A Port Authority (PA) constitutes an interesting example of a “hybrid organization”, where the boundary between private and public interests is blurred. Applying stakeholder management principles to the port domain might help better port strategy and management.
PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom and PortEconomics member Francesco Parola, along with Giovanni Satta (University of Genoa) and Lara Penco (University of Genoa) presented their latest research on Disclosure as a to ol in Stakeholder Relations Management: A longitudinal study on the port of Rotterdam during the the annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists – IAME 2014, that was held in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
This port study provides a conceptual framework for evaluating the communication strategies a (landlord) PA relies on in the management of its relevant stakeholders and the adoption of disclosure to their critical issues. The theoretical arguments are supported by empirical evidences from the Port of Rotterdam, i.e. one of the major landlord ports worldwide, which leverages on disclosure to successfully manage stakeholders and support the implementation of its overarching strategy. In order to address the research questions the study applies content analysis on the annual reports of the sample PA (i.e., Port of Rotterdam) in the 2000-2012 timeframe. The overall research design enables the investigation of PA disclosure as a tool for managing the evolving interests of stakeholders under a longitudinal perspective. This paper adds to the extant port literature on stakeholder management and brings insightful implications for academics, practitioners and port managers.
You may freely download the paper and presentation @PortEconomics.
