Elvira Haezendonck

Strategic Positioning Analysis for Seaports

In this chapter, a Strategic positioning analysis (SPA) is developed as a specific analytical approach consisting of a product portfolio analysis, a shift-share analysis and a diversification analysis. The SPA describes the performance of ports and traffic categories within ports in terms of market share, growth rate, diversification and value added. The SPA needs to be used taking into account the ports position with regard to value-added created by the different traffic categories. By using this integrative instrument, indications on the overall strategic position of ports are provided and will benefit strategy formulation and decision-making on port development.

On Voluntarism and the Role of Governments in CSR: Towards a Contingency Approach

In the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature, the principle of voluntarism is predominant and implies that responsible business activities are discretionary and reach beyond the rule of law. This principle fails to explain that governments have a great interest in CSR and exercise influence on firms’ CSR activities. Therefore, we argue in favour of a contingency approach on voluntarism in CSR. To this end, we analyse the academic literature to demonstrate how governments are part of the CSR debate. We selected 703 papers where the impact of governments is mentioned from five journals in our field (BEER, BEQ, BSE, BAS, JBE) in the period 1982–2011. We studied the titles and abstracts of these papers and provide an overview of: (i) the geographical orientation of the reviewed studies; (ii) the variety of government levels involved; and (iii) the various subjects where governments appear to be involved. In addition, an in‐depth reading of a subsample of 39 articles offers more details on the role of governments in the CSR literature. Hence, we offer a structured overview on the discussion of CSR and governments while stimulating a contingent understanding of the voluntarism concept in CSR.

The Role of Governments in the Business and Society Debate

The role of governments in business and society (B&S) research remains underexplored. The generally accepted principle of voluntarism, which frames responsible business conduct as an unregulated subject under managerial discretion, accounts for this gap. Paradoxically, there are sufficient acknowledgments in academia and practice on different roles of governments. The present article identifies three broad topics for research, addressing (a) the paradox between the principle of voluntarism and the role of governments in B&S, (b) the boundaries of governments and business in their contribution to B&S issues, and (c) the mechanisms of government intervention that affect corporate social performance. The authors approach the first topic with a literature review of 703 articles marked with the term “government” from five journals in the field (Business & Society, Business Ethics: A European Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Journal of Business Ethics) between 1982 and 2011. This study indicates that the principle of voluntarism remains, despite the broad variety of research related to the role of government in B&S. In addition, the identified content provides deeper insight into the mechanisms of government intervention and on the boundaries of governments in the B&S discourse. This article then provides a summary of the other three research articles included in this special research forum, with a contribution oriented toward the latter two research avenues posited.

Transport Project Evaluation

This book revisits traditional evaluation methods, such as cost–benefit analysis, to try and find a balance between the ever-increasing demand for transport, the search for sustainable mobility and green transport solutions, and the limited financial resources that governments are able to invest in transport infrastructure projects.

Towards a meta-analysis and toolkit for port-related socio-economic impacts: a review of socio-economic impact studies conducted for seaports

Port authorities increasingly need to communicate with a variety of external stakeholders in order to maintain and strengthen the societal acceptance of seaport activities. The availability of socio-economic impact studies on port authority and regional development agency websites has often made this information accessible to the public at large. However, the differences in methodologies adopted, in terms of selecting, defining and measuring various types of socio-economic impacts, sometimes lead to misconceptions as well as misleading comparisons across ports within and between regions. In this paper, we suggest guidelines for the design and application of a potential best practice from an interregional perspective (UK, France and Belgium), based on research in the framework of a European Commission co-funded project, ‘IMPACTE’. The paper also aims to develop guidelines for comparing the socio-economic impacts of ports across regional and national borders and discusses the development of a European port economic impact measurement toolkit. We analyse a sample of 33 recent socio-economic impact assessment reports in terms of methodologies adopted and types of impacts measured. The review shows a great diversity among these studies, leading to important differences between the impacts of port activity communicated to stakeholders.

Stakeholder management practices found in landlord seaport authorities in Flanders : an inside-out perspective

This paper offers an analysis of stakeholder management conducted by port authorities. Drawing from several organisation-centric stakeholder management theories, we study the conceptualisation and the identification of stakeholders, as well as the application of stakeholder management, as executed by port authorities. By analysing the opinions of middle management, we examine whether daily stakeholder management reflects stakeholder theory findings, emphasising the importance of attribute-based stakeholder conceptualisation, identification, and stakeholder management strategies. We also conduct a comparative analysis, assessing the quality of the stakeholder management practice in several seaports located in the Rhine-Scheldt Delta. The results show that actual stakeholder management practices, found at several port authorities, convey moderate resemblance to the methods and theoretical findings presented in academic stakeholder management literature.

Transaction cost analysis of public infrastructure delivery

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a systematic assessment of the magnitude of transaction costs of public infrastructure delivery, based on the three attributes of transaction costs, being the asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency of a transaction. Design/methodology/approach – Non-parametric tests were used to test the transaction cost differences between different procurement types. Findings – The authors find empirical support, based on a sample of 172 public infrastructure projects in Belgium, that construction firms make higher relation specific investments to their transaction partners under a public-private partnership (PPP) than a under a traditional public procurement (TPP). In addition, the authors found that PPP transactions are burdened by a greater uncertainty and a less mature market than TPP transactions. Research limitations/implications – Given the complexity of this research, the scope is limited to: a strict distinction between two procurement types, one geographica...

CSR Implementation in Belgium: Institutional Context, the Role of CSR Managers and Stakeholder Involvement

CSR implementation reveals a variety of knowledge gaps in our field of research, especially related to well contextualized and in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. We have examined CSR implementation practices in Belgian organizations. The contribution of this research is obtained through triangulation of research methods and the analysis of the results of three distinct studies. In a first study, we have performed an explorative research with Belgian CSR managers. Next to this, we have conducted in-depth interviews in both private and public organizations. We have investigated to what extent different stakeholders are being involved in implementing corporate social activities (CSAs). Results show that the level of CSR manager involvement is quite divergent, depending on the specific CSA under concern and on the need for CSR expertise. The second and third study point was at the limited structured involvement of other internal and external stakeholders in the context of CSR implementation, in both private and public organizations.

Conclusion: Evolution Towards Integrated Project Appraisal

This chapter describes how this book will prove to be a benchmark in the transport evaluation literature. The contributors concentrated on their knowledge and expertise in economic evaluation of transport projects. In this conclusion, the different elements that stressed institutional aspects in economic evaluation and the related problems and impediments will be described. In addition, a general conclusion of trend revealed in the different contributions of this book will be provided.

Integrated ports clusters and competitive advantage in an extended resource pool for the Antwerp Seaport

ABSTRACT In the context of increased scale of carriers and vessel sizes, stakeholder opposition to port expansion, and heavy regulation, ports prepare their strategic response. A port’s competitive strength strongly depends on its capability of developing or retaining competitive advantages. Ports consider options such as strategic partnerships, or any form of collaboration, which could help them to create more or alternative combinations of unique resources as sources of competitive advantage. Taking an extended resource base perspective, the competitive advantages of the Antwerp port cluster are analyzed, using both linear regression and factor analysis, for its integrated hinterland network area, on data of 59 port experts. The results of our analysis show that the port’s hinterland extension did not (yet) result in new sources of competitive advantages. This leads us to the reflection that we cannot assume integrated port clusters always lead to projected positive strategic outcomes.