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In the shipping industry, both sales and purchases of second-hand ships and freight transport services are prevalently tailormade and traded with intense bilateral negotiations. Price bargaining is the key step of this negotiation process and plays a crucial role in determining mutually agreed prices. Despite its cruciality and applicability, the price bargaining has yet received due conceptual and/or theoretical attention in the shipping literature. This paper attempts to conceptually examine the role of bargaining in shipping transaction prices and subsequently puts forward directions for future research. In doing so, the paper focuses on two types of transactions taking place in shipping markets: asset market trading of second-hand vessels and service market trading shipping freights.

The paper begins with a systematic literature review of price bargaining in the field of economics and management disciplines from a game-theoretic perspective. This approach does logically lead to the establishment of a conceptual framework for price bargaining in shipping sub-markets as a step toward having taken into consideration a variety of heterogeneities commonly present in trading activities and market dynamics.

A set of research areas has been consequently identified where price bargaining and mechanisms for the shipping freight and asset markets could be further explored and analyzed in a way to make better pricing decisions under a more tangible framework.

One of the critical challenges when using bargaining mechanisms to make a decision on pricing shipping services and assets is how to operationalize the study for empirical investigation as some of the factors are internal information of the players and are not adequately revealed to externals: that is, an imperfect information sharing case. The current study aims, however, not to conduct an empirical analysis but to initiate a conversation among maritime economists by bringing their attention to this not-yet fully explored and potentially impactful field of research and by asking them to treat bargaining from a perspective for pricing shipping assets and services. It is claimed that, by doing so, one could better understand price differences between individual contracts.

This study would be considered the first of its kind to provide a detailed survey of the bargaining theory and models from a game theoretical perspective as a theoretical lens to understand its importance and relevance in pricing shipping assets and services. It also provides a simplified operational case on utilizing bargaining in practically pricing freight services.

While previous studies focused mainly on East Asia to Europe or United States trade routes, in recent years, trade among South-East Asian countries has increased notably. The price of transporting a container is not fixed and can fluctuate heavily over the course of a week. Besides, extant literature only identified seasonality patterns in the container freight market, but did not explore route-varying seasonality patterns. Hence, this study analyses container freight seasonality patterns of the six South-East Asian routes of the South-East Asian Freight Index (SEAFI) and the index itself and forecasts them.

Data of the composite SEAFI and six routes are collected from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) including 167 weekly observations from 2016 to 2019. The SEAFI and individual route data reflect spot rates from the Shanghai Port to South-East Asia base ports. The authors analyse seasonality patterns using polar plots. For forecasting, the study utilize two univariate models, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and seasonal autoregressive neural network (SNNAR). For both models, the authors compare forecasting results of original level and log-transformed data.

This study finds that the seasonality patterns of the six South-East Asian container trade routes are identical in an overall but exhibits unique characteristics. ARIMA models perform better than SNNAR models for one-week ahead test-sample forecasting. The SNNAR models offer better performance for 4-week ahead forecasting for two selected routes only.

Major industry players such as shipping lines, shippers, ship-owners and others should take into account the route-level seasonality patterns in their decision-making. Forecast analysts can consider using the original level data without log transformation in their analysis. The authors suggest using ARIMA models in one-step and four-step ahead forecasting for majority of the routes. The SNNAR models are recommended for multi-step forecasting for Shanghai to Vietnam and Shanghai to Thailand routes only.

This study analyses a new shipping index, that is, the SEAFI and its underlying six routes. The authors analyze the seasonality pattern of container freight rate data using polar plot and perform forecasting using ARIMA and SNNAR models. Moreover, the authors experiment forecasting performance of log-transformed and non-transformed series.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the long-term cointegrating relationship between ocean, rail, truck and air cargo freight rates, as well as the short-term dynamics between these four series. The authors also test the predictive ability of these freight rates on major economic indicators.

The authors employ a vector error-correction model using 16 years of monthly time series data on freight rate data in the ocean, truck, rail and air cargo sectors to examine the interrelationship between these series as well as their interrelationship with major economic indicators.

The authors find that truck freight rates and as well as dry bulk freight rates have the strongest predictive power over other transportation freight rates as well as for the four major economic indicators used in this study. The authors find that dry bulk freight rates lead other freight rates in the short-run but lag other freight rates in the long run.

