Dissertation•
Political economy of port competition : institutional analyses of Rotterdam, Southern California and Dubai
01 Jan 2007-
About: The article was published on 2007-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 37 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Port (computer networking) & Competition (economics).
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TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual framework for evaluating the communication strategies a port authority relies on in the management of its relevant stakeholders and the adoption of disclosure to critical issues is provided, which is supported by empirical evidences from the Port of Rotterdam (PoR), a major port which leverages disclosure to successfully manage stakeholders and support the implementation of corporate strategy.
Abstract: This study applies stakeholder management principles to the port domain. We provide a conceptual framework for evaluating the communication strategies a (landlord) Port Authority (PA) relies on in the management of its relevant stakeholders and the adoption of disclosure to critical issues. The theoretical arguments are supported by empirical evidences from the Port of Rotterdam (PoR), i.e. a major port which leverages disclosure to successfully manage stakeholders and support the implementation of corporate strategy. The research questions are addressed using a content analysis on the annual reports (ARs) of PoR in the period 2000–2012. The overall research design enables the investigation of PA disclosure as a tool for managing the evolving interests of stakeholders from a longitudinal perspective. The PoR case shows that the relative importance of topics reported in the ARs change over time, as a result of external pressures and internal key events. The outcomes demonstrate the growing attention of PoR...
45 citations
Cites background from "Political economy of port competiti..."
...PoR became a public corporation in January 2004 with two shareholders: the municipality of Rotterdam as the majority shareholder and the national government as minority shareholder (Jacobs 2007)....
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28 Sep 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a relational approach to the port-city interface, which allows to focus on how development is constituted through dynamic coupling mechanisms across territorial scales and along different institutionalised structures.
Abstract: Ports have historically played a key role in the economic development of their host cities and regions. However, since the second half of the 20th century, their historical connection came under pressure. Ports and cities grew apart, not only physically, but also socially, culturally and institutionally. Within the literature, foremost the physical separation between port and city is being studied. In this case, the concept of the port-city interface becomes a synonym of the waterfront, a developer's window of opportunity for urban renewal in port cities around the world. However, perceiving the port-city interface only in terms of land use neglects that the port-city interface is also an interactive economic system composed of different relationships within, without and towards this system, hence our proposition. This dissertation proposes a relational approach to the port-city interface. A relational approach allows us to focus on how development is constituted through dynamic coupling mechanisms across territorial scales and along different institutionalised structures. Within a flat and deep ontology, we combine the relational approach with causal theory and system theory. This results in our analytical framework capable to analyse different emergent coupling mechanisms and their effects. Subsequently, we operationalize this in our three-step conceptual framework. In step 1, we analytically stop the time to identify and visualize the relational geometry. Step 2 distinguishes the causal processes from the less-relevant background conditions. Step 3 analyses the emergent powers that are enabling the coupling mechanisms and, in the end, explain how actors possess agency. The empirical work, the lion's share of this dissertation, focusses on five port-city interfaces in the port-cities of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Ghent (Belgium). In both Amsterdam and Ghent we focus on the steel manufacturing sector and the biobased sector, while in Ghent we also focus on the car manufacturing sector. Based on our results, we answer the main research question 'How to plan the port city?'. We will argue that the port-city interface should not be governed to maintain and prevent the conflict between port and urban land use, but should, in contrast, be of high added value for both the urban and maritime economy.
44 citations
Cites background or methods from "Political economy of port competiti..."
...Also, increasingly the production model of Japanese Toyota167 was copied with a focus on standardization, automation and quality (Jacobs, 2007)....
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...This enables us to perceive without preference all phenomena at all levels in relation to each other; backward, forward and lateral (Cox, 1998; Jacobs, 2007; Lagendijk, 2006)....
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...An economic sector is therefore identifiable by the specific technology or technologies it applies; the specific demands for labour and skills needed; the different logistical patterns following the specific value chains; and the specific competitive positions firms take within regional or global market arenas (Jacobs, 2007)....
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...It also defines the balance between private and public interests and stakes (Jacobs, 2007)....
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...…identifiable by the specific technology or technologies it applies; the specific demands for labour and skills needed; the different logistical patterns following the specific value chains; and the specific competitive positions firms take within regional or global market arenas (Jacobs, 2007)....
