The purpose of this paper is to examine performance change in the Irish state-owned port sector over the 2000-2016 period using a case study approach.,For analysis, qualitative sources are used to construct an explanatory account for the quantitative measures of productivity, profitability and traffic shift-share change across the major ports within the system.,The results show that overall change in performance largely follows that of the macro-economic performance of the region, characterised by pre-recession growth, decline during the recession and post-recession recovery. Across the ports, however, there was a notable divergence in performance post-recession. Identified factors affecting performance change across the period include demand-side structural change, labour rationalisation and degree of private sector participation.,This study addresses a gap in the formal evaluation of port performance in Ireland. The study further demonstrates the potential of in-depth case study analysis for uncovering insights into the drivers of performance across a number of dimensions, thus allowing for the contextualisation of results. The study of a small number of cases enables the use of rich qualitative sources to create strong narratives, which combined with quantitative measures of performance, can lead to new insights.

中文翻译：

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检查2000-2016年爱尔兰港口的性能变化及其驱动因素

本文的目的是使用案例研究方法研究2000-2016年期间爱尔兰国有港口部门的绩效变化。为了进行分析，使用定性来源来为生产率的量化指标构建解释性说明，结果表明，整个系统的总体性能变化很大程度上遵循该地区的宏观经济绩效，其特征是衰退前的增长，衰退期间和衰退后的下滑。衰退复苏。然而，整个港口在衰退后的表现存在明显差异。在整个时期内，已发现影响绩效变化的因素包括需求侧结构变化，劳动力合理化和私营部门参与程度。这项研究解决了爱尔兰港口绩效的正式评估中的空白。这项研究进一步证明了深入的案例研究分析的潜力，可以揭示许多维度上绩效驱动因素的见解，从而实现结果的背景化。对少量案例的研究使得能够使用丰富的定性资料来创建强有力的叙述，再结合绩效的量化指标，可以带来新的见解。