TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report an explicit taxonomy of maritime operations (MO) to guide harbour masters (HMs) of smaller ports in planning more sustainable operations.Design/methodology/approach This research presents strategies for building theory to promote more sustainable port management in a two-stage research design. Starting from a base taxonomy in research Stage 1, ethnographic content analysis (ECA) of a sparse prior literature on MO generated a tentative taxonomy. In Stage 2, interviews to capture tacit practitioner knowledge refined the tentative taxonomy into a credible practitioner-informed final taxonomy.Findings ECA offers researchers a powerful tool to analyse complex operational problems. In this paper MOs are represented in an explicit taxonomy.Practical implications A final taxonomy of MOs guides sustainability strategy formulation by HMs and assists them to protect vital commercial revenues which serve supply chains and local communities.Originality/value An explicit final taxonomy of MO is derived using a novel methodology. The taxonomy guides sustainability strategy formulation and underpins subsequent planning of sustainable development policies. VL - 37 IS - 7 SN - 0144-3577 DO - 10.1108/IJOPM-10-2015-0657 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-10-2015-0657 AU - Kuznetsov Andrei AU - Dinwoodie John AU - Gibbs David AU - Sansom Mark AU - Knowles Harriet PY - 2017 Y1 - 2017/01/01 TI - Knowledge capture to inform sustainable maritime operations T2 - International Journal of Operations & Production Management PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 882 EP - 897 Y2 - 2024/03/28 ER -