Key knowledge domains for maritime shipping executives in the digital era: a knowledge-based view approach

With the emergence of disruptive technologies and digital acceleration caused by COVID-19, educating the maritime workforce by equipping them with relevant knowledge is crucial to the industry’s success. Drawing from the knowledge-based view and business logistic management framework, the objective of this study was to construct a framework that identifies and ranks existing and upcoming relevant knowledge domains and their sub-domains for maritime shipping executives. After reviewing the literature, five domains–digitalisation, maritime business, sustainability, personnel development, and supply chain management (SCM)–and 23 sub-knowledge domains were developed. Surveys were conducted with shipping company managers in Singapore and their responses were analysed using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process methodology. The results revealed that digitalisation knowledge was the most important, followed by maritime business, personnel development, sustainability, and SCM knowledge. Overall, this research has updated the knowledge and competency framework for maritime shipping executives, contributed to research on the interface between technology and knowledge management, and informed education strategies.