Digitalization in the sea-land supply chain: experiences from Italy in rethinking the port operations within inter-organizational relationships

This paper investigates the executive modalities and implications of digital platforms for business process management to rethink and redesign the operational processes in the inter-organizational relationship systems among public and private players in seaports. The research question is: how can digital platforms based on the information technology infrastructure rethink and redefine the business processes in seaport organizations? A multiple case study methodology, comparing two Italian port experiences which adopt digital platforms (TPCS and GAIA), evidences several benefits, including the reduction of time schedules and paper documents in the operational processes in relation to sustainability policy. Consequently, the performance of the whole business process increases; more generally, the sea-land supply chain improves its performance and its inter-organizational relationships. This paper aims to fill the existent research gap by providing a broad analysis of the phenomenon and empirical evidence.