Purpose Turkey is a maritime country with its current merchant fleet and shipyards, geographical location, young population and growth potential. Clustering, being one of the important improvement methods of global competition power, is widely used in the maritime sector. Analysing the clustering level and potential of Istanbul, which is the major city of Turkey, in regard to economic and social aspects is a basic step for increasing global competitiveness in this sector. This study aims to measure the clustering level of Istanbul’s maritime sector and also define the effect of clustering level on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach The clustering levels of Istanbul’s maritime transportation and supporting firms, shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers are measured by means of a survey based on Porter’s diamond theory in this paper. The relationship between clustering level and firm performance is defined by using simple linear regression and fuzzy linear regression methods. The weights of the criteria are calculated by means of entropy method. Findings It is concluded that despite its deficits, Istanbul’s maritime sector has significant potential to become a major maritime cluster not only in its region but also worldwide. The effect of clustering level on firm performance was observed to be statistically significant, but not high. The results of the simple linear regression and fuzzy linear regression methods are compared. Originality/value According to the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first study using fuzzy linear regression and entropy methods to analyse maritime clusters. It evaluates the effect of clustering level on firm performance in the case of Istanbul maritime sector.

中文翻译：

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伊斯坦布尔海事部门的集聚潜力

目的土耳其是一个海上国家，其现有的商船队和造船厂，地理位置，年轻的人口和增长潜力。集群化是提高全球竞争力的重要方法之一，在海事部门得到了广泛的应用。在经济和社会方面，分析土耳其的主要城市伊斯坦布尔的集聚水平和潜力，是提高该​​部门全球竞争力的基本步骤。这项研究旨在衡量伊斯坦布尔海事部门的集群水平，并定义集群水平对企业绩效的影响。设计/方法/方法伊斯坦布尔海上运输和支持公司的集聚水平，本文通过基于波特钻石理论的调查来测量船厂和海事设备制造商。聚类水平和企业绩效之间的关系通过使用简单线性回归和模糊线性回归方法来定义。标准的权重通过熵方法计算。结论结论是，尽管存在亏损，但伊斯坦布尔的海事部门具有巨大的潜力，不仅在其地区而且在世界范围内都将成为重要的海事集群。观察到聚类水平对公司绩效的影响在统计学上是显着的，但并不高。比较了简单线性回归和模糊线性回归方法的结果。原创性/价值根据作者的知识，本文是首次使用模糊线性回归和熵方法分析海洋群的研究。它评估了集群水平对伊斯坦布尔海事部门企业绩效的影响。