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There is significant amount of literature tackling different issues related to the port industry. The present chapter focuses on a single business unit of seaports aiming at the documentation of works related to container terminals.

An effort to review, collect and present the majority of the works present in the last 30 years, between 1980 and 2010, has been made in order to picture the problems dealt and methods used by the authors in the specific research field. To facilitate the reader, studies have been grouped under five categories of addressed problems (productivity and competitiveness, yard and equipment utilization, equipment scheduling, berth planning, loading/unloading) and four modelling methodologies (mathematics and operations research, management and economics, simulation, stochastic modelling).

The analysis shows that most works focus on productivity and competitiveness issues followed by yard and equipment utilisation and equipment scheduling. In reference to the methodologies used managerial and economic approaches lead, followed by mathematics and operations research.

In reference to future research, two fields have been identified where there is scope of significant contribution by the academic community: container terminal security and container terminal supply chain integration.

The present chapter provides the framework for researchers in the field of port container terminals to picture the so far works in this research area and enables the identification of gaps at both research question and methodology level for further research.

This chapter examines the impact of information digitization on the rise of misinformation, and the broader implications that this has for democracy. It is based on the Researching Students Information Choices (RSIC) project, which looks at how students evaluate scientific information on the internet.¹ Part of this study looked at container collapse.

In previous decades, information was contained in a physical book, newspaper, journal, magazine, or the like. These containers offered important contextual information about the origin and validity of the information. With information digitized, this context is lost. This can facilitate misinformation, as people might make incorrect judgments about information credibility because of the lack of context.

It is vital that citizens have the information literacy skills to initially evaluate information correctly. One possibility for misinformation being pervasive is that, once encoded, it becomes resistant to correction. This underscores the importance of teaching students to evaluate the credibility of information prior to the point of encoding.

To combat misinformation, librarians can teach students to evaluate containers and the indicators of credibility that they provide. Information containers can be evaluated prior to consuming information within a resource, while fact-checking only can happen after. Because of this, container evaluation can help prevent misinformation from being encoded. Our research demonstrates that this requires thoughtful engagement with the information resources and critical evaluation of the sources that produced them, and that students cannot accurately identify containers when they rely on heuristics like the URL and Google snippet.

This chapter explores the potential economic advantages and disadvantages of reusable plastic containers (RPCs) in the transport of fresh produce from growers to retail stores. The empirical research linking packaging to quantifiable economic and social benefits is reviewed. This study answers the question – what are the economic and social impacts of increased standardization of bulk packaging in the North American fresh produce supply chains? Implications for the potential use of RPCs and its impact on sustainability are explored.

The chapter describes data from grocery retailers who have implemented both one-way and reusable plastic containers for fresh produce distribution. A Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TD-ABC) analysis was conducted to capture and evaluate process times and product damage associated with the typical deployment of bulk containers in the grocery retailers’ distribution centers (DC), retail stores, and asset recovery centers of the supply chain. Economic measures were implemented and together with the social dimensions provided insights about sustainability-based implications.

Fresh produce shipments using the RPC technology had significantly less waste and damage representing potential social and economic benefits. The empirical findings included results about the economic impact of RPCs on the sustainability level of a typical supply chain for fresh food products.

The quantification of the economic and potential social sustainability for the explored packaging types constitutes an important contribution. Much of the previous research did not contain comprehensive assessments. The impact of technological change – the introduction and use of RPC in packaging – is examined. In addition, the supply chain scope for this research included most of the major activities that involve the packaging of fresh produce commodities in its practical dynamics.

This chapter explains the impact containerisation has on the various partners of the global supply chain and the challenges companies encounter and the solutions they use in dealing with empty container repositioning.

The phenomenon of imbalanced container flows and its impact on shipping lines, shippers, container haulage companies, port development and the economy are presented. Special attention is given to explain the many solutions companies use to reduce the impact of empty container repositioning, hence tracing out the past research that led to these solutions and pointing to potentially new research directions in the future.

