An empirical test of the balanced theory of port competitiveness

Douglas Hales, Y.T. Chang, Jasmine Siu Lee Lam, Olivier Desplebin (), Nikhilesh Dholakia and Adel Al-Wugayan
Additional contact information
Douglas Hales: URI - University of Rhode Island
Y.T. Chang: Inha University
Jasmine Siu Lee Lam: NTU - Nanyang Technological University [Singapour]
Olivier Desplebin: NIMEC - Normandie Innovation Marché Entreprise Consommation - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - ULH - Université Le Havre Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université
Adel Al-Wugayan: Kuwait University

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a new theory called the balanced theory of port competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from multiple respondents in 72 of the largest container ports. The instrument was translated into English, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and French. The data were collected through online and paper-based surveys. The data were analyzed using analytical hierarchy process. Findings The theory was shown to explain the behavior of port stakeholders in improving competitiveness by balancing the need to attract new customers with that of attracting new investors when making decisions, which can often be contradictory. The analysis showed significant effects for the five variables of volume competitiveness (VC) and the five variables of investment competitiveness. Research limitations/implications This study is limited in that it only tested the balanced theory on the largest container ports. The decisions by port managers may differ at smaller ports or those that do not handle containers. Practical implications Port stakeholders now have a ten-variable model of the factors needed to attract new customers and investors. These variables, and their tradeoffs, can evaluate the impact of managerial decisions on port competitiveness. Originality/value This study informs the literature by being the first to test a new theory that explains a greater level of port stakeholder behavior when improving competitiveness. Prior to this study, VC and investor competitiveness had only been studied separately, although they were related in practice.

Keywords: Improvement systems recovery; Port competitiveness; Port strategy; Balanced theory of port competitiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-05-08
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01656957v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in International Journal of Logistics Management, The, 2017, 28 (2), pp.363 - 378. ⟨10.1108/IJLM-06-2015-0101⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-01656957v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01656957

DOI: 10.1108/IJLM-06-2015-0101

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().