Researchers and practitioners are increasingly recognising the managerial complexity that exists in shipping and port-related logistics. Effective management of ports requires a thorough understanding of their hinterlands and, more particularly, of port-hinterland relationships and interactions. The hinterland is the outlying region that supports a port, and is therefore the area from which goods are delivered to a port for shipping. It also extends to the concept of a transport complex economy which is “an economy that emerges from the joint location of transport-related activities that have sustainable links with one another”. To examine the linkage between a port and its hinterland, trade flows and related intermodal transport activities must first be explored.
Intermodal transport involves the shipping of goods using two or more transport modes. Intermodal transport has become an integral part of shipping, whereby an effective and efficient intermodal system is crucial to port and hinterland development. The increasing complexity of global supply chains has increased pressures on ports to improve their operations and strengthen their linkages with hinterlands. As key nodes in the intermodal chain, ports must continuously take proactive actions to enhance their competitiveness and work closely with actors in the transport chain to meet today’s traders’ demands. These port-hinterland relationships are developed primarily in terms of trading links, and then strengthened by effective transport systems.
This special issue aims to collect recent original contributions related to the strategic development of ports and their hinterlands. It will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2014 International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Conference, but we also strongly encourage researchers who are unable to participate in the conference to submit papers for this call.
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
- Growth strategies of ports
- Port development strategies
- Green port and shipping management
- Hinterland development
- Intermodal transport
- Transport complex economy
- Port competitiveness and regional competitiveness
- Emerging market opportunities and trends
- International shipping and trade
- Competition and collaboration in ports and shipping operations
- Economies of scale and cost leadership strategies in port development
- Integration in shipping and transport logistics
Submission deadline: 30 September, 2014
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