Establishing an international MBA program for shipping executives: Managing OR/MS foundation towards a unique curriculum design

This paper addresses a methodological approach based on fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) principles to establish an internationally recognized shipping MBA program on Operational Research and Management Science (OR/MS) foundation. Adopting of an OR/MS philosophy into different modules of shipping MBA programs ensure more scientific base and a unique curriculum with a high eligibility. Particularly, an illustrative curriculum design practice on one of the probable modules for shipping executives who are the key target group of program is given. In conclusion, the proposed methodology can originally guide for maritime institutes to redesign and accredit the syllabus of current shipping MBA programs in accordance with the expectations of global maritime community.