Toward a behavioral approach of international shipping: a study of the inter-organisational dynamics of maritime safety

Abstract

Classification societies play a major role in maritime safety and the regulation of the international shipping market. They have a dual mission, namely the classification and certification of ships. Paradoxically, the academic literature on the strategic behaviour of classification societies remains very limited. More often than not, the scope of prior research has been limited to the definition of their missions in the shipping ecosystem with an emphasis on their changing legitimacy as maritime accidents occur. Consequently, this paper aims at providing a better understanding of the specific role of classification societies in maritime safety and within the inter-organisational dynamics of international shipping. The study is based on a conceptual framework provided by the behaviourist approach and applied to the inter-organisational dynamics of supply chains. This approach enables in-depth analysis of actors’ strategic behaviours by focusing on four dimensions: power, leadership, conflict and cooperation. The main results highlight the increasingly central and paradoxical role of classification societies. This role encompasses, on the national level, classification and certification processes, and, on the supranational level, the creation of new rules and regulations. The study highlights the importance of their ability to master the official framework and institutional vocabulary, which enable them to strengthen their power and leadership in the shipping market. This capacity helps them to limit conflicts between actors and to encourage certain cooperative behaviours based on relationships of dependence and inter-organisational interdependence.

A holistic view of maritime navigation accidents and risk indicators: examining IMO reports from 2011 to 2021

“…In maritime reports, these actors are mentioned without analysing their roles, relationships and the potential domino effects of this chain of actors leading to different natures of risk factors such as social, organisational and inter-organisational. Recent research is aligned with the need to further investigate the changing roles of port authorities with a potential lack of power to detain ships with technical deficiencies (Notteboom and Winkelmans 2001 ), the dilution of responsibilities between a fragmented supply chain of operators regarding technical audits, with multiple contradictory roles (Berg et al 2013 ), the potential corruption of certain actors such as classification societies (Mahmud and Rossette 2007 ) and their links to ship owners as their shareholders (Baumler and François 2005 ), the pressure on costs leading to social and environmental risks (Sislian et al 2016 ), the role and dynamics among several classification societies in the whole transportation supply chain (Fulconis and Lissilour ( 2021 ), the need to improve the transparency of the governance of ports (Brooks 2022 ; Manjarres-Wahlberg 2022 ). This framework can be used to provide a guide for maritime industry policymakers and organisations, to better understand maritime accident risk indicators related to the complex relationships of external stakeholders with new and emerging circumstances highlighting at the same time areas for improving the quality, quantity and structure of the accident data captured in official accident reports.…”

Peran Teknologi Informasi Dalam Keberhasilan Pendidikan Dan Pelatihan Di Bidang Pelayaran

“…Keselamatan transportasi laut untuk selanjutnya disebut keselamatan pelayaran adalah hal yang mutlak harus dipenuhi, keselamatan pelayaran setidaknya harus memenuhi 2 kriteria yaitu layak laut dan layak layar (Fulconis & Lissillour, 2021). Layak laut adalah terpenuhnya 12 kriteria sesuai dengan ketentuan yang terdapat dalam International Safety Management (ISM) Code bab IX yang diterbitkan oleh IMO (Lasse, 2014).…”