Literature Review of Horizontal Collaboration in the Maritime Industry

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: A, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, course: Maritime Logistics and Supply Chain Management, language: English, abstract: This literature review investigates horizontal collaboration initiatives of ports and
terminals. It includes the identification of concepts, drivers, benefits and barriers.
Moreover, it examines how collaboration initiatives can be managed effectively.
The study shows that ports and terminals collaborate in the field of marketing and
business development, operations, administrative, regulatory and spin-off.
Organizations are forced to collaborate by following drivers: Bargaining power of
shipping lines, increased efficiency in sea-transport and hinterland-connections, as
well as increased requirements of shippers and shipping lines.
The benefits of collaborating can be classified in the sections efficiency / cost
reduction, knowledge and competency, positioning of the company, as well as
marketing and service benefits. Social benefits and green benefits have also been
discovered.
The main barriers are anti-competition regulations and discrepancies between
partners, strategic fit and different interests.
The top three factors of effective collaboration management are regular face to face
meetings, integration of information and trust.
All in all this literature review makes several contributions to the rarely available
literature of horizontal collaboration in the maritime port and terminal industry.