•The main result of this study is a list of 12 circular economy indicators for ports.•The stakeholder relevance and ease of implementation is medium to high.•The indicators can be used both by port ...management bodies and port stakeholders.•Multiple themes of the circular economy are considered in the indicators.•Different port types are in varying stages of the circular transition.
Port clusters are expected to play a significant role in the transition towards a circular economy, both at the level of facilitating regional and global transport within circular production chains, as well as hosting circular activities in port areas. There is strong evidence that significant investments in the circular economy (CE) are being made in port areas, albeit without much knowledge on their impacts. To ensure an efficient use of port resources in view of this transition, these impacts should be adequately monitored. Research on circular economy indicators for ports is still in an exploratory stage, characterized by an absence of in-depth research on the development of port-related circular economy indicators. This paper focuses on the development of a comprehensive set of relevant and feasible CE indicators, which aim to support port managing bodies (PMBs) as well as port stakeholders to monitor the CE transition taking place. Through multimethod qualitative research, including content analysis, focus groups, a gap analysis and a qualitative survey, an actionable list of CE 12 indicators for ports was developed. Seven of which are highly feasible and five of which have medium feasibility in terms of stakeholder relevance and ease of implementation. Findings related to (1) the overall limited CE ambition levels of PMBs and (2) the difference in the values of some indicators for different port typologies are also discussed. The value of this study for practitioners lies in providing them with an actionable set of KPIs which can support their efforts and communication related to their CE transition.
•Achieving a circular economy (CE) transition is challenging for gateway ports.•We propose a decision model to activate CE projects in gateway ports.•Gateway ports must orchestrate new value streams ...to enact CE initiatives.•External stakeholders can be critical to CE initiative discovery.
The transition towards a circular economy (CE) has grown in importance during the last decade, and ports are now being viewed as potentially important contributors to this move towards a more sustainable economy. However, several research questions about adopting CE projects in ports remain unanswered. The importance of clustering and secondary resources for circular loops indicates the importance of proximity to either industrial clusters or urban zones. However, gateway ports (GWP), contrary to industrial ports, metropolitan (or urban) ports and diversified port hubs (which combine an industrial function with the proximity to a large urban area), do not benefit from the vicinity of these secondary resources. Nevertheless, even without access to such secondary resources, any port and port managing body (PMB) needs to prepare for the changing competitive landscape, with new cargo flows, material streams and related businesses linked to the circular economy transition of value chains. Here, GWPs, thanks to their nodal position, still have potential to function as platforms for circular transition initiatives arising in other industries. In the present study, we conceptualize a CE transition process, consisting of six steps, especially relevant to GWPs. We then explore the case of the Port of Zeebrugge (Belgium), shortly before its merger with the Port of Antwerp. We propose that GWPs should rely mainly on their potential to attract ‘new value streams’ as the main driver of their CE strategy. Here, top-down initiatives emanating from internal stakeholders, and likely even external ones, appear to provide pathways to CE success.
Today, most large port hubs include the circular economy transformation challenge, together with smart digitalization and Internet of Things (IoT), in their strategic priorities. However, many ports ...do not seem to have progressed beyond incremental, small-scale sustainable innovations or the support of rather fragmented sustainability initiatives. The challenges are complex, since ports do not only have to reconsider their own core activities but also their role in the supply chain of shippers, to lift themselves out of the linear lock-in. Opportunities are also created, and port authorities and businesses need to embrace circular learning and turn these projects into sustainable business models. This strategic change or refocus requires new insights into innovative governance and business frameworks, the link between strategy and commercially viable business models, systems innovation, intensified stakeholder collaboration and co-creation, altered traffic segments and hinterland focus, amongst others. These Special Issue articles address current CE transition concerns salient to port strategists and managers, such as first strategic changes towards circular ports, building awareness on the importance of sustainability data and available space, and how port authorities can develop circular business models.
Today, most large port hubs embrace the circular economy (CE) transformation challenge, and include this together with smart digitalization and the Internet of Things (IoT) in their strategic ...priorities ...
