Government policies and Portuguese port governance in the period from 2005 to 2015 ☆ Vítor Caldeirinha a , J. Augusto Felício b, ⁎, Sandra Figueiredo da Cunha a a Centro de Estudos de Gestão, ISEG - School of Economics and Management, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1249-078 Lisbon, Portugal b ISEG - School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1249-078 Lisbon, Portugal abstract article info Article history: Received 1 May 2016 Received in revised form 17 October 2016 Accepted 12 November 2016 Available online xxxx This research focuses on the effect of Portuguese government policies in port management, port strategy and port performance in the period from 2005 to 2015. With the structural equation modeling, we analyzed a sample of 172 observations. Government policies influence the port sector differently. The policies adopted during the pe- riod under study produced different effects, especially the national planning policies for investments as well as the central control policy, implemented to make operations and port labor more productive. The main contribu- tion of this paper resides in understanding that it is essential to ensure sustainability conditions for the national port system in an increasingly globalized market where the trend is to be less dependent on the government policies. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Government policies Port management Port strategy Port performance Liberalization Concession 1. Introduction Portuguese ports experienced significant developments in the peri- od from 2005 to 2015. Some of these include: the increase of cargo and passengers, 1 better positioning of the port authorities focused on the client, greater autonomy and private participation in the port man- agement model, greater interconnection between ports and logistics chains, greater intervention of the ports in the region and in the hinter- land, further liberalization and deregulation of the sector, better coordi- nation of decisions among the various stakeholders in the ports, and better port and logistics information systems. Nevertheless, the interna- tional financial crisis, the intervention of the troika (IMF, ECB, and EC) in Portugal, and the development of shipping and port operations have been very influential contextual factors. The pressure on the different governments has led to changes in the national port sector with differ- ent objectives. During these years, the State established management contracts with the port authorities (PAs), granting greater autonomy and ac- countability (“devolution”). Investment plans provide greater sustain- ability, and the State is responsible for more control and supervision. The coopetition between ports and PA increases, and each PA assumes its strategic plans, coordinated at the national level, with the support of the port community and municipalities. The Association of Ports of Portugal (APP) promotes greater cooperation between ports, focusing in particular on the port information system, port single window (PSW) and logistic single window (LSW), involving marketing activi- ties, standardization of management procedures, extending the hinter- land, the integration of logistics solutions, and the use of common services. The organization of the Portuguese ports is based on the landlord port model, which develops the PAs (previously focused on the opera- tion of terminals instead), converting them into entities with greater au- tonomy, responsibility, and ability of supervision and control. PAs hold responsibilities for port expansion, integration of logistics solutions, in- terconnection of information systems, and adoption of customer sup- port mechanisms. As noted by Choi, Dooley, and Rungtusanatham (2000), ports are part of complex adaptive systems with solutions that are agile and integrated in logistics chains, which requires a strong Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (2016) xxx–xxx ☆ The authors thank Professor Peter De Langen at Eindhoven University of Technology for comments and suggestions on governance and port reform. The authors acknowledge financial support from FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), national funding through research grant (UID/SOC/04521/2013). ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: vitorcaldeirinha@gmail.com (V. Caldeirinha), jaufeli@iseg.utl.pt, jaufeli@netcabo.pt (J. Augusto Felício). 1 Between the years of 2005 and 2015, with the development of new cruise ports and the flourishing of tourism in Lisbon and Madeira, the load on Portuguese ports increased from 61.5 million tons to 86.5 million tons (41%), the movement of containers increased from 0.9 million TEU to 2.56 million TEU (175%) and, passenger traffic grew from 0.64 mil- lion passengers to 1.3 million (104%). RTBM-00265; No of Pages 10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2016.11.004 2210-5395/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Transportation Business & Management Please cite this article as: Caldeirinha, V., et al., Government policies and Portuguese port governance in the period from 2005 to 2015, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2016.11.004