Strengthening the Collaborative Environment in Port-Hinterland Corridor Management Initiatives: A Value System Approach

Abstract

With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine interest in enhancing their role and introducing improvements in the hinterland transport and logistics system. Among the different opportunities that are available, less attention has been placed on those that port–hinterland corridor management initiatives have to offer. These will be discussed herein, and a proposal is put forward for strengthening the collaborative environment in those initiatives, further reinforcing existing opportunities or creating new ones. More specifically, a value system approach is outlined and the steps for its development are sketched, putting forward value-oriented perspectives over the current performance-related ones. The proposed approach adds another useful dimension to the business thinking and decision-making of corridor members, enabling them to more holistically understand their respective roles and positioning and, in turn, further enhance collaboration among them, not just for improving performance but also, more importantly, for adding further value to the corridor. In the long term, this can result in greater benefits being realized for the corridor community as a whole.