What has the European port industry done for monitoring its performance the last decade? PortEconomics member Michael Dooms together with Mychal Langenus (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) presented their latest study titled ‘Port Industry Performance Management: a mesolevel gap in literature and practice?’ during the annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists – IAME 2014, that was held in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
Over the past few decades, academic literature has been focusing increasingly on performance management. A great deal of studies have pointed out that performance management has evolved from mere financial measurements to a multitude of indicators (i.e. focusing more on growth, risk, quality, etc.), and that the subject being measured can range from micro-level (an organization), meso-level (industry) to macro-level (regional or national) performance. In the study, authors research which academic literature published in the journals Maritime Policy and Management and Maritime Economics & Logistics has focused on the performance measurement and management of the meso-level and how that is translated in practice, with special attention for the port industry. In practice, they observe that mostly so-called ‘observatories’ are responsible for monitoring the performance of several infrastructure industries. Within this context Michael and Mychal examine the efforts of the past 7 years (2007-2013) within the European port industry. Based on this analysis, research and policy recommendations will be made on industry performance management in general, and on the port industry performance management specifically.
