The role of medium and small size ports in sustainable development: Evidence from the Port of Plymouth

Ports are a key facilitator of maritime trade as 80% of global trade is carried by ships (UNCTAD, 2022). Ports act as crucial gateways and nodes which support billions of tonnes moving through them. Ports are viewed as an economic catalyst for the regions they serve contributing to economic growth, jobs, taxes, and facilitating decarbonisation (Notteboom et al, 2022; Alamoush et al, 2022). The rapid rise of globalisation and technological advances has increased trade through shipping, specifically containers, to utilise economies of scale (UNCTAD, 2022). That adds tremendous pressure on the logistics and infrastructure of ports (ibid). Larger vessels present large challenges for these mega ports and put immense pressure on port infrastructure resulting in congestion (Monios et al, 2018). To release some of the pressure, a recent focus on medium or small size ports is developed as an alternative to support the supply chains. Some examples are Gdansk in Poland, Yilport’s Taranto in Italy, and UK’s Teesport (Monios, 2018). The present case study is focused on a medium UK port, the Port of Plymouth (PoP), where we investigated the potential for the PoP to become a sustainable multipurpose gateway for the Southwest of England

Maritime Cyber Security: A Global Challenge Tackled through Distinct Regional Approaches

Maritime cyber security is an emerging issue that requires immediate attention, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Feedback received from global shipping professionals indicate that a common threat to the industry, such as cyber security, is dealt with differently among industry practitioners around the globe. Data collected from two targeted focus groups (one in Europe and the second in Asia, two leading groups in the maritime transport sector) demonstrated that, based on technology adoption maturity, cyber security is perceived differently between these groups. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted these differences. Our findings lead to useful intelligence that will inform key maritime decision makers, both in meeting the IMO requirements and preparing the organization to address cyber risks.</jats:p

Understanding and Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness in the UK Higher Education Sector using Experimental Design: A Case Study

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the power of experimental design as a technique to understand and evaluate the most important factors which influence teaching effectiveness for a postgraduate course in a higher education (HE) context. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology involves the execution of a case study in the form of an experiment in a business school setting. The experiment was carried out with the assistance of over 100 postgraduate students from 26 countries. The data were collected over a two year period (2015 and 2016) from a postgraduate course offered by the same tutor for repeatability reasons. Findings: The key findings of the experiment have clearly indicated that students\u27 perceptions of teaching effectiveness based on intuition and guesswork are not identical to the outcomes from a simple designed experiment. Moreover, the results of the experiment provided a greater stimulus for the wider applications of the technique to other processes across the case study HE sector. Research limitations/implications: One of the limitations of the study is that the experiment was conducted for a popular postgraduate course. It would be beneficial to understand the results of the experiment for less popular postgraduate courses in the university in order to drive improvements. Moreover, this research was conducted only for postgraduate courses and the results may vary for undergraduate courses. This would be an interesting study to understand the differences in the factors between undergraduate and postgraduate teaching effectiveness. Practical implications: The outcome of this experiment would help everyone who is involved in teaching to understand the factors and their influences to improve students\u27 satisfaction scores during the delivery of teaching. Originality/value: This paper shows how experimental design as a pure manufacturing technique can be extended to a HE setting

A Vulnerability Centric System of Systems Analysis on the Maritime Transportation Sector Most Valuable Assets: Recommendations for Port Facilities and Ships

The maritime sector is a vital component of the global economy. Its international nature supersedes state boundaries and any disruption in its operations could have consequent and collateral global effects, affecting the socio-economic wellbeing of regions, states and peoples. The increasing adoption of digitalisation in the sector, primarily increases efficiency, minimize cost and maximise benefit, while improving safety, simultaneously introduces a new cyber threat landscape. The attack surface has broadened further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as recent, high-profile cyber attacks to shipping companies have indicated. Cybersecurity is not limited to technology but involves people and business processes. Hence, to mitigate the security risk introduced by cyber threat actors, the industry, like any other, should initially focus on identifying its most critical assets and then adopt risk mitigation measures, spreading from legislative initiatives to company-specific technology solutions. Industry-led initiatives should promote the adoption of cyber-related policies and mechanisms that focus on business continuity. It should be the role of international bodies, classification societies and national authorities to ensure compliance and full implementation of these measures. This paper adopts a System of Systems Analysis to carry out a vulnerability assessment of port and ship ecosystem, while providing insights on the role of the aforementioned entities. Our analysis decomposes the industry’s major assets; ports and ships, to specific subcomponents which are used as the basis of the vulnerability assessment. According to our findings, this approach highlights that the majority of these subcomponents; ports and ships, are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks.</jats:p

