The 15th annual meeting of the Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) brings the leading port economists from all over the globe in Kyoto, Japan, on Tuesday 27 June 2017, to discuss the way forward for port studies
PortEconomics members will join fellow maritime economists interested in port research at the eve of the 2017 Annual Conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) to discuss the latest findings and trends in port studies and shape together the future of research in port economics policies and management.
The Port Performance Research Network (PPRN) is a network of leading maritime economists studying port economics, management and policy. Established in 2001 meeting in Hong Kong to undertake empirical testing of port governance, it is currently coordinated by PortEconomics members Gordon Wilmsmeier and Thanos Pallis.
The full – which f each session of the meeting is to hold in depth discussions and dialogue on challenges, ideas, critical issues and future projects in port research.
Programme
09:00 – 10:30 Port Performance Research Network Meeting Part 1
I. Welcome and Announcements
Moderator: Gordon Wilmsmeier
A session to present new and old members and to announce and briefly discuss, special issues and any other business.
II. Roundtable-1: Port Strategies
Moderators: Francesco Parola & Theo Notteboom
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.
Key questions:
- Why is this area relevant for current and future research?
- What sub-areas are particularly relevant?
- What are the conceptual and theoretical questions to be answered
11:00 – 12:30 Port Performance Research Network Meeting Part 2
III. RT-2: Sustainability and ports
Moderator: Gordon Wilmsmeier
Today the port industry is under significant pressure to meet not only economic, but also social and environmental criteria. In this context the environmental and social dimension as factors of port performance are becoming more relevant. Port authorities and terminal operators have started to become aware of reaching sustainability goals, andmany of them are increasingly concerned with their emission profiles, asregulation are becoming more stringent. A clear link exists between sustainability, efficiency, competitiveness and profit of a terminal. This sustainability efficiency link between is still not well understood or analysed in detail. Issues like measuring performance beyond traditional efficiency and productivity measures is an emerging challenge and offers new reseach opportunities.
Key questions include:
- What are the new opportunities for research in the area of sustainability of ports and terminals?
- What are the conceptual and theoretical questions to be answered?
- What are new and emerging data and information requirements and needs? particular sub-areas of this topic are relevant for current and future research?
- What are the challenges in obtaining such data?
- What are current project of PPRN members to address sustainability challenges?
IV. RT-3: “Twittering or Research” – a discussion on the future of port research
Moderator: Thanos Pallis
Port studies are an emerging, and maturing research field, the number of published port studies increased substantially over the last decade. The huge output leads to important advances in the field. However, we would argue that the quality of published research could be improved substantially. Perhaps a greater focus of the research community on quality of research output to some extent opposed to quantity of research output) would lead to greater advances of port studies?
- What do you perceive as major challenges in research?
- How have the use and perception of new media outlets influenced your research?
- In how far has the increasing volumen and acceleration of information flows altered your research and dissemination activities?
- What is your opinion on the quality and contribution to theory advances of recent recent research? Give good and bad examples
- What can we learn from other disciplines?
- Is the room and need for a movement of „slow port studies“?
V. In-camera meeting – to discuss organisational issues and the way forward.
Moderators: Gordon Wilmsmeier & Thanos Pallis
The goal of the “in camera” meeting is to discuss organisational issues and to hear your proposals for the future development of PPRN
- What possible projects can we develop?
- How do we increase the visibility and value added of PPRN to its memers?
- Is there interest to organize specific PPRN reserach seminars among members?
IV. Special issues
The current issues are being developed by PPRN members:
- Special Issue on “Shipping and Port Marketing: Policy and Strategy” in Transport Policy – Guest editors: Francesco, Thanos and Dong-Wook: https://www.mar-economists.org/blog/2017/03/22/shipping-and-port-marketing-policy-and-strategy-call-for-papers/
- Special issue on “Port co-operation” Research in Transportation Business & Management (RTBM) – Guest editors: Theo, Geraldine and Francesco: https://www.mar-economists.org/blog/2017/03/21/call-for-papers-for-rtbm-special-issue-on-port-co-operation
You may also download the agenda here