While ocean freight rate time series have been examined in a large number of studies, little research has been done on the interrelationship between ocean freight rates and the freight rates of other modes of transportation. Through the use of data on five different freight rate series, the authors are able to assess which rates lead and which rates lag each other and thus assist future researchers and practitioners forecast freight rates. The authors are also one of the few studies to assess the predictive power of non-ocean freight rates on major economic indicators.

The paper aims to identify the contributors to freight rate fluctuations in the Suezmax tanker market; this study selected the refinery output, crude oil price, one-year charter rate and fleet development as the main influencing factors for the market analysis.

The paper used the vector error correction model to evaluate the degree of impact of each influencing factor on Suezmax tanker freight rates, as well as the interplay between these factors.

The conclusion and results were tested using the 20-year data from 1999 to 2019, and the methodology and theory of this paper were proved to be effective. Results of this study provide effective reference for scholars to find the law of fluctuations in Suezmax tanker freight rates.

This paper provides a decision-making support tool for tanker operators to cope with fluctuation risks in the tanker shipping market.

The service sector is the key driver of a country’s economic growth. The quality of service is more important for the survival of any organization. It is the interactive process by which the organization understands the customer and satisfies their needs. The main purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing service quality in ocean freight forwarding and to study the association between the factors.

This research uses a deductive approach, which understands the theory first and collects the data. A questionnaire is designed to collect the data. The sampling technique used is two-stage sampling. First, the freight forwarders are selected and then the customers, importers and exporters are selected randomly. Likert scales are used to measure quality factors such as tangibility, reliability, responsibility, value, empathy and assurance. The association of factors is empirically evaluated. The SPSS tool is used for the correlation analysis.

An extensive review of the literature has been done to study and identify these service quality factors influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty. The result of this extensive literature review revealed that tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, trust, empathy and value are the service quality. It has been proved that there exists a significant association between the service quality factors and is positively related to the customer satisfaction.

Some studies have examined the freight forwarders’ service quality, but not specifically related to any dimension. This study attempts to bring together the five dimensions of SERVQUAL scale and the value dimension evaluating the cost, freight charges, safety and security criteria in the industry and examines the association between the quality factors and customer satisfaction.

Purpose – This study aims to analyze and assess the relation of freight transportation for regional development in the north zone of Aceh. The impact of freight transportation to accelerate the delivery of goods as observed through several indicators including regulation, retribution, freight entrepreneur, trucker, size of truck bin, punctuality, loading and unloading systems on regional planning supporting has been focus of this study.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The freight transportation in north zone of Aceh, covering Lhokseumawe, Aceh Utara, Bireuen, BenerMeriah and Aceh Tengah regencies will be examined. In several indicators including regulation, retribution, freight entrepreneur, trucker, size of truck bin, punctuality, loading and unloading systems the freight transportation will be surveyed for the analysis. The factors which contribute in the development of the area through freight transportation are the economic growth, human resources improvement, management of land use and environmental harmonization. This regional development approach aims to determine a connection between the two variables.

Findings – The results of the study show that variables of freight transportation in several indicators including regulation, retribution, freight entrepreneur, trucker, size of truck bin, punctuality, loading and unloading systems have a significant impact on regional development. It is indicated by the value of 0.214 in the regression weight result.

Research Limitations/Implications – This research has implications on the relation of freight transportation with regard to several indicators including regulation, retribution, freight entrepreneur, trucker, size of truck bin, punctuality, loading and unloading systems on the regional development based on the aspect of economic growth, human resources improvement, management of land use and environmental harmonization.

Practical Implications – The result of this study will be an important input to the Aceh government, county and city governments in the north zone in Aceh to encourage the establishment of a road network to accelerate freight transportation in that region for the development of new economic zones.

Originality/Value – This study suggests that freight transportation has the strongest links to significantly influence the activities of regional development, so it can be recommended for the Aceh government, county and city governments in the north zone of Aceh to orient road network policy towards the development of the new economic area and support the implementation of the special economic zones of Arun, Lhokseumawe.

This paper aims to identify the interplay of standard Capesize optimal speeds for time charter equivalent (TCE) maximization in the Australia–China iron ore route and the optimal speeds as an operational tool for compliance with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) carbon intensity indicator (CII).

The TCE at different speeds have been calculated for four standard Capesize specifications: (1) standard Capesize with ecoelectronic engine; (2) standard Capesize with non-eco engine (3) standard Capesize vessel with an eco-electronic engine fitted with scrubber and (4) standard Capesize with non-eco engine and no scrubber fitted.

