Mary R. Brooks

Chapter 18 Governance Models Defined

The recent worldwide trend towards devolution in the port industry has spawned considerable variety in the types of governance structures now in place around the world. This chapter discusses the range of devolution models in the global ports sector, as identified by the World Bank and academic researchers, and then attempts to validate the existence of these models. It identifies key strategic objectives for port governance and proxies for the range of approaches to the delivery of port activities, identifying nine for use in further research. The chapter concludes that the data do not validate the World Bank or other models proposed as in use, and that these models are oversimplified. The chapter lays the foundation for further research into port governance.

Chapter 17 Port Governance, Devolution and the Matching Framework: A Configuration Theory Approach

The purpose of this chapter is to apply contingency theory to the management and governance of ports. It describes port devolution as part of a larger attempt by governments to apply the one best way principles of new public management (NPM) to the transportation sector. As an alternative approach, the authors develop a Matching Framework that identifies and focuses attention on key contingency variables in port governance and management. An application of the Matching Framework to the Canadian port experience and its implications for port management and research are provided.

Chapter 25 Issues in Measuring Port Devolution Program Performance: A Managerial Perspective

One of the premises of devolution is that productivity gains will result from better management of the resources of the entity devolved. The success of a devolution program, however, is difficult to measure and may be a product of many variables. A review of the literature on port devolution indicates mixed results. The literature on port performance measurement provides a myriad of efficiency measures with little emphasis on whether these ports are effective or meet customer or stakeholder needs. This paper examines the literature on performance measurement, both at the firm level (public and private) and at the program level, and explores what constructs may be suitable to measure the performance of devolution programs for ports from a strategic management perspective.

Chapter 11 Port Devolution and Governance in Canada

The devolution of port authorities in Canada has not been without debate over the past 70 years. This paper provides a brief introduction to the role of ports in Canada and then examines the history of port policy and devolution, concluding that past policies were considered to have failed due to their inability to respond to changing circumstances. The paper then introduces the current port policy, and discusses its evaluation by two Review Panels. It draws conclusions about the three-pronged approach to port governance in Canada and the difficulties faced by ports under the existing policy, setting the stage for later chapters in the book.

Chapter 26 Conclusions and Research Agenda

This chapter reviews the literature on devolution outcomes from a broader spectrum of industries. Having derived reasonably conclusive evidence in Chapter 18 as to the inadequacy of existing models of port governance, a more appropriately complex model has been proposed. This model exhibits greater detail in the definition of groups of port activities for which governance decisions must be taken and a much greater refinement of the range of governance typologies available to decision-makers. Drawing conclusions from the content of previous chapters, an agenda for future research into devolution, governance and port performance is set out. The key objective lies with investigating, and possibly identifying, the nature of the relationship between this newly expanded range of port governance configurations and port performance. Finally, this chapter proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing the firm-governance relationship and how this affects the performance of both ports and devolution programs.

Developing Short Sea Shipping in South America: Looking beyond Traditional Perspectives

Short sea shipping, defined as maritime transport services that do not cross an ocean, continues to be underdeveloped in Latin America. The reasons for this are as many as the project proposals that have died on the grapevine. Extensive coastlines suggest that the market should be considerable for developing a truck-competitive maritime transport option if trade density is not too low for a commercially viable service.1 Furthermore, the absence of competing rail options in most corridors advances the concept that there should be a suitable market opportunity for the development of short sea shipping.2 Additionally, the existence of restrictive cabotage and bilateral trade regulations (e.g., flag restrictions for bilateral services) between Argentina and Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and Chile and Brazil, previously noted by Hoffmann and Sánchez,3

5. The Fiscal Treatment Of Shipping: A Canadian Perspective On Shipping Policy

This paper explores the Canadian Way of shipping in light of some recent legislative changes by its OECD partners. Many of those partners have opted to implement tonnage tax regime, together with other adjustments, as a means of beating back the growing incidence of national ship owners flagging out to open registries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the models that have been adopted by developed countries to address the issue of fiscal treatment of international shipping in a globalized financial world.

Developing an instrument to assess seaport effectiveness in service delivery

The purpose of the research was to develop a standard instrument that can accurately and reliably measure port service effectiveness performance for port authorities. The study population was customers and users of container ports in the USA and Canada. We have named the instrument SEAPORT (Seaport Effectiveness Assessment for PORT managers) and it is designed to be used as a standalone measurement tool as well as input into the strategic management decisions of port managers. The paper details the methodology used in surveying three port user groups and explains the development of the construct for performance measurement by each, using variance inflation factors to finalise the formative construct components. The paper also discusses the potential future deployment of the instrument.