1 1 Editor’s introduction: the maritime industry means business Kevin Cullinane Over the past decade or so, the maritime sector has increasingly been considered a part of a wider international logistics industry that supports, contributes to, and represents an integral element of, global supply chains. This emergent change in perspective certainly refects what has occurred within industry – both inside and outside the maritime sector – but is also manifest in the academic literature of maritime business. It seems appropriate, therefore, that this work is launched with the initial chapters serving to emphasise this context and to provide a background for this relatively novel and, certainly, more macroscopic perspective. At the same time, however, while acknowledging that the wider supply chain or logis- tics context does provide an alternative and supplementary perspective on maritime business, it should be recognised that it has not supplanted the more traditional microscopic focus on matters germane to either or both the shipping and port sectors in isolation. As is illustrated by the contents of this work, both these perspectives are well represented in the range of research which is currently being undertaken on maritime business. As one of the most ardent and vociferous proponents of the adoption of a wider supply chain perspective on the maritime sector, the frst substan- tive chapter of this book is by Ross Robinson (Chapter 2). He presents a scene-setting exposition of the implications of this wider supply chain context by analysing the competitive position of ports and suggesting that they need to alter their perspective if they are to remain competi- tive. Underpinned by a convincing logic, the author asserts that ports are embedded within complex matrices of supply chains. Precisely because of this, it will be necessary to understand the architecture and dynamics of port-linked supply chains in order to adequately defne the functionality of a port. Given that supply-chain architecture is a function of its under- lying business model, he argues that it is beholden upon port authorities to understand not only what freight might be concentrated through their port, but also the business model which is determining why and how it is moving at all. By so doing, an understanding will then be gleaned as to the demands on the functionality and value to be delivered by the port. The author illustrates and clarifes these arguments in two detailed case Kevin Cullinane - 9781849806619 Downloaded from Elgar Online at 05/29/2020 06:52:43AM via free access