The purpose of this study is to analyze outsourcing ship management function at Turkish shipowning companies and Turkish shipowners’ attitudes towards third party ship management companies. A survey method was used for the study. Based on the factors collected both from literature review and interviews, a questionnaire was conducted through Turkish shipowners. The results of the study have revealed that big portion of Turkish shipowners are not willing to give the management of their vessels to third party ship management companies. This study will help researchers and ship managers to understand Turkish shipowners’ attitudes towards ship management companies and the root of shipowners’ behaviors about ship management companies. This study makes contributions to the limited literature on ship management and third party ship management by analyzing shipowners’ attitudes towards third party ship management companies in Turkey.

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
    2.1. Literature Review on Ship Management
    2.2. Ship Management Services
3. Research Methodology and Results of Empirical Analysis
    3.1. Methodology
    3.2. Population and Sample
    3.3. Generation of the Questionnaire and Data Analysis
    3.4. Findings
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
References

• İpek AKMAN DURGUT(Res.Asst., Maritime Faculty, Dokuz Eylul University)
• İsmail Bilge ÇETİN(Assoc.Prof.Dr., Maritime Faculty, Dokuz Eylul University) Corresponding Author