The diversity of port governance models in the world, sometimes even within the same country, has aroused the interest of researchers. This study is based on contingency theory to support the port governance model. The purpose is to understand the port governance model and the relation with port performance. There are three objectives: to analyze the port governance mechanisms; to analyze the port performance factors; and to understand the influence of the governance model mechanisms on port performance. A factorial analysis was used to determine the main components, and the methodology of the structural equation model was used to analyze a survey sample of 105 valid responses from specialists and managers of port user's companies that operate in the main Portuguese ports. This study demonstrates that port governance model influences directly the port performance. The main contribution of this paper to the literature is providing a set of factors that public managers may decide when changing the characteristics of the port governance models to ensure their performance. It was also observed the approximation of the port expert vision of port governance with models described in literature.

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A liberalização do transporte marítimo, no âmbito da implementação do mercado único europeu, é uma questão central no que respeita à política de transportes do arquipélago dos Açores, enquanto espaço insular ultraperiférico. O presente trabalho pretende aplicar o conceito de serviço universal ao transporte marítimo regular de mercadorias nos Açores, como alternativa ao sistema atual, em que são impostas condições de funcionamento do mercado pouco consistentes com um regime concorrencial. Quando colocados em confronto, esta última solução permite obter uma melhoria em termos de eficiência na afetação de recursos, com níveis relativamente equivalentes em termos de bem-estar das populações insulares. Contudo, as dificuldades na implementação do conceito, nomeadamente em termos de infraestruturas portuárias, podem colocar o processo em causa.