Environmental sustainability in the port industry is of growing concern for port authorities, policy makers, port users and local communities. Innovation can provide a solution to the main environmental issues, but often meets resistance. While certain types of technological or organisational innovation can be satisfactorily analysed using closed system theories, in the case of seaports and in particular in the area of environmental sustainability, more advanced conceptual frameworks have to be considered. These frameworks need to be able to account for the multiple stakeholder nature of the port industry and of the network and vertical interactions that environmental sustainability calls for. This article investigates successful innovations improving environmental sustainability of seaports. The proposed framework builds in part on research concepts developed in the InnoSuTra EU FP7 project. From a methodological perspective, this article develops a method for quantifying the degree of success of innovation with respect to a set of specific objectives. Several case studies are used to test the framework against real innovation examples, such as onshore power supply, or alternative fuels. In this article, we argue that only those innovations that fit dynamically port actors’ demands and the port institutional environment stand a chance to succeed

Project participants, through experience, have an initial perception and predisposition towards risk and the types of risks they are willing and able to undertake. This is equally true for parties interested in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. These initial positions have been registered for the major Greek PPP market stakeholders potentially involved in a PPP arrangement through a survey covering all candidate construction companies, interested financing institutes and a number of public sector entities to be involved in PPPs. Findings revealed that stakeholders were, for the majority of risks identified, in agreement as to preferred risk allocation. Risk allocation preferences for construction companies were compared with similar findings for the UK, a mature PPP market, indicating a possible learning/maturing process based on the particular country background. Conclusions add to other surveys carried out on the subject and should enable public sector clients to establish a more efficient framework for risk allocation, thus reducing negotiations prior to contract award and minimizing the risk of poor risk distribution.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a promising concept which aims at offering seamless mobility to end users and providing economic, societal, transport-related and environmental benefits to the cities of the future. To achieve a successful future market take-up of MaaS it is important to develop prototype business models to offer high-value bundled mobility services to customers, as well as enable the MaaS operator and the involved actors to capture value. This paper aims at investigating the business perspective of MaaS by collecting qualitative data from workshops and in-depth interviews in three European metropolitan areas: Budapest, Greater Manchester and the city of Luxembourg. The analysis of the collected data contributed to the in-depth analysis of the MaaS business ecosystem and the identification of the champions of MaaS in the three areas. Prototype business models for MaaS are developed based on the Osterwalder's canvas, to describe how MaaS operators may create, deliver, and capture value. Our findings indicate that the MaaS ecosystem comprises of public and private actors who need to cooperate and compete in order to capture value. Although noticeable deviations among the study areas are observed, mobility service providers, public transport authorities and regional authorities were commonly indicated as the key actors in a MaaS partnership. In addition, viewed as a system, enablers and barriers to MaaS are identified based on the systems' of innovation approach. The analysis indicates that the regulatory framework of the cities, the lack of standardization and openness of the application programming interfaces and the need for transport-related investments constitute risks for the successful implementation of MaaS in the study areas. Trust between MaaS actors and cooperation in e-ticketing are key enablers in some of the study areas.

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Public-private partnership (PPP) policy strategies emphasize the ability of PPPs to foster innovation. Evidence reported in literature supports less the inherent quality of PPPs for innovation and more the importance of contributing factors. The contractual agreement is the setting of these factors. In this context, an analytical model based on behavioural economics is presented, with boundary conditions reflecting various contractual configurations. The analysis indicates why, from a purely economic point of view, the private party in a PPP arrangement has an incentive to invest in low risk incremental innovations, which impact on, and positively effect, cost savings during construction and operation. It is also identified that further innovations are hampered by the ability to produce verifiable improvements correlated to performance. Findings contribute to the subject of public procurement for innovation in PPPs and support public authorities regarding the rationale, potential and necessary framework conditions for the use of public procurement as an innovation policy tool.