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DOI•
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: Ducruet, Notteboom and de Langen as discussed by the authors proposed a new economic geography (NEG) framework to explain the uneven distribution of activities across geographical space, understood in terms of agglomeration, dispersion, and regional integration.
Abstract: Chapter one by Cesar Ducruet, Theo Notteboom and Peter de Langen, the New Economic Geography (NEG) is seen as a possible bridge for a better integration between economic geography literature and port studies. The authors demonstrate that NEG has distanced itself from traditional economic geography in the early 1990s by applying a modelling approach to the explanation of changing spatial structures, and by attempting to put economic geography in the economic mainstream. By bringing together international trade theories, micro-economic theories, and spatial analysis, it proposes a renewed framework explaining the uneven distribution of activities across geographical space, understood in terms of agglomeration, dispersion, and regional integration. This chapter confronts NEG with two important sets of port research: the changing concentration of traffic within a port system, and the uneven agglomeration of economic activities around port areas
42 citations
Cites background from "Political economy of port competiti..."
...Performance differentials between Los Angeles and Long Beach that are situated in the same urban agglomeration can only be explained by historical and political factors (Jacobs, 2007)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the characteristics of the entities involved in strategic coupling, the way in which the local is conceptualized in the context of global positioning, and the understanding of strategic action are identified and discussed.
Abstract: Strategic coupling refers to the process of matching local assets with
global network demands. Although the concept has benefited from an increase in
relational thinking, several critical issues remain unresolved. In this article, we
identify and discuss three such issues – the characteristics of the entities involved in
strategic coupling, the way in which the ‘local’ is conceptualized in the context of
‘global’ positioning, and the understanding of strategic action. To address these
issues, we use Cox’s notion of ‘spaces of dependence and engagement’ in combination
with Ball’s concept of the ‘structure of provision’. The case of the port of
Rotterdam demonstrates the value of our perspective in elucidating the process of
‘strategic coupling’ within global networks of containerized traffic.
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the changing level of peripherality and remoteness of the Southern African container port system as part of the global container shipping network and found that Southern Africa has moved from a remote shipping region to a more central shipping region in the global network.
Abstract: Regional trade co-operation, economic growth and greater political stability have enabled increased container throughput and container port capacity development. Earlier academic work has indicated that the functional position of this port region in the global maritime network might be shifting from a remote region in the periphery of the network to a more intermediate position. This paper aims to analyze the changing level of peripherality and remoteness of the Southern African container port system as part of the global container shipping network. The central hypothesis is that Southern Africa has moved from a remote shipping region to a more central shipping region in the global network. The methodology consists of the calculation of network measures for Southern African ports. The changing geographical distribution of flows among the main container ports in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius and Madagascar will also be explored in terms of their respective shipping services, port calling patterns, market structure (in terms of the number of active carriers) and the up-scaling of vessel and port capacity. The overall result is a mapped port hierarchical structure with a clear indication of the shifted maritime centrality of Southern African ports from 1996 to the present decade.
28 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1990TL;DR: Douglass C. North as discussed by the authors developed an analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies, both at a given time and over time.
Abstract: Continuing his groundbreaking analysis of economic structures, Douglass North develops an analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies, both at a given time and over time. Institutions exist, he argues, due to the uncertainties involved in human interaction; they are the constraints devised to structure that interaction. Yet, institutions vary widely in their consequences for economic performance; some economies develop institutions that produce growth and development, while others develop institutions that produce stagnation. North first explores the nature of institutions and explains the role of transaction and production costs in their development. The second part of the book deals with institutional change. Institutions create the incentive structure in an economy, and organisations will be created to take advantage of the opportunities provided within a given institutional framework. North argues that the kinds of skills and knowledge fostered by the structure of an economy will shape the direction of change and gradually alter the institutional framework. He then explains how institutional development may lead to a path-dependent pattern of development. In the final part of the book, North explains the implications of this analysis for economic theory and economic history. He indicates how institutional analysis must be incorporated into neo-classical theory and explores the potential for the construction of a dynamic theory of long-term economic change. Douglass C. North is Director of the Center of Political Economy and Professor of Economics and History at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a past president of the Economic History Association and Western Economics Association and a Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written over sixty articles for a variety of journals and is the author of The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (CUP, 1973, with R.P. Thomas) and Structure and Change in Economic History (Norton, 1981). Professor North is included in Great Economists Since Keynes edited by M. Blaug (CUP, 1988 paperback ed.)
