepts, which are examined in the literature review, were discussed in the second chapter with optimum resource distribution and exchange balance. Besides, the value-added services in the port industry have been put forward by analyzing the added value concept in the second chapter. Finally, the research was applied and the data were analyzed and the findings obtained were evaluated in the third chapter. In summary, in the study, it has been shown how the added value maximization and optimal resource allocation are perceived in terms of the port industry. It was discussed "how" and "with what" to create the added value and solutions were suggested addressing the problem of the research. It is considered that the added value and the allocation scarce resources will shed light on the future academic studies and the port industry in terms of the significance of exchange-balance importance on services. Keywords: Port, Value-Added, Trade-Off, Allocation of Resources, Value-Added Maximization