Search results

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.

This paper investigates the announcement effect of shipping sale-and-leaseback (SLB) transactions. As an emerging source of financing, a growing deal of interest has been paid to the SLB. However, little is known about a variety of aspects of SLB transactions in the shipping industry. In this regard, this study examines the stock market reaction to the SLB announcements of shipping firms and their impact on shareholders' wealth.

A sample of 15 shipping SLB deals commenced by publicly listed Korean shipping companies during 2009–2023 are examined in this research. The announcement effect is measured by abnormal returns (AR) of their stocks based on the event study analysis.

It is found that the AR on the shipping SLB announcement date is, on average, −0.84% while there is no statistical significance. However, the results indicate that shareholders of shipping companies engaging in large-sized SLBs can experience positive AR around the announcement date.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the announcement effect of SLB transactions on the shipping industry and their impact on shareholders' wealth. The findings in this research can offer implications for the financing decisions of shipping companies and investment decisions of stock investors.

In the 1990s, following the challenges imposed by globalisation, the liner shipping industry experienced profound changes, leading major carriers to create ad-hoc logistics business-units. Nevertheless the vertical integration of shipping lines along the transport chain faced important entry barriers in various regions.This paper aims at analysing the impact of such barriers on carriers’ pathways of expansion in the logistics business. It mainly focuses on the East-Asian market, as a relevant empirical case in which important institutional and socio-political obstacles are still in force .Main results disclose sui-generis paths of expansion achieved by major carriers, in contrast with linear constructs of time and space proposed by classical TNC theories. In such respect, port operations reveal to be the most critical stage of the chain. The ‘sidestep’ of the port phase, leading to investments in other on-shore activities (warehousing, inland terminals, etc.) as well as the implementation of aggressive financial campaigns (acquisitions and takeovers), reveal the unfaltering will of top shipping lines: the quick achievement of a successful vertical and horizontal expansion despite environmental obstacles.

CAPARO India Ltd., a leading player in the automotive components industry in India, has multiple logistics providers for export‐import logistics at its five manufacturing locations in north India. Dealing with multiple logistics provider restricts negotiation power, service commitments, customer satisfaction and leads to higher transportation cost and time delays due to multiple points of contact. The purpose of this paper is to document CAPARO's aim of selecting one common logistics provider for all their units in north India for export‐import logistics, warehousing, packaging and value added services in order to minimise all the above stated problems.

This paper, in the form of case study, provides a structured decision‐making model for selection of the most suitable logistics provider using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). With this technique, several criteria like freight charges, inland charges, schedule flexibility, warehousing capacity, track and trace system, port presence and custom clearance are considered that make it possible to select a suitable logistics provider.

The case example establishes that AHP can be effectively used to analyse the logistics provider selection, which is based on real data.

The case extends the scope for future researchers to enhance the criteria for selection of any logistics provider.

The paper provides practitioners with a systematic analysis needed to make this important decision.

The paper is based on real data and information.

Port performance and port choice have been treated as separate streams of research. This hampers the efforts of ports to anticipate on and respond to possible future changes in port choice by shippers, freight forwarders and carriers. The purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a port performance measurement methodology, extended from the perspective of port choice, which includes hinterland performance and a weighting of attributes from a port choice perspective.

A review of literature is used to extend the scope of port performance indicators. Multi-criteria decision analysis is used to operationalize the context of port choice, presenting a weighted approach using the Best-Worst Method (BWM). An empirical model is built based on an extensive port stakeholder survey.

Transport costs and times along the transport chain are the dominant factors for port competitiveness. Satisfaction, reputation and flexibility criteria are the other important decision criteria. The results also show how the availability of different modal alternatives impact on the position of a port. A ranking of routes for hinterland regions is done.

The paper focuses on two extensions of port performance measurement. So far, not all factors that determine port choice have been included in port performance studies. Here, first, factors related to hinterland services are included. Second, a weighting of port performance measures is proposed. The importance of factors is assessed using BWM. The approach is demonstrated empirically for a case of the European contestable hinterland regions, which so far have lacked quantitative analysis.

