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The purpose of this paper is to examine traditional, current and emerging roles played by ports in the context of logistics and supply chain management practice and strategy. The paper also seeks to elaborate the emerging concept of port‐centric logistics.

The paper draws its insights and conclusions from a review of the literature, and an analysis of current trends and data concerning the ports and maritime transport sector.

The paper shows that ports can play a variety of different roles within supply chains and that they are not restricted to their traditional role of simple transhipment point for freight.

While the paper reviews the roles played by ports in logistics and supply chain management generally, a useful next step would be to analyse specific flows and activities at/through ports within selected supply chains, thus allowing validation of a framework of roles for ports in the context of various supply chain strategies.

The paper highlights the potential, which in many cases is still latent, for ports to engage in port‐centric logistics activities.

The paper both highlights (given the fact that the vast majority of freight at some point transits ports) and extends the understanding of the role(s) of ports within supply chains.

This research revolves around understanding the interfaces of ports in supply chains. The main aim of the research is to explore the role of ports within supply chains.

Collecting information representative of the range of experiences, perspectives, perceptions and the behaviours of managers relevant to the research was obtained through purposeful sampling. The data for this paper is derived from a literature review of research papers and studies in addition to conducting seven face-to-face and one telephone interviews.

The responses were analysed utilising themes and presenting summaries of transcripts in tabulated form to ease clarification. The findings reveal that integration between ports and organisations resembles other industries and therefore enhances the scope of ports within supply chains and the adaption of best practice techniques.

Although in depth case studies were conducted the limitations are within the breadth of interviews undertaken.

The findings reveal that integration between UK ports and organisations resembles other industries and therefore enhances the scope of ports within supply chains and the adaption of best practice techniques.

The originality value of the research is the exploration of the on-going role of ports within operational supply chains.

The paper models the effect of spatial clustering on various dimensions of inter-firm competitive rivalry among port logistics firms using Porter's five forces model.

A survey-based quantitative approach is adopted to collect data from logistics firms, which are directly or indirectly dependent on the Port of Melbourne in Australia. A structural equation modelling (SEM) technique is used to examine the theorised relationships between various dimensions of inter-firm competitive rivalry and the tendency of spatial clustering of logistics firms in the vicinity of Port of Melbourne.

The results indicate that the inter-firm competitive rivalry increases significantly when logistics firms are spatially clustered. This effect is further augmented when they cluster around the port. Co-location of firms near the port tends to increase “bargaining power of buyers”, whilst indirectly affecting “competitive rivalry” via “threats of substitutes”. This indicates that co-location enhances the bargaining power of buyers through the greater availability of substitute services that in turn promotes competitive rivalry among firms. However, co-location has an insignificant effect on “barriers to entry” and “bargaining power of suppliers”. Low entry barrier thus favours high competitive rivalry among firms. Hence, this paper validates the Porter's cluster and five forces models that confirm the positive effect of port logistics clusters (PLCs) on bargaining power of buyers and indirect effect on competitive rivalry partially mediated through threats of substitutes.

This study provides empirically grounded evidence for firms to evaluate co-location decision choices and help buyers and sellers to devise business strategies to enhance inter-firm competitive rivalry and bargaining power.

This is the first systematic attempt to empirically validate Porter's five forces model in the context of PLC. Furthermore, the conceptualisation of PLC concept both as spatial and functional constructs (i.e. dependency on port) is novel. This study thus has broadened the meaning of cluster from a geographic entity to a more useful functional construct to reflect inter-firm dependencies.

The purpose of this paper is to test the 5GP concept with measurement of the performance of Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai ports, employing a hybrid method of consistent fuzzy preference relation (CFPR), VIsekriterijumska Optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and PROMETHEE.

The authors developed the concept of the fifth generation ports (5GPs), and apply CFPR, VIKOR and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) to evaluate the 5GPs.

The performance of the ports of Hong Kong and Singapore is close to meet the definition of 5GP criteria. On the contrary, ports of Busan and Shanghai are still behind the 5GP stage in light of the majority of the evaluation criteria’s performance.

This paper studies four ports. More empirical tests are needed to verify the applicability of the 5GP concept toward other ports.

The findings provided port managers with the insight of how to improve their port to meet the criteria of 5GP.