Public-private cooperation on the level of project finance, and provision of large-scale infrastructure projects, is increasing on the global level. This paper uses a multi-actor analysis, in order ...to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) for sound implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the port context, and to determine the diverging opinions of stakeholders with regard to the importance of these CSFs. The results indicate that eight CSFs are of superior importance in port PPPs: the concreteness and preciseness of the concession agreement, the ability to appropriately allocate and share risk, the technical feasibility of the project, the commitment made by partners, the attractiveness of the financial package, a clear definition of responsibilities, the presence of a strong private consortium and a realistic cost/benefit assessment. The reason for their importance is their deal-breaking character, which can lead to a total failure of PPP projects during the early stages of project conception. KCI Citation Count: 4
In the context of increased scale of carriers and vessel sizes, stakeholder opposition to port expansion, and heavy regulation, ports prepare their strategic response. A port's competitive strength ...strongly depends on its capability of developing or retaining competitive advantages. Ports consider options such as strategic partnerships, or any form of collaboration, which could help them to create more or alternative combinations of unique resources as sources of competitive advantage. Taking an extended resource base perspective, the competitive advantages of the Antwerp port cluster are analyzed, using both linear regression and factor analysis, for its integrated hinterland network area, on data of 59 port experts. The results of our analysis show that the port's hinterland extension did not (yet) result in new sources of competitive advantages. This leads us to the reflection that we cannot assume integrated port clusters always lead to projected positive strategic outcomes.
Industrial plant closures create a largely unexplored challenge for corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. Such plant closures lead to brownfield sites: economic assets and large pieces of ...land that often cannot be redeployed for alternative purposes, except by incurring significant costs. The direct effects of plant closures typically include a rise in unemployment and value chain disturbance (or dismantling), but brownfields are usually also associated with additional social effects and environmental pollution. Here, a proactive CSR strategy means reducing or mitigating the joint, negative social and environmental footprint of industrial plant closures beyond what is mandated by law (which has tended primarily to address direct effects). We assess the various strategies firms can pursue to mitigate negative, post-closure footprints and we distinguish between two alternative strategic options beyond the ‘legal obligations’ approach, namely the ‘core business related’ (core) CSR approach, and the ‘peripheral CSR’ approach. We explore the case of a plant closure by Bekaert S.A., a large, Belgian industrial firm, which adopted a peripheral CSR approach to manage and redevelop a brownfield site. In this context, we identify four enabling conditions for peripheral CSR to be implemented effectively.
Although stakeholder management is seen as one of the main success factors of Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs), to date, limited research has investigated actual stakeholder management in PPPs. ...After positioning PPP in the current stakeholder management theory, a comparative case study analysis of four PPP infrastructure projects demonstrates the relevance and importance of stakeholder inclusion in PPPs. The case study findings indicate that a PPP makes the stakeholder environment more complex to manage, due to the increasing importance of the stakeholder context and dynamics. Hence, allocating stakeholder responsibilities between the public initiator and private consortium becomes problematic as it goes hand in hand with balancing between reactive and proactive responses to stakeholder claims. In order to cope with the PPP specific stakeholder characteristics, the use of a dynamic dual stakeholder management tool is recommended as well as the identification of governance structures that allow the sharing and division of responsibilities between stakeholders.
•One focal organisation for managing SH does not hold for PPPs.•Ownership issues regarding SH management arise across all PPP stages.•Allocating SH responsibilities results in balancing reactive and proactive SH responses.•Dual governed and dynamic stakeholder management is suggested for PPPs.
Transport infrastructure agencies are increasingly coping with strong budget constraints, while being highly under pressure to manage and upgrade an infrastructure network that meets the increasing ...service level expectations of all its stakeholders. Sound infrastructure management therefore includes tight cost control, a long-term vision and budget planning. Belgium has long been structurally underinvesting in infrastructure, but is in recent years trying to clear the backlog. However, it seems that cost overruns for transport investment projects – paid by the same budget as structural maintenance projects – may seriously reduce the number of critical projects to be carried out in the next years, delaying the necessary catching up process as compared to neighboring countries’ state of infrastructure (in the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany). This study analyzes quantitatively the cost developments, from the first publicly released estimates to the final execution costs, of 36 Belgian railway, road and inland waterway projects, representing a total final value of € 1,059,754,416.37 in 2020 prices, or approximately almost 10% of all transport infrastructure investments (in % of CAPEX) in Belgium during the last two decades is captured in our sample. We obtain results on the cost variation itself, and on the phase of the project in which the deviation is higher. We also investigate the transport mode as the independent variable. We find that overruns are higher in the project stage before contract awarding, and that cost overruns for road projects exceed those of rail or inland navigation projects. This case-based quantitative analysis, together with the variables researched in the case analysis, will enable Belgian governing bodies and transport agencies, separately responsible for one mode per region, to learn from these deviations, and to prioritize the need to further explore causes and develop solutions.
•Analysis of cost deviations of 36 Belgian projects with total final value of 1.1 billion euros in 2020 prices.•Analysis of differences over transport modes, project phases, regions, size categories, time periods and total duration.•Average cost deviation for the studied sample is 10.26%.•Highest overruns found for road projects, medium projects, pre-construction phase, second time period and region Wallonia.•Combining all determinants identifies the problems and enables to give specific recommendations to the responsible agencies.
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