Resilience & adaptability of shipping, ports & supply chains to internal & external shocks

Disruptions caused by economic shocks test the resilience and adaptability of shipping, ports, and related supply chains. Unexpected events spanning economic crises, political events, natural disasters, cybersecurity incidents, and health crises, challenge the integrity and the well-functioning of shipping, ports, and terminals, and multiply the risks across extended supply chains. The disruptions caused by either external or internal shocks put pressure on the integrity of global supply chains and challenge the efforts made to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of supply chains and the flow of goods.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one example of such a crises. The spread of infections at a global scale has created an array of challenges for the maritime industries and the supply chains they support. While a number of these challenges have already been addressed, others are still present and will likely persist. The impact of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak is yet to be fathomed. However, it is clear that neither the impacts nor the adaptive capacities of shipping, ports, and supply chains have been homogeneous.

The coronavirus crisis is also a reminder that each crisis has distinctive features and, consequently, impacts and responses. While COVID-19 has been an external shock of global scale that rapidly impacted all elements of maritime supply chains, a previous shock of a similar scale, the 2008/2009 financial crisis, was an internal shock caused by a misallocation of capital and investments that led to massive cross-defaults when assets were repriced. A variety of shocks and disruptions, such as the Kobe earthquake of 1995, the Hanjin bankruptcy of 2016, tsunamis or hurricanes (Hurricane Katrina, 2005; Harricune Sandy, 2012), port labor disputes, and Brexit, have challenged the resilience of the maritime industry and generated the need for respective adaptations.

Shipping, ports, and actors along the supply chain demonstrate a variety of capacities to adapt to each of these shocks. These capacities might reflect the variance of risks imposed in each industry, as well as the differing capabilities of actors to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats affecting and disrupting maritime networks. Such differences might result from diverse strategies, policies, governance practices, or simply different approaches to functional/operating parameters.

The special issue is expected to advance theoretical and practical knowledge on the resilience and adaptability of shipping, ports, and supply chains to internal and external shocks. We invite research that improves our understanding of the levels, types, forms, and variations of risks, the resilience, and adaptability of each inter-related industry and the entire maritime transport system, as well as the causes of any observed variations.

The Special issue

The special issue is expected to advance theoretical and practical knowledge on the resilience and adaptability of shipping, ports, and supply chains to internal and external shocks. We invite research that improves our understanding of the levels, types, forms, and variations of risks, the resilience, and adaptability of each inter-related industry and the entire maritime transport system, as well as the causes of any observed variations.

Full call for papers available here.

An IAME 2021 Special Session 
Contributors are also invited to participate and to present their research at a special IAME 2021 session on “Resilience and Adaptability of shipping, ports, and supply chains’. The session is expected to advance discussions on the research theme and to allow contributors to the special issue to benefit from interactions with the broader community of scholars involved in maritime research. The IAME 2021 Annual Conference will take place (either in-person/or hybrid/or on-line) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in July 2021, or at a nearby time, subject to developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timeline
March 30, 2021 – Deadline for original paper submissions
May 30, 2021 – Referee reviews returned to authors
July 30, 2021 – Deadline for revised paper submissions
September 30, 2021 – Deadline for final, formatted paper submissions
October 30, 2021 – Editorial and order of papers to journal manager

Guest editors:
Theo Notteboom, SMU, China/Ghent University/University of Antwerp, Belgium
Athanasios Pallis, University of the Aegean, Greece
Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Hofstra University, U.S.A