Relationships among port competition, cooperation and competitiveness: A literature review

Identifying the relationships among port competition, cooperation and competitiveness is critical for both port operations and public interests. Although the number of studies on these three topic areas increased significantly in the recent decades, the relationships among them have not been sufficiently clarified. This study attempts to identify their relationships based on a comprehensive literature review of 210 journal papers published from 1970 to 2019 on these three topic areas, and the studies with overlapping topics. While many studied port competition, cooperation and competitiveness, very few studies exist with overlapping topic areas. Current research on the relationship of port competition and cooperation is mainly from the perspective of ports, few evaluated the implication of these strategies from different perspectives, especially from social point of view. On the relationship of port competition and competitiveness, many considered that intra-port competition can increase port competitiveness. However, both inter-port competition and cooperation are found to have positive or negative impacts, depending on the perspective of the study and the geographical location of the ports in question.