PortEconomics members Τheo Notteboom, Geraldine Knatz and Francesco Parola are the guest editors of a special issue of the prestigious scholarly Research in Transport Business and Management (RTBM) examining “Port cooperation”

The Theme of the Special Issue

Co-operation, integration and co-ordination are much researched themes in mainstream economic and management literature. The port industry has witnessed a multiplication of port co-operation/integration schemes in recent years partly driven by governance reforms, public policy, political forces and market pressures. The cooperation among ports comes in various forms: port authority mergers (Ningbo-Zhoushan, Copenhagen-Malmo, Port Metro Vancouver, Genoa-Savona), port alliances (Seattle/Tacoma), far-reaching coordination (Haropa, Kobe-Osaka), etc.

While port co-operation is a hot topic in public and business circles, bibliometric studies on port-related academic research show that port co-operation/ integration is an emerging theme, but that the number of published papers is still quite limited. This volume is aimed at complementing earlier edited volumes on port competition and port governance, so to enrich academic insights on the theme. The edited volume will contain contributions specifically focusing on port co-operation schemes, strategies and policies. Papers ideally combine novel methodological approaches to port (authority) co-operation with extensive empirical (regional) insights.

The guest editors seek contributions that will increase our understanding of the following issues (non-exhaustive):

• The types/forms of port co-operation/integration and the related choice problem;
• The triggers/drivers of port co-operation/integration schemes: e.g. political (compulsory versus voluntary nature), inter-firm ties (global terminal networks, vertically integrated carriers), financial, etc.;
• The institutional, political and market/commercial dynamics behind successful and failed port co-operation schemes;
• The ‘regionalism’ of port co-operation schemes (i.e. the role of the regional setting in the choice, success and failure of port co-operation schemes);
• Port co-operation/integration with an adjacent port vs. a distant port (cf. internationalisation of port authorities);
• Stakeholder perspective on port co-operation/integration;
• (Expectations on) benefits/costs for port authority, users, government agencies, etc.;
• The distribution of benefits/costs of port co-operation schemes;
• The problems of implementation and the potential conflicts (power, prestige, social, economic, environmental, etc.) with internal and external stakeholders;
• Port performance and port co-operation (including impact on supply chain performance and commercial and financial outcomes);
• Strategic port planning and port co-operation (including the demand for specialisation vs. differentiation).

The editors are looking for original contributions that constitute much more than a simple description of a specific case. We are interested in receiving original and innovative submissions, which are well grounded in theory and/or containing novel analysis that will provide new perspectives on port co-operation and their impacts.

Potential contributors are asked to submit an abstract indicating their paper idea to the journal editors before April 15, 2017.

Upon acceptance of the abstract, contributors are asked to develop a full paper by September 15, 2017. You are invited to concisely follow the author guidelines of RTBM which can be found online.

Publication schedule:

The full publication schedule is as follows:

• April 15, 2017 – Deadline for author commitments to Volume Editors
• September 15, 2017 – Deadline for original paper submissions to EVISE
• January 15, 2018 – Deadline for revised paper submissions to EVISE
• March 15, 2018 – Deadline for final, formatted paper submissions to EVISE
• April 30, 2018 – Editorial and order of papers from volume editors to journal manager
• June 15, 2018 – final versions of all author-approved proofs submitted to production
• September, 2018 – hard-copy volume published and papers available online

The formal call on the RTBM website can be found link