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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.

This paper investigates the nature of port-city relationships in two major port regions of the world, Europe and Asia. Although this issue is well analyzed through either isolated case studies or general models, it proposes a complementary approach based on urban and port indicators available for 121 port cities. In terms of demographic size and container traffic, it shows the decline of port-urban dependence, stemming from changes in global transportation and urban development. However, European and Asian port cities are not identically confronted to the same challenges, notably in terms of their hinterlands. A factor analysis highlights a regional differentiation of port-city relationships according to their insertion in both urban and port systems, with a core-periphery dualism in Europe and a port-city hierarchy in Asia. Thus, the distance to inland markets for European ports and the size of coastal markets for Asian ports are the main factors to explain the nature of port-city relationships in the two areas. It helps to evaluate which European and Asian port cities are comparable beyond their cargo volumes, by putting together micro (local environments) and macro (regional patterns) factors.

The paper aimed to explore the development of the North American and the European cruise industry. The paper is discursive and it covers philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others ' work and thinking. The paper attempts to provide answers to the following questions. Is it a zero-sum game? And does the rise of new tourism destinations imply the decline of some of the existing destinations?

This paper employs literature and archival documents utilizing data from Berlitz Guides to Cruising 1992-2013, Cruise Industry News Annuals 1995-2013, and other sources were evaluated to draw conclusions.

Cruising has evolved from a source of supplemental income into the fastest growing segment of the hospitality and tourism industry. The confluence of innovative ships, improved distribution channels, market awareness, and harbor facilities, has often resulted in rapid sustained expansion. Looking at the quantity and quality of major ships, their impact on the growth and globalization of the industry is illustrated.

Ship numbers and deployment patterns can serve as precursors of growth. Analysis shows that quantitative and qualitative changes in permanently assigned ships signal transformative growth in a region ' s cruise market.

The paper serves to identify regions and times for further investigation of impact. The paper is a concise chronicle of the development of the cruise industry and it serves as a basis for further in-depth research.

THE opening months of the last war were conducted in a very leisurely fashion because the expected disasters had not befallen us. Not until our armies were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk did the stark realities of the situation percolate into the public mind. Once the facts were understood the whole country was galvanised into activity.

Aims to highlights the changes ongoing in the distribution and logistics property sector across Europe and to show that wide differences remain between the sophisticated warehouse properties available in mature property markets and those available in traditional parochial markets found prevalently across the continent and especially in central and eastern Europe.

The briefing is based on empirical and commercial research in all the national industrial property markets within the EU. It addresses changes in the drivers affecting logistics property and the industry responses to them. The changes include outsourcing; a desire for more flexible, responsive supply chains; globalisation of manufacturing; legislative change; and growing IT capability. Industry responses include the development of complex, highly specified warehousing; increased demand for sophisticated telecommunications; and optimization of location.

Sub‐optimal locations and poor specification have a direct impact on the cost of the operations using them. As a consequence logistics providers gravitate to newer, more highly specified buildings in locations optimised for their use. In an environment where, traditionally, distribution has a national focus, optimising locations for pan‐European distribution will inevitably render some locations sub‐optimal.

As Europe moves towards a genuine single market, traditional, nationally‐based distribution chains become ever less efficient in the delivery of goods. Concurrently, the complexity and configuration of the warehouse product are changing to accommodate more efficient identification, storage and retrieval technologies along with the need to service new types of market.

This paper aims to develop a framework of executive capability for innovation in the Irish seaport context.

The paper uses an approach based on a critical review of literature. The paper takes the form of a critical review of academic literature, focussed by dynamic managerial capabilities theory. Specifically, the work of Lawson and Samson (2001) is drawn on to frame executive capability for innovation.

The framework proposes that the executive capability for innovation in the Irish seaport sector emerges as a dynamic managerial capability. The framework is dynamic in nature with environmental feedback loops inhibiting and enabling executive capability development. Supply chain innovation emerges from the framework based on an interpretation of executive capability emerging from Lawson and Samson (2001).

The paper is entirely conceptual in nature. Future empirical research taking a qualitative approach is necessary. Further, an alternative theoretical perspective to that of dynamic managerial capabilities would offer new conceptual insight.

The paper contributes to executive practice through providing a framework of executive capability for innovation facilitating dialogue between executive practitioners and academic theory. Policymakers are challenged to contemplate the framework as a means of transforming competitiveness in an industry identified as foundational to Irish economic development.

The paper contributes to an emerging area of interest in the academic literature in the area of executive capability for innovation. Specifically, the paper argues the unique contextual nature of executive capability for innovation in the context of the seaport industry.

This paper recommends new criteria for selecting seaports of embarkation during military deployments. Most importantly, this research compares the current port selection criterion, which is to select the seaport with the shortest inland transport time from the deploying installation, to the proposed port selection criteria, which are to select the seaport based on the shortest combined inland and oceanic transit time to the destination theater.

The authors construct an original integer program to select seaports that minimize the expected delivery timeline for a set of notional, but realistic, deployment requirements. The integer program is solved considering the current as well as the proposed port selection criteria. The solutions are then compared using paired-samples t-tests to assess the statistical significance of the port selection criteria.

This work suggests that the current port selection criterion results in a 10–13% slower delivery of deploying forces as compared to the proposed port selection criteria.

This work assumes deterministic inland transit times, oceanic transit times, and seaport processing rates. Operational fluctuations in transit times and processing rates are not expected to change the findings from this research.

This research provides evidence that the current port selection criterion for selecting seaports for military units deploying from the Continental United States is suboptimal. More importantly, logistics planners could use these recommended port selection criteria to reduce the expected delivery timelines during military deployments.

Several military doctrinal references suggest that planners select seaports based on habitual installation-to-port pairings, especially for early deployers. This work recommends a change to the military's current port selection process based on empirical analyses that show improvements to deployment timelines.