Because of the widespread use of containerisation and the imbalanced container flows that results from globalisation, empty container repositioning will be an ongoing issue for the maritime logistics industry. Many solutions are being used, but there is room for improvement and more research is needed.

Empty container repositioning is an important issue but has not been deemed as such in the literature. This chapter explains the reasons it is important and that its impact is not limited to shipping lines only but affects the whole supply chain.

This chapter reviews and analyses the contemporary development of liner shipping, port development and competition. It begins with a comprehensive review on the latest developmental trends of liner shipping and business strategies, as well as their impacts on port development and competition. Then, it discusses the responses of ports, past, present and (likely) future, in addressing these new demands and challenges. A very important point from this analysis indicates that, in the past decade, port development and competition have gradually evolved from being individual, technical efficiency-oriented to become more regional, economic efficiency-oriented. At the same time, ports have also moved out of their rather passive positions and undertaken positive steps to avert the traditionally strong bargaining power of shipping lines. This illustrates that port development and competition is a continuous morphological process which can change dramatically within a rather short period of time. This chapter provides a new perspective on port development and competition and a decent platform for further research.

This chapter discusses the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the context of the container liner shipping industry. It looks at the current practice of CSR in this industry and outlines the framework, the reasons and the drivers for companies to adopt and implement a CSR strategy. These include, among others, the increasing commitment to fostering CSR in the private sector at EU level, the changing expectations of customers — that is shippers — with regard to social and environmental standards of their contractors and suppliers, and the improving situation with regards to guidance and tools for adopting CSR and identifying and implementing the relevant measures (e.g. ISO 26000 and the European Commission's communication on CSR). The authors take the position that in an industry, which is as strongly consolidated as container liner shipping, the adoption and implementation of effective CSR strategies by a few companies at the top can have a profound impact on the industry as a whole. The Japanese NYK Group's CSR strategy is discussed in more detail to illustrate one of the best — if by no means perfect — examples in the current market. The chapter closes with a sector-specific definition of CSR for the container shipping industry.

With the ever-growing population in the urban areas, the concept of smart cities started to be more present in the literature. Smart cities are seen as a solution that will respond to the needs of providing a sustainable place for living, and at the same time improving residents’ lives. To achieve this, various information and communication technologies (ICTs) are exploited, making the digitalization in the modern world of an immense importance. Advanced digital technologies enable the transformation of existing and the creation of new business models, the development of new products and services, increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, and contribute to wider socio-economic development. Digitization of society and the economy through innovative and intensive use of ICTs has great potential for growth and is the basis for further development and competitiveness. This all generates an enormous amounts of data sets from which useful information are generated and used again the decision support systems. This chapter presents two examples from Slovenia where big data is used for improving residents’ lives, as part of the strategies for smart cities.

The aim of this chapter is to identify factors that have been affecting the increase of transhipment (T/S) cargoes of the port of Busan and to explore how these factors can be utilised more effectively to attract and increase T/S cargoes through the development of a port choice model using the technique of system dynamics (SD). To clarify the reason why T/S cargoes have increased in the port of Busan, several steps have been taken as follows.

The first step was to design a quantitative model to explain the development of T/S cargoes during the last decade. The second step was to define dependent and independent variables for multiple regressions after testing variable significance. For this, data collection and the accuracy of validation have been achieved by using the direct interview procedure involving experienced experts from both Korean and foreign shipping companies. After validating the model with the collected data, the final step was to find variables that confidently explain the model.

It is found that two variables are clearly identified as core factors that describe well the development of T/S cargoes in the port of Busan: ‘Mohring effect’ and total cost. Further, it is strongly recommended, through this empirical study, that an incentive scheme be changed to the way in which more feeder vessels rather than mother vessels can reduce their direct costs to call at the port of Busan.

Based on regression analysis, it is also found that the sensitivity model for transhipment cargo is useful for dynamic forecasting in changing the cost factor and Mohring factor with time-series technique.