Onshore-offshore location decision for high-tech shipbuilding projects

Abstract

Innovative shipbuilding projects are relatively complex in design and equipped with advanced on-board systems. Vendors with different nationalities and cultures supply these systems, making the onshore-offshore location decision an important issue for these projects. A unique data set covering information of a Norwegian-owned fleet of 452 vessels is used to estimate and test the effects of the ship-owner’s location and project complexity on the probability to choose onshore shipbuilding.