Competitive Advantage in Liner Shipping: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Liner shipping is a rather unique and idiosyncratic sector of the shipping industry. As such, it has attracted much attention from both researchers and policy makers. The purpose of this special issue of the International Journal of Maritime Economics is to investigate current thought in liner shipping economics and strategy. The papers included address what are and have been the major concerns of practitioners and academics, viz. market structure and regulation as well as vessel deployment and integration strategies. In an effort to induce research in another important direction, the aim of this paper is to address the issue of competitive advantage by considering the main themes that appear in the literature, viz. vertical integration and logistics strategy, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, cost reduction, networks, economies of scale, regulation, pricing and shipper relationships. In so doing, this Editorial emphasises the importance of the firm as the unit of analysis and concludes by drawing attention to the need for the empirical investigation of the strategy ± performance relationship.

Hinterland transportation in Europe: Combined transport versus road transport

“…The ability of transport operators to attract freight from the hinterland at the lowest possible cost and with reliable and regular services is an essential condition for them to gain or maintain an advantage in a competitive environment. Consequently, ports that manage to be called by the largest container vessels and that are offering high volume inland services will reach the status of the major loading centre of their maritime range; they are able to control a large hinterland (Hayuth, 1992;Heaver, 2002;Robinson, 2002;Panayides et al, 2002;Notteboom, 2004). The major ports could also be the result of a very strong local hinterland.…”

Intégration, non-intégration des transports maritimes, des activités portuaires et logistiques

“…Pour eux, l'intégration verticale serait aujourd'hui un moyen de dégager des avantages comparatifs par rapport à leurs concurrents, notamment à travers le développement de prestations logistiques, pour deux raisons essentielles. Ils leur devient de plus en plus difficile, voire impossible sur le long terme de dégager des marges de compétitivité durables à travers une réduction des coûts maritimes tant la réduction des coûts obtenues par des navires de plus grande taille est systématiquement annulée par la baisse des taux de fret liée aux nouvelles capacités mises en oeuvre… sauf à réunir des conditions exceptionnelles comme une très forte croissance des exportations mondiales, tirées notamment par la locomotive chinoise (Panayides et Cullinane 2002 ;Lim 1998). La crise financière et économique actuelle a brutalement mis fin à un très long cycle de croissance.…”

Measuring the scope of inter-firm agreements in the container shipping industry: an empirical assessment

“…The oversupply of transport capacity and the consequent pressures on freights undermine the profit margins of carriers. In fact, the dramatic rise of economic and financial risks due to the deployment of new cellular vessels has progressively compelled ocean carriers to cooperate with each other in order to share their transport capacity and aggregate demand flows (Panayides and Cullinane, 2002). The rapid growth of the containerised industry and the globalisation of markets have widened the interests of shippers in new markets also from a geographic point of view.…”

“…Over the past few decades the shipping industry has been characterised by a strong competition among carriers, that have used various cooperation agreements to gain competitive advantage, share investment risk and reduce costs (Panayides and Cullinane, 2002). The simultaneous presence of cooperative and competitive behaviour in the container industry has typified it as an oligopolistic market.…”