A Comparative Analysis of Dry Port Operations in Coastal and Landlocked Countries

Malaysia is a coastal country surrounded by sea, while Nepal is a landlocked country with no direct access to the ocean. This paper investigates the challenges faced by dry ports in Malaysia and Nepal and looks into issues concerning the connection of seaports and dry ports both intra-regionally, i.e. within Malaysia, and inter-regionally, i.e. outside of Nepal. The structure of dry port operating systems in these two areas is visibly different. Hence, the relationships between the major nodes in these different geographical regions need to be examined. Face-to-face and telephone interviews with dry port operators, legislative personnel, and public policy stakeholders from both countries were conducted to establish the impediments to dry port operations. Interview session transcripts have been analyzed using grounded theory. This tool is suitable for this paper due to its capacity to identify categories and concepts within the text linked together to form theoretical models. Secondary data have been used to support the primary data collected, to enhance the range and reliability of the findings. The findings indicate challenges such as inadequate connectivity capacity, inefficient border transactions, seaport-dry port integration issues, inefficient economic corridors, insufficient legislative framework for policy and regulation development, and environmental issues faced by the two countries. These challenges have a negative impact on the possibility of dry ports in Malaysia to take full advantage of their potential. Meanwhile, in Nepal, such challenges limit dry port operations since dry ports are the main gateway for the nation’s international trade. This paper recommends strategies for overcoming these challenges and improving the quality of dry port operations, focusing on the provision of sophisticated and modern logistics services to stakeholders in the different geographic landscapes

A Comparative Analysis of Dry Port Operations in Coastal and Landlocked Countries

Malaysia is a coastal country surrounded by sea, while Nepal is a landlocked country with no direct access to the ocean. This paper investigates the challenges faced by dry ports in Malaysia and Nepal and looks into issues concerning the connection of seaports and dry ports both intra-regionally, i.e. within Malaysia, and inter-regionally, i.e. outside of Nepal. The structure of dry port operating systems in these two areas is visibly different. Hence, the relationships between the major nodes in these different geographical regions need to be examined. Face-to-face and telephone interviews with dry port operators, legislative personnel, and public policy stakeholders from both countries were conducted to establish the impediments to dry port operations. Interview session transcripts have been analyzed using grounded theory. This tool is suitable for this paper due to its capacity to identify categories and concepts within the text linked together to form theoretical models. Secondary data have been used to support the primary data collected, to enhance the range and reliability of the findings. The findings indicate challenges such as inadequate connectivity capacity, inefficient border transactions, seaport-dry port integration issues, inefficient economic corridors, insufficient legislative framework for policy and regulation development, and environmental issues faced by the two countries. These challenges have a negative impact on the possibility of dry ports in Malaysia to take full advantage of their potential. Meanwhile, in Nepal, such challenges limit dry port operations since dry ports are the main gateway for the nation’s international trade. This paper recommends strategies for overcoming these challenges and improving the quality of dry port operations, focusing on the provision of sophisticated and modern logistics services to stakeholders in the different geographic landscapes

Innovation in infrastructures : an analysis of seaport innovation with an application to Gothenburg

Mestrado em Economia e Gestão de Ciência, Tecnologia e InovaçãoA Inovação tem vindo a revelar-se como uma força de destaque nas economias mundiais. Muitos autores têm vindo a sublinhar a sua importância na rutura do status quo e da sua natureza não-linear e multi-actor. Perante este contexto, as infraestruturas mostraram ser bem-sucedidas para desenvolver e implementar novas inovações, graças também ao suporte dos investimentos estatais. Tendo em conta estas características, o presente estudo foca-se nos portos marítimos, umas das mais antigas infraestruturas existentes. Ao longo dos últimos 60 anos, graças à introdução dos contendores e das ICTs, os portos foram-se tornando protagonistas escondidos de uma revolução logística global. Estes desenvolvimentos podem ser compreendidos à luz dos conceitos de inovação e infraestruturas, assim como da evolução dos portos marítimos, no contexto da história económica baseada numa ótica neo-schumpeteriana. Neste contexto, o presente estudo tem um duplo objetivo: por um lado, fazer uma revisão geral sobre o estado da arte da literatura científica sobre a inovação portuária; por outro lado, deixar um contributo no âmbito da inovação portuária analisando o caso do Porto de Gotemburgo. A análise utiliza duas abordagens diferentes: 1) uma revisão sistemática da literatura existente; 2) e uma abordagem de caso de estudo. Os resultados sugerem que a área de estudo da inovação portuária está ainda muito fragmentada e pouco desenvolvida, embora estejam a emergir clusters de autores. Além disso, o caso do Porto de Gotemburgo mostra como a complexidade dos portos modernos exige uma abordagem holística e sistémica para que se possam interpretar os seus processos inovadores.Innovation has proven to be a leading force in world economies. Several authors have stressed its importance in disrupting the status quo and the complexity of its non-linear and multi-actor processes. Given this context, infrastructures have proven to be successful for developing and implementing new innovations, also thanks to the support of state investments. Keeping in mind these characteristics, this study focuses on seaports, one of the most ancient existing human infrastructures. In the last 60 years, thanks to the introduction of the container and ICTs, seaports have become the main hidden protagonists of a global logistics revolution. These developments are understood with recourse to the concepts of innovation and infrastructure as well as the evolution of seaports in the context of neo-Schumpeterian reasoned economic history. In this context, the aim of this study is twofold: on the one hand, the objective is to outline the state of the art of the existing scientific literature about seaport innovation; on the other hand, this dissertation appraise actual seaport innovation by unpacking a real case in the Port of Gothenburg. This analysis draws on two different approaches: 1) a systematic review of the existing literature; 2) and a case study approach. Results show that the field of innovation in seaports is still highly fragmented and little developed, although clusters of scholarship are emerging. Furthermore, the case of the Port of Gothenburg shows how the complexity of modern seaports requires a holistic, systemic approach in order to understand seaports? inner innovation processes.N/

