Port supply chain integration and sustainability: a resource-based view

It is claimed that port supply chain integration (PSCI), thanks to its attributes, holds a potential to trigger a port to strategically sustain performance- and competitiveness-measures through strengthening and/or reinforcing an array of port sustainability aspects. This paper aims to empirically investigate the existent influence of PSCI on economic and environmental pillars of port sustainability.

Based on a resource-based view, this paper hypothesises that PSCI has a certain impact on port “economic” sustainability (PECS) and port “environmental” sustainability (PENS). Measures of PSCI, PECS and PENS are refined and validated using data collected from the maritime logistics industry in Egypt, and structural equation modelling is employed to test the hypothetical relationships.

The results indicate that a port having adopted an integrative strategy into supply chains could enhance its cost and operational efficiency, financial and investment situation, while offering high-quality services to its customers. Similarly, PSCI is emphatically correlated with water and air pollution management, energy efficiency and green port management practices.

Having identified the acute potential of PSCI for sustainable development in maritime logistics and supply chains, this line of research allows port operators and/or authorities to better understand strategic options with which they are able to improve their sustainability practices. This paper is, however, limited only to two dimensions of sustainability by not exploring the “social” aspect of port sustainability due to data-related issues.

This line of research could be regarded as an extended application from other industrial sectors to the port industry in a way to empirically examine the inclusive relationship of PSCI with economic and environmental parameters. The findings from this research make a due contribution to the field of port sustainability in general and Egyptian ports in particular.