New criteria and higher expectations of existing requirements present challenges to port managers for a need to raise the bar of service standards and develop new competencies.

The authors developed the concept of the 5GPs. Newly developed 5GP contributes to expanding the concepts of first to fourth generation ports developed by UNCTAD.

The changing role of seaports in supply chains has been the subject of extensive research in the recent literature. The strategic development of seaport terminals, responding to the need for closer integration into supply chains, invites a more detailed examination of the influence of the supply chain structures on seaport performance. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effects of supply chain structures, especially the degree of integration of seaports into supply chains, on seaport performance.

The parameters for a structural equation model were identified in the first instance from the supply chain and seaport operations and management literature. The structural equation model itself was then devised, and subsequently refined, using data from Korean seaport terminal operators, shipping companies and freight forwarding companies. The structural equation model was used to assess the level of supply chain integration of seaports and the relationship to port performance.

The results indicate that the integration of seaports into supply chains has a positive impact on both the effectiveness and the efficiency of seaport performance. In addition, antecedents to seaport supply chain integration are identified; these suggest that a strong orientation to supply chain integration within a port operating company enables the company to adopt and implement a strategy that integrates functions within the port and with other upstream and downstream organisations.

As the field data were geographically limited to one country, extending the findings of this study to other geographical areas may not be possible, although the approach taken, using the structural equation modelling technique, should be transferrable elsewhere. Cross‐validation of the model would widen its applicability to other areas. The paper provides a framework that allows other researchers to examine the level of integration of ports into supply chains.

The potential benefits of closer integration of seaports into supply chains are shown with supply chain integration having a positive effect on port performance. Seaports which do not integrate with their supply chains have a lower level of performance. Thus, enhanced port performance accruing from closer integration would have positive implications both for port and terminal managers and for other supply chain participants.

This study, for the first time, empirically examines the impact of the integration into supply chains of seaports on their performance. This is achieved by the development of a structural equation model which is then tested in the field, thus extending the existing literature which is largely conceptual or descriptive.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First to identify economic activities and broader spatial logistics functions that characterise an urban setting, and second to delineate significant spatial logistics employment clusters to represent the underlying regional geography of the logistics landscape.

Using the four-digit Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification, industries “explicitly” related to logistics were identified and aggregated with respect to employment. A principal component analysis was conducted to capture the functional interdependence of inter-related industries and measures of spatial autocorrelation were also applied to identify spatial logistics employment clusters.

The results show that the logistics sector accounts for 3.57 per cent of total employment and that road freight, postal services, and air and space transport are major employers of logistics managers. The research shows significant spatial clustering of logistics employment in the western and southern corridors of Melbourne, associated spatially with manufacturing, service industry and retail hubs in those areas.

This research offers empirically informed insights into the composition of spatial logistics employment clusters to regions that lack a means of production that would otherwise support the economy. Inability to measure the size of the logistics sector due to overlaps with other sectors such as manufacturing is a limitation of the data used.

The research offers policymakers and practitioners an empirically founded basis on which decisions about future infrastructure investment can be evaluated to support cluster development and achieve economies of agglomeration.

The key value of this research is the quantification of spatial logistics employment clusters using spatial autocorrelation measures to empirically identify and spatially contextualize logistics hubs.

This paper aims to explore the comparative analysis of marketing strategies between seaports and dry ports. Second, this paper proposes a recommendation to improve marketing approaches in both nodes.

This research analyzes current marketing approaches to improve the freight volume and enhance interrelation between them for a comprehensive collaboration in the freight supply chain. This research employed semi-structured interviews via an e-interview questionnaire.

The result shows that dry port and seaport practice a mixed marketing strategy. Some marketing elements that a seaport applies are also applied by a dry port, like focusing on the target customer, joining exhibitions and face-to-face meetings. Customized service to clients, frequent discussion on the effective marketing plans and increasing the facilities at the seaport and dry ports can improve the marketing strategies in dry port and seaports.

Seaports are the critical components in esteem-driven context, which add to supply chains by creating value-added services in the transport chain. Nonetheless, research between dry ports and seaports has increasingly drawn the attention of scholars during the last decade. Having said like that, there have not been any pragmatic studies undertaken in the Malaysian context that mainly discusses the marketing prospect of the dry ports and seaports especially during COVID-19 outbreak.