Mapping the NGSI-LD Context Model on Top of a SPARQL Event Processing Architecture: Implementation Guidelines

NGSI-LD is an open specification released by ETSI which proposes an information model and an API for an easy to use and standard management of context information. The NGSI-LD information model is framed within an ontology and adopts JSON-LD as serialization format for context information. This paper presents an approach to the implementation of the NGSI-LD specification over a SPARQL Event Processing Architecture. This work is being developed within the European-Brasilian H2020 SWAMP project focused on implementing an Internet of Things platform providing services for smart water management in agriculture

Seaport Public Green: An Analysis of Use & Redesign

The quality of public open space in Boston’s Seaport District is not great, as evidenced by the oversaturation of empty, underutilized lawns and residents’ feelings that there is still a lack of public open space in the District, despite all the lawns. This Master’s Project asked how the quality of public open space could be improved in the District, and specifically focused on one lawn in particular that possesses great potential to be an active space and contribute to the District overall. I used interviews with practitioners, and conducted a site analysis of Seaport Public Green to understand the shortcomings of the existing design. Through this process, I found that Seaport Public Green is underutilized because of its lack of true connection to the Boston Harbor, its presentation as uninviting and as a foreground to the surrounding architecture, and its inability to provide a unique and exciting experience for users. My proposed redesign of Seaport Public Green addresses these shortcomings by enhancing the sightline of the Boston Harbor, adding stormwater management components to the park, taking measures, including leveling the lawn to meet the sidewalk at ground level, to connect the park to its surroundings, and by creating a marshy wet pond and kiosk that provides a unique experience to engage with nature and the history of the District.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Place-based innovation ecosystems : Boston-Cambridge innovation districts

This report focuses on the case study of the Boston area and identifies the key success factors in the Boston regional innovation ecosystem. It discusses how the macro-innovation eco-ecosystem is composed by a variety of interconnected micro-innovation ecosystems, mutually reinforcing each other and making the entire “territorial” system successful. The spatial configuration of these micro-innovation ecosystems at the urban scale has been specifically investigated, thus leading the authors to theorize that the Innovation District may act as an enabler for place-based innovation. Evidence from the Boston case study shows that there is not a single magic recipe for the successful implementation of place-based and social innovation-driven strategies. On the contrary, the variety of place-grounded combinations of micro and macro initiatives, embedded in the social and spatial fine grain of places and encompassing a diversity of actors, can create the conditions that enable places to thrive and local economic activities to grow in a sustainable way

IMPROVING INTERACTION BETWEEN TECHNICAL AND CONTRACTING PERSONNEL AT NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER, PHILADELPHIA DIVISION

Organizational policy changes in contracting have created a competency gap in the pre-award phase contracting activities for acquisition professionals working in technical departments seeking procurement of products or services. Considering current contracting policies and perceived knowledge gaps in the technical community with respect to contract development, the goal of this research is to examine the organizational structure and policies of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) to ensure maximum efficacy of the contracting process. The primary objective of this research is to determine what organizational policies, capability gaps, or other challenges hinder communication and collaboration between the technical and contracting departments at NSWCPD. A secondary objective of this research is to determine what initiatives can be taken at NSWCPD to improve interaction between these two working groups and to document a comprehensive strategic plan for implementation. The research team found several areas worth addressing to improve the efficacy of contract artifact development at NSWCPD. Recommendations are provided to address the communication gap, including establishing an integrated product team to improve the quality of contracting artifacts and networking amongst those teams through working groups, and to capitalize on modern technologies to ensure the production of contracting artifacts are up to speed with current technology.Civilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Ubiquitous Computing

The aim of this book is to give a treatment of the actively developed domain of Ubiquitous computing. Originally proposed by Mark D. Weiser, the concept of Ubiquitous computing enables a real-time global sensing, context-aware informational retrieval, multi-modal interaction with the user and enhanced visualization capabilities. In effect, Ubiquitous computing environments give extremely new and futuristic abilities to look at and interact with our habitat at any time and from anywhere. In that domain, researchers are confronted with many foundational, technological and engineering issues which were not known before. Detailed cross-disciplinary coverage of these issues is really needed today for further progress and widening of application range. This book collects twelve original works of researchers from eleven countries, which are clustered into four sections: Foundations, Security and Privacy, Integration and Middleware, Practical Applications

Research Mode and Contribution in Interorganizational Information Systems Research

We develop a model to analyze the body of knowledge of the information systems (IS) field where research accumulates through the interplay of different modes: discovery, prescriptive, and evaluation. The paper proposes five signature contributions: 1) descriptions of discovery and exploration, 2) elaborations of IS-based means and means-ends propositions, 3) discussions of IS-based designs, 4) explanations of the impacts and impact mechanisms of IS, and 5) discussions of organizational theories of IS-phenomena. We argue that each of these contributions plays an important role in the accumulation of the body of knowledge. In particular, we call for a balance in approaches producing these different contributions. Results from analyzing two samples of published interorganizational information systems (IOS) research in high-tier information systems journal outlets from 1982-2010 supports the applicability of the framework as a useful way to categorize the research stream. In line with prior suggestions, we also found an increased tendency towards explanatory organizational theories in that less work has focused on discovering new practices, developing means, and evaluating their uses. Recent interest in academically rigorous design science research offers a welcome addition to the body of IS research that could broaden its base and enrich its content and contributions