Digital empowerment for shipping development: a framework for establishing a smart shipping index system

With the development of new technologies, smart shipping makes possible one system that connects ports and ships to help stakeholders make decisions with greater efficiency, minimized costs and smaller ecological footprints. However, smart shipping is at the preliminary stage, and the related literature on smart shipping systems or domains is still lacking. To understand and develop smart shipping, our study intends to establish an index system based on the literature review and the Delphi method. Consequently, the system, which includes four first-level indexes, 17 second-level indexes, and 61 third-level indexes, is established. As the main domains, smart waterways, smart ports, smart ships, and maritime intelligence compose the smart shipping system. Among these four domains, the coordinated opinion of experts proposes that smart ports are very important for achieving smart shipping. Furthermore, based on the means of each index, indexes with higher scores can help stakeholders who want to participate in smart shipping make decisions.