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PortEconomics
  • September 28th, 2025
PortEconomics
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    Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

    Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

    Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents:  Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

    Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Stakeholders’ attitudes toward container terminal automation

    Stakeholders’ attitudes toward container terminal automation

    Toward green container liner shipping: joint optimization of heterogeneous fleet deployment, speed optimization, and fuel bunkering

    Toward green container liner shipping: joint optimization of heterogeneous fleet deployment, speed optimization, and fuel bunkering

  • Presentations
    Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

    Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

    When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

    When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    Digital technologies for efficient and resilient sea-land logistics

    The World Ports Tracker in TOC Europe

    The World Ports Tracker in TOC Europe

    Newly-upgraded IAPH World Ports Tracker identifies major sustainability and market trends

    Newly-upgraded IAPH World Ports Tracker identifies major sustainability and market trends

  • Noticeboard
    PhD posts in the area of ports and energy transition

    PhD posts in the area of ports and energy transition

    PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally

    PortEconomics members among best-performing scholars globally

    Accessibility or connectivity: why is it correct to say that in the Caribbean the main logistics problem is connectivity?

    Accessibility or connectivity: why is it correct to say that in the Caribbean the main logistics problem is connectivity?

    Cruise Port-City Compass

    Cruise Port-City Compass

    Webinar: short sea shipping services in the southern Caribbean region

    Webinar: short sea shipping services in the southern Caribbean region

  • Viewpoints
    Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

    Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

    In a tight spot: American ports in global supply chains

    In a tight spot: American ports in global supply chains

    Cruise industry in 2025 at a glance

    Cruise industry in 2025 at a glance

    The box that makes the world go around: container terminals and global trade

    The box that makes the world go around: container terminals and global trade

    Antwerp-Bruges surpasses Rotterdam in Q1 2025: a structural shift or short-term fluctuation?

    Antwerp-Bruges surpasses Rotterdam in Q1 2025: a structural shift or short-term fluctuation?

  • PortLibrary
  • PortReport

Francesco Parola

Dr. Francesco Parola is Associate Professor at the University of Genoa in the Department of Economics and Business. He is also member of the “Italian Centre of Excellence for Integrated Logistics” and of the “MAR.TE. sea-land logistics” research consortium based in Naples. He has been visiting researcher at the "Center for Maritime Economics & Logistics" (MEL) of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, at the "Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité" (INRETS) in Paris, at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, and at the University of the Aegean in Chios (Greece). His research and teaching interests include port economics and policy, maritime logistics and governance and the application of business and strategic management disciplines in the maritime transport sector. In particular, he extensively studied the strategies of transnational container terminal operators and their relationships with carriers and port authorities across major regions. Liner shipping competition and co-operation, intermodalism and rail transport are also themes of his research and teaching activities. Francesco has been involved in several research projects and consultancy studies examining the maritime transport industry, port governance and reform patterns, the structure and the evolution of the European port industry and other maritime and transport topics. He is a Council member of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) and an active member of the Port Performance Research Network (PPRN). Francesco regularly participates as speaker at many conferences and workshops on port and maritime issues, such as IAME and WCTR events, and contributes to OECD round tables. Together with the PortEconomics member Pierre Cariou and other colleagues, he co-organized the IAME 2013 Conference that was held in Marseille, 3-5 June. Francesco extensively published in port and maritime themes across various international peer-reviewed journals, such as International Journal of Production Economics, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Journal of International Management, Journal of Transport Geography, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, R&D Management, Transport Policy, Maritime Economics & Logistics, Maritime Policy & Management, Tourism Geographies, International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics and others. Francesco guest edited a number of special issues in leading international journals on transport and maritime logistics and in 2014 he has been appointed as an Associate Editor of Maritime Policy & Management (MPM). Since January 2016 Francesco has been appointed as an Editorial Board member of Maritime Economics & Logistics (MEL). Francesco Parola is a member of PortEconomics.eu a web-based initiative aiming to advance knowledge exchange on port economics, management and policies. In October 2014 he hosted in Naples the fourth edition of the "PortExecutive Seminar", an intensive two-day education programme that was joined by managers and policy makers coming from four continents. For two years he served as a member of the management board of the Genoa-Savona Port Authority. Currently he is senior advisor of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport.