Calculations imply that in a highly inflationary bunker price context, the dollar per ton freight rates equilibrates at levels that may push optimal speeds below the speeds required for minimum CII compliance (C Rating) in the Australia–China trade. The highest deviation of optimal speeds from those required for minimum CII compliance is observed for non-eco standard Capesize vessels without scrubbers. Increased non-eco Capesize deployment would see optimal speeds structurally lower at levels that could offer CII ratings improvements.

While most of the studies have covered the use of speed as a tool to improve efficiency and emissions in the maritime sector, few have been identified in the literature to have examined the interplay between the commercial and operational performance in the dry bulk sector stemming from the freight market equilibrium. The originality of this paper lies in examining the above relation and the resulting optimal speed selection in the Capesize sector against mandatory environmental targets.

Facing the diverse needs of large-scale customers, based on available railway service resources and service capabilities, this paper aims to research the design method of railway freight service portfolio, select optimal service solutions and provide customers with comprehensive and customized freight services.

Based on the characteristics of railway freight services throughout the entire process, the service system is decomposed into independent units of service functions, and a railway freight service combination model is constructed with the goal of minimizing response time, service cost and service time. A model solving algorithm based on adaptive genetic algorithm is proposed.

Using the computational model, an empirical analysis was conducted on the entire process freight service plan for starch sold from Xi'an to Chengdu as an example. The results showed that the proposed optimization model and algorithm can effectively guide the design of freight plans and provide technical support for real-time response to customers' diversified entire process freight service needs.

With the continuous optimization and upgrading of railway freight source structure, customer demands are becoming increasingly diverse and personalized. Studying and designing a reasonable railway freight service plan throughout the entire process is of great significance for timely response to customer needs, improving service efficiency and reducing design costs.

The purpose of this study aims to investigate the relationship between employees’ personality traits and their job performances (including task performance and contextual performance) of Taiwanese freight forwarders by using responses from a NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Form (NEO-PI-R) questionnaire survey.

One of the most popular personality trait model is the five-factor model (FFM), which includes the big five domains, namely, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (OCEAN). Each of these five domains includes six facets. Previous researchers have used OCEAN factors to describe the relationship between human personality and job performance. NEO Personality Inventory is a professional psychological assessment instrument published by psychological assessment resources. Multivariate analysis technique and regression technique are used to analyze surveyees’ responses.

Research results reveal the following four issues. The seniority of employees in a company has a positive relationship with their conscientiousness. Employees with higher score on the facets of the neuroticism domain have a negative correlation with their task performance and contextual performance. The relationship between employees’ openness to experience and job performance (both task performance and contextual performance) is not significant. Employees’ seniority has a positive correlation with both their task performance and contextual performance. In a nutshell, freight forwarding industry in Taiwan can use the facets in the neuroticism domain to screen and recruit appropriate job applicants. In addition, retaining senior employees could increase a forwarder’s task performance and contextual performance by their high degree of conscientiousness.

FFM model is a psychological theory dealing with the personality traits and human behavior. Freight forwarding is a labor-intensive business and is one of the most important sectors in the logistics industry. According the authors’ knowledge, the application of FFM on the logistics industry is simply not existed.

In the past few decades, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received substantial interest in the competitive business environment. This study aims to empirically examine the impact of CSR on corporate image, organizational commitment and organizational performance in ocean freight forwarders.

Five critical CSR dimensions were identified based on factor analysis: consumer interests, employee interests, environmental management, disclosure and corporate commitment and sponsorship. Structural equation modelling was subsequently performed to examine the hypothesized relationships among CSR, corporate image, organizational commitment and organizational performance.

Results indicated that CSR had significantly positive effects on corporate image and organizational commitment, whereas corporate image was positively related to organizational commitment and organizational performance, respectively. Organizational commitment was also positively related to organizational performance. However, CSR did not have a significant direct effect on organizational performance.

This study intended to conduct a survey on logistics service providers; however, due to the limited availability of research on ocean freight forwarding service providers, the present sample was limited to ocean freight forwarding enterprises.

From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the field by identifying the important dimensions of CSR and their effects on corporate image, organizational commitment and organizational performance. Particularly, it demonstrated the effect of CSR on ocean freight forwarding employees’ organizational commitment.