International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology

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Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions

Received: 04 October 2019    Accepted: 24 October 2019    Published: 31 October 2019
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Abstract

The liner shipping sector has significantly changed in recent years. Largest shipping lines have expanded their business scope becoming global carriers and a recent wave of industry consolidation has profoundly modified the market structure and, consequently, the business models followed by liners. This, coupled with weak market fundamentals, generally poor balance sheets, and ordering of increasingly larger container vessels, has led each shipping line to follow a specific dominant strategy aimed at increasing market shares, margins and creating value for costumers. This article proposes an overview of the main market strategies pursued by the largest shipping lines. Through an analysis of major container lines strategies, the study aims at identifying what are the preferred strategies to gain competitive advantage. Particularly, the concept of diversification (product and geographical diversification), modes of diversification (internal and external), differentiation and concentration are comprehensively discussed and applied to the liner shipping industry. Furthermore, it tries explaining what are the most significant similarities and differences in market strategies in relation to the size of each shipping line. The review of our analysis suggests that 1) all shipping lines follow a hybrid strategic model with more than one individual strategy pursued 2) larger shipping lines prefer to diversify or differentiate 2) mid-sized shipping and smaller lines tend to pursue market concentration.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12
Published in International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology (Volume 5, Issue 4, December 2019)
Page(s) 74-81
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Shipping Lines, Strategy, Diversification, Differentiation, Concentration

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Author Information
  • Department of International Logistics, Tongmyong University, Busan, Korea

  • Department of Shipping Management, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan, Korea

  • Department of Shipping Management, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan, Korea

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  • APA Style

    Enrico D’agostini, Hyung-Sik Nam, Seog-Hwan Kang. (2019). Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions. International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology, 5(4), 74-81. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12

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    ACS Style

    Enrico D’agostini; Hyung-Sik Nam; Seog-Hwan Kang. Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions. Int. J. Transp. Eng. Technol. 2019, 5(4), 74-81. doi: 10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12

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    AMA Style

    Enrico D’agostini, Hyung-Sik Nam, Seog-Hwan Kang. Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions. Int J Transp Eng Technol. 2019;5(4):74-81. doi: 10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12,
      author = {Enrico D’agostini and Hyung-Sik Nam and Seog-Hwan Kang},
      title = {Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions},
      journal = {International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology},
      volume = {5},
      number = {4},
      pages = {74-81},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijtet.20190504.12},
      abstract = {The liner shipping sector has significantly changed in recent years. Largest shipping lines have expanded their business scope becoming global carriers and a recent wave of industry consolidation has profoundly modified the market structure and, consequently, the business models followed by liners. This, coupled with weak market fundamentals, generally poor balance sheets, and ordering of increasingly larger container vessels, has led each shipping line to follow a specific dominant strategy aimed at increasing market shares, margins and creating value for costumers. This article proposes an overview of the main market strategies pursued by the largest shipping lines. Through an analysis of major container lines strategies, the study aims at identifying what are the preferred strategies to gain competitive advantage. Particularly, the concept of diversification (product and geographical diversification), modes of diversification (internal and external), differentiation and concentration are comprehensively discussed and applied to the liner shipping industry. Furthermore, it tries explaining what are the most significant similarities and differences in market strategies in relation to the size of each shipping line. The review of our analysis suggests that 1) all shipping lines follow a hybrid strategic model with more than one individual strategy pursued 2) larger shipping lines prefer to diversify or differentiate 2) mid-sized shipping and smaller lines tend to pursue market concentration.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    T1  - Gaining Competitive Advantage at Sea: An Overview of Shipping Lines’ Strategic Decisions
    AU  - Enrico D’agostini
    AU  - Hyung-Sik Nam
    AU  - Seog-Hwan Kang
    Y1  - 2019/10/31
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12
    T2  - International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology
    JF  - International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology
    JO  - International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology
    SP  - 74
    EP  - 81
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-1751
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijtet.20190504.12
    AB  - The liner shipping sector has significantly changed in recent years. Largest shipping lines have expanded their business scope becoming global carriers and a recent wave of industry consolidation has profoundly modified the market structure and, consequently, the business models followed by liners. This, coupled with weak market fundamentals, generally poor balance sheets, and ordering of increasingly larger container vessels, has led each shipping line to follow a specific dominant strategy aimed at increasing market shares, margins and creating value for costumers. This article proposes an overview of the main market strategies pursued by the largest shipping lines. Through an analysis of major container lines strategies, the study aims at identifying what are the preferred strategies to gain competitive advantage. Particularly, the concept of diversification (product and geographical diversification), modes of diversification (internal and external), differentiation and concentration are comprehensively discussed and applied to the liner shipping industry. Furthermore, it tries explaining what are the most significant similarities and differences in market strategies in relation to the size of each shipping line. The review of our analysis suggests that 1) all shipping lines follow a hybrid strategic model with more than one individual strategy pursued 2) larger shipping lines prefer to diversify or differentiate 2) mid-sized shipping and smaller lines tend to pursue market concentration.
    VL  - 5
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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