Cybersecurity Challenges in the Maritime Sector

Cyberattacks have been rapidly increasing over the years, resulting to big financial losses to businesses for recovery, regulatory sanctions, as well as collateral damages, such as reputation and trust. In this respect, the maritime sector, which until now was considered safe due to the lack of Internet connectivity and the isolated nature of ships in the sea, is showing a 900% increase in cybersecurity breaches on operational technology as it enters the digital era. Although some research is being conducted in this area, maritime cybersecurity has not been deeply investigated. Hence, this paper provides a close investigation of the landscape of cybersecurity in the maritime sector with the aim of highlighting security problems and challenges. First, it explores the systems available on ships that could be targeted by attackers, their possible vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit, the consequences if the system is accessed, and actual incidents. Then, it describes and analyses possible mitigation actions that can be utilised in advance to prevent such attacks. Finally, several challenges and open problems are discussed for future research.</jats:p

An Exploratory Study on the Northern Sea Route as an Alternative Shipping Passage

This qualitative inductive research explores the potential benefits for the Scandinavian economy and ports through the implementation of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as an alternative for container shipping to the established Southern route through the Suez Canal. To extract expert’s opinions and address these objectives, we utilised in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling in a single case study setting. The analysis of the data demonstrates that the commercialisation of NSR can yield benefits for the Scandinavian economy (e.g. GDP increase, jobs creation) and reveals the benefits of Scandinavian ports (e.g. ECA’s, flexibility, hinterland, etc.) compared to other ports in North West Europe, which potentially grasp the NSR as an opportunity. However, it is highlighted that this can only be achieved if Scandinavian countries are proactive and secure their involvement

ESG Reporting Quality Assessment in Listed Companies of Maritime Sector

Regulatory obligations and market trends connected to environmental sustainability have lately intensified their effect on the shipping industry. New standards are continuously being established, such as the IMO\u27s 2050 aim of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to 2008 levels. These rules have an impact on capital markets and investor decisions about how to fund the maritime transport sector. The standards now include Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) components. These components are not only concerned with the environmental impact of shipping, but also with the social and governance dimensions of those firms that are typically associated with maritime transport risks, such as accidents, ship reservations, pollution issues, and so on. Considering the particular peculiarities of the maritime transport sector, our previous research has resulted in the development of a unified ESG reporting framework customized to shipping. To do this, the authors evaluated shipping related ESG reports and extracted essential ESG variables and methodological frameworks from them. The present study conducts a quality assessment of existing ESG reporting in various sectors of maritime transport companies on a large sample of firms listed at major stock exchanges, while it also identifies the level of compliance and areas for improvement. Based on a comprehensive methodological framework for reporting and assessing ESG for shipping, the research delivers relevant and robust information to aid management decision making, stakeholders, and debtholders insight on firm\u27s sustainability

OPTIMISING WEEE FLOWS: A CASE STUDY OF A REVERSE SUPPLY CHAIN FOR MIXED SMALL ELECTRICAL WASTE

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), is the one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe with 12 million tonnes expected to be generated by 2020 (European Commission, 2018). In terms of unit numbers, small WEEE represents the largest fractions of WEEE arisings and the reuse/recycling return rates for small WEEE items (e.g. household appliances, mobile phones, computers, toys) are much lower than large WEEE (e.g. white goods and televisions). WEEE contains hazardous materials so diverting these away from landfill is environmentally beneficial, and there are also economic benefits associated with recovering and reusing components. As a result there has been growing interest in the Reverse Supply Chains (RSCs) of electronic goods and what value can be extracted from these unwanted items. Whilst there are many examples of electronic reverse supply chains in the literature, these typically focus on one specific product type. This paper presents an empirical case study of a RSC for the recovery of a mixed electrical product stream. The authors design a bespoke three tier collaborative RSC for the collection, transport and treatment of mixed household WEEE. The RSC is unique in that it is a collaboration between an electronics ReManufacturer (RM), and a Collecting Firm (CF) whose primary business is the national distribution of news publications. The live pilot implementation of the collaborative RSC allowed the researchers a rare opportunity to collect primary data into the potential value recovery of the mixed WEEE stream. From a practical perspective, the study is an example of how firms can collaborate to harness surplus logistics capacity to support environmental activities and potentially lead to business diversification opportunities. For academics, this paper would be a useful addition as unique, empirical case study