Identifying Operational Risks Faced by Freight Forwarders in Container Shipping: Expert Insights and a MAXQDA‐Based Qualitative Content Analysis

Freight forwarders are key intermediaries coordinating logistics operations in maritime container transportation, which is itself vital to global supply chains. Freight forwarders face diverse operational challenges to service quality, efficiency, and financial sustainability. Despite the importance of freight forwarders, research has predominantly focused on ports and shipping lines, while risks specific to freight forwarders remain insufficiently understood. To address this gap, our study draws on expert interviews and a MAXQDA‐based thematic analysis to categorize these risks. The findings show that these challenges are exacerbated by unreliable schedules, geopolitical disruptions, and heightened cybersecurity exposures due to accelerating digitalization. The study contributes toward developing a freight‐forwarder‐focused risk assessment framework, suggests theoretically grounded directions for future mitigation research, and offers practice‐oriented implications to contextualize the findings.