Economic growth is defined as growth in the capacity to meet individual and collective consumption demands. Decline in economic growth for a longer period (i.e. recession) occurs as a part of the “The Limits of Growth” concept. During such an economic crisis, three policy concepts can be implemented: “austerity”; “business as usual”; and “fiscal stimulus”. The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic response to the 2008 recession, in the area of sustainable transport system development, in Europe.

The study assesses and identifies the need for investments in transport infrastructure, in particular rail, to remove barriers to developing a sustainable multimodal transport system. Towards this, by analysing secondary data collected from relevant online sources, the paper explores the prospects for sustainable rail freight transport development in Europe, during the recession period. For this, eight EU countries were selected, based on the length of railway lines in use: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Investment in five transport infrastructures were examined – road, rail, IWT, maritime ports and airports – and the research finds that overall, the “austerity” policy was implemented for investment in rail infrastructure, whereas a modest “stimulus” policy can be observed for investment in road infrastructure. The average investment in IWT infrastructure had a “stimulus” policy, whereas the average investment in Maritime port and Airport infrastructure suggests a “business as usual” policy. Of the various approaches taken in the recent recession period, European rail transport appears to have fared least well.

To some extent, the research is limited by lack of some data (e.g. data unavailability on the UK airport infrastructure investment from year 2006).

The findings of the research will encourage policy makers in national government to invest in sustainable transport infrastructure.

The study suggests that there is a lack of uniform policy response to the recession, in terms of investment in transport infrastructure, and that there is a significant difference between the policy goals set by the EU – modal shift from road to rail and/ IWT to develop a sustainable transport system – and their practice. The author argues for an integrative, common and action-oriented approach to sustainable rail freight system development, by European countries, to develop effective, Europe-wide rail freight corridors, under schemes such as Horizon 2020 and Shift2Rail.

The function of a port has evolved from a platform providing simple loading and unloading activities to a gateway that opens up numerous opportunities that proliferate economic benefits. The effects of globalization and modern supply chain trends have reinforced the role that ports play in supply chains. This calls for contemporary studies on supply chain management to expand to address the management of supply chain disruptions that originate from port operations. The purpose of this paper is to provide perspectives from the industry on the proposed management model that seeks to address port-related supply chain disruptions (PSCD).

In-depth interviews were conducted with professionals from the port management and port users to preliminarily substantiate the findings.

A list of port-related supply chain threats was first identified and their occurrences were analyzed. Then, through the interviews with the management of industry players, the factors which may affect the implementation of the management model have been identified.

This paper fills gaps in literature related to management of port risks and port resiliency.

The findings raised important issues in the management of PSCD with respect to strategic decision making and policy development.

This study contributes by aiming to minimize the potential of a list of identified threats through the implementation of a practical management model by port management to increase port resilience and maintain supply chain sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to report a comparative investigation of port performance between Western Europe and Eastern Asia and develop a strategy to improve their port performance accordingly.

A comprehensive literature review is conducted in order to identify factors for port performance evaluation. A large‐scale questionnaire survey is employed in two port regions for comparative analysis.

Descriptive techniques and t‐tests indicate that port performances in the case port regions are different from each other in some factors and that they share some common features in certain other factors. The findings reveal that the most critical differences between the case ports are government support, proximity, speed of cargo handling, safety and port technical infrastructure in descending order. The Western European ports need to improve on government support, reduce port charges, diversify port ownership and improve port connectivity, while the Eastern Asian ports need to improve customs services, expand hinterlands, enhance logistics demand, encourage intermodalism and set up “dry ports”.

This study was restricted to two port regions in China and the UK and data used in this research were mainly generated from questionnaire surveys, responses to which are, to some extent, subjective.

Ports must provide services that meet and exceed customers' expectations to be competitive. This research yields practical insights for port managers to improve port performance as quantifying factors allows them to prioritize and compare the factor performance. The results of the empirical study can also assist port stakeholders to formulate their operational strategy for port performance improvement.

The paper contributes to knowledge by addressing a gap in empirical research concerning performance comparison between Western European and Eastern Asian ports.