Author's Posts

Green practices in port authority management

Green practices in port authority management

Featured
Italian port governance: the renovation European Port Policy

Italian port governance: the renovation

Are port governance reforms embedded in specific institutional and economic domains? In their latest port study examining the recent renovation of port governance in Italy, PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta - along with Claudio Ferrari (University of Genoa), Alessio Tei (Newcastle University, UK) and Enrico...
Port governance reform and institutional plasticity: insights from the Italian case Featured

Port governance reform and institutional plasticity: insights from the Italian case

The Italian port case, as it constitutes a sound empirical field for achieving a deeper understanding of the impact of multi-scalar embeddedness that originates at both national and local level is the latest port study of PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta co-authored with Claudio Ferrari, Enrico Musso (University...
Noticeboard

EURAM 2017: call for papers

Call for Papers Track T 13_10: Knowledge management and sustainable corporate growth in different collaborative environments  Organizers: Francesco Parola (University of Genoa), Lara Agostini (University of Padua), Giovanni Satta (University of Genoa), Anna Nosella (University of Padua), Evangelia Siachou (Hellenic...
Drivers of port competitiveness Containers

Drivers of port competitiveness

A new port study explores the multidimensional nature of “port competitiveness” arguing that port competitiveness and its drivers are significantly affected by major changes in maritime industry . The latest port study of PortEconomics member Francesco Parola, co-author with Marcello Risitano , Marco Ferretti and Eva Panetti...
IPOs in ports: the determinants of the long-term aftermarket performance Featured

IPOs in ports: the determinants of the long-term aftermarket performance

Financial markets, traditionally, have been a secondary source of funds for the port industry, compared with alternative financial resources such as retained earnings, governmental support and corporate bank loans (Stopford, 2009). Nonetheless, the amount of money required for upgrading extant infrastructures, developing mega-projects...
Italy reframes its port governance European Port Policy

Italy reframes its port governance

By Francesco Parola After 22 years from the introduction of the landlord system (1994 Port Reform), the Italian Government approved a new reform law that is going to further reshape the organization of the whole port architecture at national level. The current 24 Port Authorities (PAs), together with other 33 minor ports, are...
Marketing strategies of Port Authorities European Port Policy

Marketing strategies of Port Authorities

The evolution of clusters in modern ports, and the interrelated wave of port devolution in the 1990s, led to a redefinition of the role of each actor involved, including that of port authorities (PAs). The latter have been transformed to hybrid organisations, mostly disassociated from operational activities and port services provision,...
Container port investment: the inexorable rise of financial players Containers

Container port investment: the inexorable rise of financial players

Since the early-2000s, given the increasing profitability of the container port business, a number of financial investors were stimulated to both reach new market segments and enter the industry as investors. As additional financial resources have been increasingly requested from the sector to fuel greenfield mega-projects,...
PPRN launches research stream on port finance Featured

PPRN launches research stream on port finance

A new stream of research on port finance is launched within the Port Performance Research Network (PPRN). The first meeting of the group will take place in August during the PPRN annual meeting organized on the eve of the IAME (International Association of Maritime Economists) Conference (23-26 August 2016, Hamburg, Germany),...
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Weekly Timeline
Sep 18th 3:40 PM
Thematic Area

Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines

Sep 12th 3:48 PM
Thematic Area

Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

Aug 12th 2:18 PM
Thematic Area

Port reform: World Bank publishes the third edition of its port reform toolkit

Jul 21st 11:51 AM
Thematic Area

Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port

Jul 11th 1:40 PM
Category

When will we admit that maritime transport will not be decarbonised by 2050?

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