Cruise ship supply chain: a field study on outsourcing decisions

The aim of this research is to investigate the supply chain of cruise companies and more specifically the factors that determine a company's decision to outsource. For the purposes of this research, a small deluxe cruise company that offers specialised programmes and a larger mass cruise company were selected for comparison. In the first case, the company decided to outsource specific departments of their supply chain, instead of maintaining and expanding an internal corporate system while growing. In the second case the company developed its own supply chain. The results of the study revealed that cost is the top driver for outsourcing for both companies, with a clear difference between the two companies regarding the sub-criteria. This paper fulfils an identified need to study the factors that influence supply chain management criteria as well as the gravity of sub-criteria on a cruise company's decisions.cruise companies; supply chain management; SCM; cruise ships; outsourcing decisions; decision making; cost