G20 Ülkelerinin COVID-19 Öncesi ve COVID-19 Dönemi Lojistik Performanslarının Kıyaslanması: MEREC ve CODAS Entegre Yaklaşımı

Abstract

Logistics is a sector contributing substantially to the economic and social development of a country. Countries benefit from the logistics performance index (LPI) published periodically by the World Bank to evaluate their logistics performance, identify weaknesses, and develop accordingly. The following six essential criteria are used to assess the countries’ logistics performance: customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics quality and competence, monitoring and tracking, and timeliness. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the logistics performance of G20 countries before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) period. For this purpose, an integrated model based on the method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) and the combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS), which are multi-criteria decision-making methods, was exploited. First, criterion weights were determined using the MEREC method. Second, the logistics performances of G20 countries were analyzed and compared using the CODAS method with respect to data from both before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis results identified monitoring and tracing, customs clearance, international shipments, infrastructure, logistics quality, and adequacy and timing as the criteria weights during the pre-pandemic period and monitoring and tracing, international shipments, logistics quality and competence, customs, infrastructure, and timeliness during the pandemic period. Based on the CODAS method, the top five countries in the pre-pandemic period in the logistics performance ranking of the G20 countries were Germany, Japan, the UK, the United States of America, and France, respectively, and the top five countries in the ranking during the pandemic period were Germany, Canada, Japan, Spain, and France, respectively. In addition, to test the reliability and robustness of the model exploited, sensitivity and comparison analyses were performed. The results revealed that the pandemic affected the logistics performance of many countries.