Guest editorial: Digital transformation of the maritime business

Citation

Lau, Y.-y., KY Ng, A. and Yip, T.L. (2024), "Guest editorial: Digital transformation of the maritime business", Maritime Business Review, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 202-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/MABR-09-2024-095

The main topic of this special issue of Maritime Business Review is “Digital Transformation of the Maritime Business”. It is a variety of selected research papers from the International Conference on Building on Sustaining the Momentum of Cross-border E-commerce for the Greater Bay Area held on August 11–12, 2023 in Hong Kong, China. This two-day conference is approved and funded by the Inter-Institutional Development Scheme (IIDS) project. The IIDS project reference number is UGC/IIDS24/B02/22.

Many traditional obstacles to international trade have been reduced thanks to the growth of digitalization. As internet access continues to grow and a developing global middle class with discretionary means and a desire for imported goods emerges, such soaring demand has been met by increasingly interconnected supply chains and the advent of Digital Transformation of Maritime Business. Indeed, digital is undoubtedly the way of the future, and the maritime business sector has also started to become aware of this. While manual systems and human interaction have historically been used in international shipping, the wider trend toward digital business models and process automation is transforming global logistics and technological laggards run the risk of being left behind. Digital transformation becomes more popular to cope with the growing e-business, making the maritime business more efficient, cost-saving and higher capability. Moreover, many stakeholders want supply chains to be as automated as possible to minimize manual or human interaction in obstructing cargo flows around the world. In the light of this, digital transformation for maritime business could be the ideal solution to enhance the future maritime business. By developing accessible and simple methods of integrating digital technologies into the daily operations of the maritime business, digitalization is being extended to all levels of labors, not only management and administration. There is a clear need for more research in addressing the digital transformation of the maritime business.

Hence, this special issue in Maritime Business Review caters to the research gap for all academies to disseminate the knowledge and research findings regarding digital transformation for maritime business. This special issue received articles of high-quality and impactful research on digital transformation. The study presented novel and rigorous research techniques to address the issues related to maritime business, as well as associated technical challenges and commerce concepts in the current and next-generation maritime business. The articles employed different research methods, such as case studies, theoretical inquiry, empirical investigations with data analysis, data-driven strategies and project-based field experiences.

The open call for papers for the special issue received numerous submissions from the International Conference on Building on Sustaining the Momentum of Cross-border E-commerce for the Greater Bay Area and the promotion effort of the Maritime Business Review editorial office. Selected submissions were further taken into account for this special issue. After robust review processes aligned with journal academic standards, the summary of the accepted papers is described below.

Maritime logistics is identified as the longest history of industries that links worldwide trade by offering transport with the maritime industry and ports, distribution and warehousing and comprehensive logistics services. In the past decade, maritime logistics has extensively used the Internet of Things and automatic identification systems for the smart port and smart port indicators with security, safety, environment, energy and operations. In “Maritime logistics and digital transformation with big data: review and research trend” by An, the study collected and analyzed 159 journal articles originating from the Scopus database along with search keywords “big data” and “maritime”. Through the bibliometric analysis, the paper constructs the theory-context-characteristics-methodology (TCCM) framework to investigate key research trends of maritime logistics and big data and distinguish the main roles of big data for different stakeholders. In the meantime, Autsadee, Jeevan, Mohd Salleh and Othman published the article “Digital wind of changes: navigating competitiveness in the maritime sector through the transformation in human resource development”. This paper also conducted a thorough bibliometric analysis to address how digital human resource development practices integrate into the maritime discipline. The practical contribution of this study is to foster the maritime industry’s use of digital human resource development practices to adapt human resource strategies with wider organizational goals, simplify operations and enhance performance.

Sustainable maritime shipping practice is now an emerging trend in the maritime industry in the 21st century. To attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the period of Logistics 4.0, Le and Xuan-Thi-Thu published the article “Discovering supply chain operation towards sustainability using machine learning and DES techniques: a case study in Vietnam seafood”. The study employs simulations and machine-learning techniques to optimize the dynamics of a supply chain, design and implement better inventory management strategies and improve the accuracy of transportation cost estimation. Additionally, Devarapali et al. have done an empirical study about “Electric tugboat deployment in maritime transportation: detailed analysis of advantages and disadvantages”. The study has conducted a comprehensive literature review, engaged interviews with various industry experts and carried out econometric analyses. The main contribution of the study is to propose hybrid and electric tugboat choices to support sustainable maritime shipping practices and foster digital transformation of the maritime business in the long-term.

Remembering that this special issue originates from existing trends and related literature in digitalization and maritime business, we expect that these valuable insights will address new research agendas and highlight future research directions in the forthcoming years. Indeed, the special issue demonstrates the interdisciplinary research area to identify the unexplored and complex research issues related to the digitalization of maritime business.

Finally, yet importantly, we express our wholehearted appreciation to the authors, reviewers and editors-in-chief who provided unreserved support to us in arranging this special issue.