Port Business Development: Digitalisation of Port Authority and Hybrid Governance Model

Abstract

The overall question addressed by this thesis was: ‘How can port authorities develop their business through digitalisation in the current port reform landscape?’ The thesis focuses on the concept of digitalisation to explore this dilemma, looking at three streams of research to identify an overall solution. The overall contribution of this thesis is to present a hybrid governance model that includes the concept of value in the new digitalisation port. To achieve a hybrid model, the three papers study each element of the governance model and present their contribution in terms of strategy, structure, and performance. This thesis (the three papers) has taken a theory building approach by synthesizing the existing literature and through the empirical data of three Nordic countries, contributed to three outcome streams. This thesis positions itself at a point where the port authorities in Nordic countries have started reforming themselves with the aim of transitioning to becoming corporate port authorities with business-like performance. The overall research question that this thesis examines is: ‘What is ‘value’ for a newly digitally transformed port authority under a governance model?