The authors revisit the literature on the use of expatriates and specifically Boyacigiller (1990) and examine whether OW Bunker, a Danish bunker oil trader, filled positions at its foreign units with traders transferred from its other units (expatriates). The authors test the generalizability and robustness of past findings on this topic by using a different dependent variable, sample, and methodology. Design/methodology/approach: By searching the traders' LinkedIn profiles and consulting secondary sources, the authors obtain data on current and previous positions and work location and type of customer handled (global or local). Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the authors analyze 236 hiring decisions made between 1983 and 2014. Findings: The authors find that OW transferred expatriates, principally home-country nationals, to handle global customers in its large foreign subsidiaries located in high-income countries. In another clear pattern, expatriates were used to start new foreign subsidiaries. These results generally confirm those of Boyacigiller. However, and contrary to her findings, none of our scenarios for internal transfers feature expatriates being sent to culturally and institutionally distant subsidiaries unless it is to serve global customers, casting doubt on the idea that a major reason for using expatriates is to remedy a local shortage of skills or to handle political risk. Originality/value: The authors test the generalizability of Boyacigiller’s (1990) findings and confirm a large part of it. They extend her study by demonstrating that MNEs deploy expatriates not only to distant countries but also to close ones.
Most regulatory tools for low-carbon transition are jurisdiction-specific, respecting the principle of national sovereignty. Although possibly locally successful, they typically capture only scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Value chains-related (scope 3) emissions remain largely unregulated. This is problematic, as global value chains are commonly organized across multiple jurisdictions with different climate policy ambitions. Products are often produced at different location than where they are consumed, and production-related emissions are transferred with the products. These emissions embedded in imported products amount to large volumes (e.g. in the EU estimated to about 30% of member state’s national emissions). This chapter gathers the scientific evidence on upstream scope 3 emissions and discusses the available regulatory toolbox for reducing those. Both private and public regulatory tools are represented as well as soft and hard regulatory tools, and modifications between those categories. The interactions between the various types of regulation are discussed with the aim to identify possible synergies and conflicts. The chapter takes the EU as its starting point and draws in examples from other jurisdictions where relevant.
Purpose: In the shipping industry, both sales and purchases of second-hand ships and freight transport services are prevalently tailor-made and traded with intense bilateral negotiations. Price bargaining is the key step of this negotiation process and plays a crucial role in determining mutually agreed prices. Despite its cruciality and applicability, the price bargaining has yet received due conceptual and/or theoretical attention in the shipping literature. This paper attempts to conceptually examine the role of bargaining in shipping transaction prices and subsequently puts forward directions for future research. In doing so, the paper focuses on two types of transactions taking place in shipping markets: asset market trading of second-hand vessels and service market trading shipping freights.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper begins with a systematic literature review of price bargaining in the field of economics and management disciplines from a game-theoretic perspective. This approach does logically lead to the establishment of a conceptual framework for price bargaining in shipping sub-markets as a step toward having taken into consideration a variety of heterogeneities commonly present in trading activities and market dynamics.
Findings: A set of research areas has been consequently identified where price bargaining and mechanisms for the shipping freight and asset markets could be further explored and analyzed in a way to make better pricing decisions under a more tangible framework.
Research limitations/implications: One of the critical challenges when using bargaining mechanisms to make a decision on pricing shipping services and assets is how to operationalize the study for empirical investigation as some of the factors are internal information of the players and are not adequately revealed to externals: that is, an imperfect information sharing case. The current study aims, however, not to conduct an empirical analysis but to initiate a conversation among maritime economists by bringing their attention to this not-yet fully explored and potentially impactful field of research and by asking them to treat bargaining from a perspective for pricing shipping assets and services. It is claimed that, by doing so, one could better understand price differences between individual contracts.
Originality/value: This study would be considered the first in its kind to provide a detailed survey of the bargaining theory and models from a game theoretical perspective as a theoretical lens to understand its importance and relevance in pricing shipping assets and services. It also provides a simplified operational case on utilizing bargaining in practically pricing freight services.
This paper describes the challenges of the maritime supply chain compared to land transport and discusses the new digital initiatives to simplify the processes and enable a better plan for the entire supply chain. First, the background is outlined with an example of the extensive admin processes in maritime transport compared to road transport, followed by a case example presenting the processes of a booking. The case study concludes that the lack of integration is costly in terms of both admin resources, as well as lost capacity on some ships and missing capacity on others. Finally, the evolution of new digital initiatives are discussed, both in general and in terms of competing “alliances” as seen in the airline industry. The paper concludes that the information exchange in the maritime industry has moved drastically in the last 3 years and that one initiative, TradeLens, seems to have gained a position as maritime standard despite a problematic start with many competing initiatives.
Ports are crucial hubs in the functioning of the global economy, and maritime transport is a major emitter of air pollutants. Ports have considerable potential for promoting environmental upgrading in maritime transport and along global value chains more generally, but so far have been only partially successful in doing so. We examine results, limitations and future potential of voluntary initiatives that have been carried out by selected European and North American port authorities, which are considered frontrunners in environmental management. Drawing from the insights of global value chain analysis and organizational theory, we find that low ‘tool implementation complexity’ and high ‘issue visibility’ concerning emissions are key facilitators of environmental upgrading. We suggest that ports can intervene in two main ways to improve the environmental performance of maritime transport beyond their organizational and physical boundaries: by lowering tool implementation complexity through stronger collaboration within global value chains; and by enhancing emission visibility through alliances with cargo-owners and regulators.