Since the 2010s, market conditions for container shipping companies have been deteriorating owing to decreasing container cargo trade and increasing supply capacity. This study aims to contribute to the empirical literature on the container shipping industry market structure. Specifically, this study aims to investigate the extent of market competition.

This study analyzes the market structure and evaluates the market power of shipping companies through a non-structural test.

The H-statistic for the entire period of 2004–2018 was 0.37, which is significantly different from zero. This indicates the absence of monopoly pricing throughout the entire period. For the time-phased estimates, the H-statistic between 2004 and 2008 is 0.15, which is not significantly different from zero. On the other hand, the H-statistic from 2009 to 2018 was 0.40, which differs significantly from zero.

As the Far East Freight Conference had released tariffs and charge rates by item for container shipping routes, monopolistic pricing is said to have appeared until the European Union abolished the European Economic Community (No. 4056/86) in 2008, before the economic crisis. However, this study indicates that pricing in the container shipping industry has been distinctly non-monopolistic; further, competition seems to have intensified since 2008. Industry competitiveness is of interest not only to academics but also to practitioners, including policymakers, especially when considering competition policies.

Container shipping is generally considered a global business. This truth may not hold from a single-company perspective. The companies’ physical operation networks show that container carriers operate differently and follow different paths in their internationalisation development. Additionally, the degree of internationalisation, measured on the basis of sea-oriented operations, differs from that measured according to land-oriented front-end marketing and sales activities. The purpose of this study is to further examine the internationalisation patterns of shipping lines.

An examination of the front-end activities and the structures of leading container-shipping companies is conducted. The sales office networks of the sector’s 20 largest companies worldwide (by twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity) are analysed as key indicators. The numbers of sales offices are measured by analysing the websites of the sample (20 companies), as well as annual reports and other publicly available data sources.

The findings show that not all shipping companies are international, by virtue of the industry. While it is difficult to observe differences in the overall patterns of the sales networks at a macro level, some companies differ in their activities. The data set also shows that market share and total capacity are not necessarily good indicators of a carrier’s worldwide presence.

This research is based on secondary data. Other important transactional and market-oriented considerations should be examined before drawing conclusions about the internationalisation of container-shipping companies and of the industry.

This paper contributes to the relevant existing research, particularly by adding its view on the demand-oriented criteria as suggested by Dunning and Lundan (2008).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which supply side flexibility tactics are deployed by operators in the container liner shipping sector in 2009/200 to restrict supply in a market which is characterised by over‐supply (as well as under demand).

Taking a case study approach using the Far East‐Europe trade lane, secondary data are reviewed for each type of internal flexibility capability. This is supplemented by a qualitative Delphi‐based research method so that findings are iteratively verified with leading practitioner personnel.

In 2009, directly after the severe imbalance between demand and supply emerged, liner shipping providing companies were only partially able to exploit the flexibility tactics that were available to them. This improved in 2010 and contributed to an upturn in performance.

Ocean freight logistics provides a vital foundation for contemporary international commerce. However, the viable provision of this service has become significantly more challenging and this research examines why this is the case and what supply side responses are being deployed. Taking a case study approach focussing on 2009/2010 restricts the generalisability of the research that could now be examined on a longer time scale across the whole sector.

This research is novel as there has been no previous research which has looked at the deployment of supply side flexibility tactics in the container liner shipping sector. The findings have considerable bearing on how the industry is run and understood by its providers, customers and regulators.

To analyse logistical innovations from 1984 to 2003.

The approach concerned analysing the use of patents retrieved from major patent databases to create a picture of logistical innovations.

Confirmation that the use of patent statistics can depict an overall picture of technological innovation in the logistics sector. Logistics firms can be innovative by making good use of patent data.

Logistics researchers and practitioners take advantage of recent improvements in the quality and availability of patent statistics rather seriously; in other fields many do not see the relevance.

Customers will begin to rely on 3PL service providers beyond distribution services for more technological innovation as they successfully expand capabilities into these areas, as well as provide end‐to‐end integration and visibility.

This is a novel and useful approach for examining innovations.