An evaluation of ship investment in interval type-2 fuzzy environment

Abstract

Investment is one of the most crucial factors for a company. The decisions that a company makes in an investment uncertainty environment with high global competition, such as in the shipping industry, affects the life of the company either positively or negatively. Therefore, correct decision-making is extremely important particularly in an environment of investment uncertainty. Fuzzy set theory can be used to represent uncertainty and vagueness to generate decisions in decision-making problems. In this study, the aim is to evaluate ship investment by means of Net Present Value (NPV), Profitability Index (PI), and Payback Period (PP) under the Trapezoidal Interval Type-2 Fuzzy environment. In addition, two methods, Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Payback Period (IT2FPP) and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Profitability Index (IT2FPI), were developed for the first time in the literature by integrating Interval Type-2 Fuzzy with traditional methods. These methods were then successfully applied to a real case study of ship investment for evaluation in the shipping industry in an uncertain environment.