Defining a Social Role for Ports: Managers’ Perspectives on Whats and Whys

Abstract

It is undoubtedly true that ports can modify aspects of the regions where they are inserted in many different ways. Scholars have presented various perspectives on the influence of ports in society, including their roles according to their purpose. Surprisingly, in the age of sustainable development, the social roles of ports have not been explored in depth, and this offers an opportunity to increase the knowledge of this sector. This paper aims to investigate how managers in ports perceive their roles in the social dimension and why they think they should exist, presenting opportunities to align business objectives with the expectations of other stakeholders. Applying the content analysis technique, 28 interviews were conducted with managers in Brazilian ports and themes were developed to represent their views on social roles (5) and the reasons for adopting them (6). Overall, managers perceive social roles as part of the strategic business plan and present reasons to adopt them, ranging from compulsory to voluntary. Conclusions suggest that more needs to be done to expand the understanding of a pragmatic approach to social roles and to develop more focused actions according to the reasons for adopting social roles.

Proposta De Uma Ferramenta De Avaliação Das Condições De Trabalho Portuário Com Base Na Nr-29

“…No mesmo ano de 2019, essa atividade resultou na movimentação de cerca de 1,1 bilhão de toneladas de diversos tipos de carga, incluindo granel sólido, granel líquido, carga geral e contêineres (BNDES, 2023). Ainda que o papel socioeconômico dos portos seja evidente, ainda carece de atenção os aspectos laborais (BATALHA et al, 2023). A análise de 953 fichas indicou que 90,5% dos pacientes eram do sexo masculino, 52% tinham idade superior a 50 anos e 51,7% acumulavam mais de 19 anos de experiência.…”

Toward sustainable port development: an empirical analysis of China’s port industry using an ESG framework

“…We focus our attention on the current research topics related to the sustainable performance of the port industry based on ESG reports and find that there is almost no comprehensive research on all three aspects of ESG reporting. Many scholars tend to discuss one aspect separately, such as environmental responsibility and green port performance (Hua et al, 2020;Chen et al, 2019); defining the social role of ports, drivers of social responsibility, and Corporate Social Performance (CSP) of ports (Batalha et al, 2023;Acciaro, 2015;Batalha et al, 2020); and exploring sustainable governance models for ports (Caldeirinha et al, 2018;Schrobback and Meath, 2020;De Langen and Heij, 2014). In addition, we expand our focus to other industries' sustainable performance based on ESG reporting.…”

Bibliometric mapping of research developments on the topic of fishing port management using VOSviewer

“…Ports are one of the industries that have social consequences for stakeholders, necessitating a greater awareness of their social responsibilities. However, the literature has not yet assigned equal weight to the social components of ports, because they have economic and environmental IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1266/1/012019 2 dimensions [4].…”