Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Maritime Affairs

Specialization

Ph.D (Maritime Affairs)

Campus

Malmö, Sweden

Country

Egypt

First Advisor

Dong-Wook Song

Abstract

Advances in transportation and communication technology have led to acceleration of globalisation. The introduction of containerisation and multimodalism has triggered the cheaper, faster and safer shipping. Industries became encouraged to offshore their business to best utilise cheap labour and natural resources. Consequently, adoption of new strategies for global sourcing and outsourcing, such as supply management, became inevitable. These globalisation phenomena triggered the need for integrated logistics services and thus more integrated maritime logistics into global supply chains. Port integration into supply chains became a legitimate evolution for development taking place in the global maritime logistics industry. Empirical evidence refers to numerous positive impacts of Port Supply Chain Integration (PSCI) on port performance and competitiveness. With the enormous increase in trade volumes, however, ports became a serious source of externalities to environment and society. These externalities led ports to consider environmental and social aspects as well as economic benefits, known as Port Sustainability (PS). This thesis investigates the influence of PSCI on PS. A conceptual model was developed through a systematic literature review to address how PSCI could enhance the three underlying concepts of PS in concept, namely, Port Economic Sustainability (PECS), Port Environmental Sustainability (PENS) and Port Social Sustainability (PSOS). Empirical investigation of the conceptualised relationships was conducted with 109 questionnaire surveys collected from maritime logistics industry in Egypt. The questionnaire included responses from port operating companies, port authorities and various groups of port users. In the analysis stage, a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to validate the constructs and test the underlying relationships among those identified in the concepts. Findings of the empirical analysis are multifaceted. First, all constructs involved in the research, namely, PSCI, PECS, PENS and PSOS were successfully validated, passed reliability tests and demonstrated a multi-dimensionality nature. Second, hypothesis testing revealed that PSCI has a positive and significant influence on PECS. It also has a strong and positive contribution to PENS. However, hypothesis testing using SEM did not succeed to prove that PSCI could enhance PSOS. In conclusion, this research suggests that the integration of ports into supply chains could enhance economic and environmental dimensions of PS. Identifying the potential value of PSCI could provide port operating companies with the guidance to achieve environmental benefits while attaining their economic objectives. Port authorities should encourage port operating companies and port users to adopt PSCI practices for achieving a simultaneous sustainable development that could enhance the maritime logistics business environments in Egypt. Consequently, this research provides a considerable contribution to the fifth objective of Egypt2030 vision which aims for an integrated and sustainable ecosystem.

Comments

978-91-986526-8-0

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