27,080 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time.
Abstract: Examines the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time. Institutions are separate from organizations, which are assemblages of people directed to strategically operating within institutional constraints. Institutions affect the economy by influencing, together with technology, transaction and production costs. They do this by reducing uncertainty in human interaction, albeit not always efficiently. Entrepreneurs accomplish incremental changes in institutions by perceiving opportunities to do better through altering the institutional framework of political and economic organizations. Importantly, the ability to perceive these opportunities depends on both the completeness of information and the mental constructs used to process that information. Thus, institutions and entrepreneurs stand in a symbiotic relationship where each gives feedback to the other. Neoclassical economics suggests that inefficient institutions ought to be rapidly replaced. This symbiotic relationship helps explain why this theoretical consequence is often not observed: while this relationship allows growth, it also allows inefficient institutions to persist. The author identifies changes in relative prices and prevailing ideas as the source of institutional alterations. Transaction costs, however, may keep relative price changes from being fully exploited. Transaction costs are influenced by institutions and institutional development is accordingly path-dependent. (CAR)
26,011 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.
Abstract: How behavior and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclasical accounts provide an "undersocialized" or atomized-actor explanation of such action, reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong. Under-and oversocialized accounts are paradoxically similar in their neglect of ongoing structures of social relations, and a sophisticated account of economic action must consider its embeddedness in such structures. The argument in illustrated by a critique of Oliver Williamson's "markets and hierarchies" research program.
25,601 citations
"Political economy of port competiti..." refers background in this paper
...Proponents of this model (cf. Granovetter 1985) see institutional change as arising out of collective processes of interpretation, and emphasis is put on the ways in which existing institutions structure and circumscribe the range of institutional change and creation....
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Book•
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: The Need for a New Paradigm as discussed by the authors is the need for a new paradigm for the competitive advantage of companies in global industries, as well as the dynamics of national competitive advantage.
Abstract: The Need for a New Paradigm - PART I: FOUNDATIONS - The Competitive Advantage of Firms in Global Industries - Determinants of National Competitive Advantage - The Dynamics of National Advantage - PART II: INDUSTRIES - Four Studies in National Competitive Advantage - National Competitive Advantage in Services - PART III: NATIONS - Patterns of National Competitive Advantage: The Early Postwar Winners - Emerging Nations in the 1970s and 1980s - Shifting National Advantage - The Competitive Development of National Economies - PART IV: IMPLICATIONS - Company Strategy - Government Policy - National Agendas - Epilogue - Appendices - References
22,660 citations
"Political economy of port competiti..." refers background in this paper
...This argument is associated with the work on clusters (Porter, 1990), industrial districts (Piore & Sabel, 1984) and agglomeration-economies (Krugman, 1995)....
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TL;DR: The authors show that the Musgrave-Samuelson analysis, which is valid for federal expenditures, need not apply to local expenditures, and restate the assumptions made by Musgrave and Samuelson and the central problems with which they deal.
Abstract: NE of the most important recent developments in the area of "applied economic theory" has been the work of Musgrave and Samuelson in public finance theory.2 The two writers agree on what is probably the major point under investigation, namely, that no "market type" solution exists to determine the level of expenditures on public goods. Seemingly, we are faced with the problem of having a rather large portion of our national income allocated in a "non-optimal" way when compared with the private sector. This discussion will show that the Musgrave-Samuelson analysis, which is valid for federal expenditures, need not apply to local expenditures. The plan of the discussion is first to restate the assumptions made by Musgrave and Samuelson and the central problems with which they deal. After looking at a key difference between the federal versus local cases, I shall present a simple model. This model yields a solution for the level of expenditures for local public goods which reflects the preferences of the population more adequately than they can be reflected at the national level. The assumptions of the model will then be relaxed to see what implications are involved. Finally, policy considerations will be discussed.
12,105 citations
"Political economy of port competiti..." refers background in this paper
...In such a situation, citizens and businesses can ‘vote with their feet’ (Tiebout, 1956) in the search for the most favorable package of welfare services and taxes within the metropolitan area....
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