D. Hales and N. Dholakia The 11th International DSI and the 16th APDSI Joint Meeting, Taipei, Taiwan, July 12 – 16, 2011. PORT STRATEGIES FOR THE NEW ECONOMY: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION Douglas N. Hales, College of Business, The University of Rhode Island, 7 Lippitt Rd., Kingston, R.I. 02881, USA, dhales@uri.edu Nik Dholakia, College of Business, The University of Rhode Island, 7 Lippitt Rd., Kingston, R.I., 02881, USA, nik@uri.edu ABSTRACT The proposed study is designed to measure primarily sea-based and secondarily land-based logistical links that support merchandise related trade in Asia & North America at a macro-level. The method and instrument development are based on macro-level published data. For further development, data will be collected using surveys, field observations, and interviews conducted in the United States, Korea, and China; and conceptual discourses within and beyond the research team will be used to develop conclusions. To our knowledge this is the first study to apply AHP to measure global port competitiveness along two dimensions: ‘customer-facing’ competitiveness as well as ‘investment-attracting’ competitiveness. Keywords: AHP, Empirical, Port, Logistics INTRODUCTION From the time of the pioneer sailing on April 26, 1956 of Ideal-X, the first containership, from Newark, New Jersey, international trade and transport have been transformed through containerization. The result has been an alteration of the geography of production and distribution according to the 2007 Conference CFP “Globalization and Freight Transportation in a Containerized World”, available at: http://www.gfptt.org/Entities/EventProfile.aspx?list=a ll&id=5621f7a8-eae8-4847-8e34-a1499c156391 , accessed on March 1, 2007, with Asia becoming the global center for all types of manufacturing and service creation. Starting with Singapore, Hong Kong, and Busan, many Asian ports have taken full advantage of containerization and associated inter- modal transport methods to create some of the world’s most efficient and competitive ports [22], [23]. In recent years, Asian merchandise trade has grown at a rate higher than the rate of growth of global trade in North America and Europe (see Table 1). Within Asia, of course, the main driver of merchandise trade is China where imports as well as export growth rates in recent years have hovered around 25 percent per year (see Table 1). While merchandise trade growth rates are high for Europe, trade among the European Union member states accounts for most of this growth. Asian trade, on the other hand, is directed significantly outside the region although intra-Asia trade is also growing. Table 2 further dramatizes the very high levels of North America and Europe-linked merchandise trade from China and Korea. In 2005, Asia’s North America and Europe-linked trade was about $1.1 trillion dollars while North America’s and Europe’s combined Asia-linked trade was about $600 billion dollars. TABLE 1 Share in Merchandise Trade by Global Regions or Countries Exports Imports Region or Country 1990 2000 2005 % Change 2000-5 1990 2000 2005 % Change 2000-5 North America 16.6 19.5 14.5 4% 19.6 25.8 21.7 6% Europe 49.6 42.0 43.0 11% 50.1 42.4 43.2 10% Asia (Korea, China) 21.8 26.4 27.4 11% 20.3 22.9 24.7 12% - C h i n a 1.8 4.0 7.5 25% 1.5 3.4 6.3 24% Source: Based on WTO statistics, available at: http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2006_e/it s06_bysubject_e.htm , accessed on: September 10, 2007. TABLE 2 Merchandise Trade among North America, Europe, Asia Regions