ABSTRACT
After the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in 2016, Korea faced the task of reconstructing its container shipping industry by enhancing the competitiveness of its shipping companies in a rapidly evolving market environment. Responding to this need for policy design, this study first attempts to understand the industry based on the shipping ecosystem, which comprises the following four areas: shipping finance, collection of cargo, acquisition of ships, and partnership among carriers. Second, it lists the structural problems, along with the remedial policy alternatives, that were identified after conducting in-depth interviews with industry experts, which included mid-level managers. Third, it conducts an importance-performance analysis to classify problems according to their importance and performance, followed by an analytic hierarchy process analysis to define the priorities of policy alternatives. Finally, drawing on the empirical results, the paper concludes with suggestions on an integrated policy package for the container shipping industry.
Acknowledgments
The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Korea Maritime Institute, the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, or the Korean Government.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The use of other approaches would result in different importance-performance mapping of attributes. This is a limitation of this study.
2. However, because these remedial techniques have their own set of technical problems, this study does not employ them.
3. It is worth noting that the four categories are not factors, but areas.