Non-Price Competition in the Port Sector: A Case Study of Ports in Turkey

Although the port sector has been facing increasing competition, there is limited research on how ports compete using non-price competition strategies. There are a few studies on non-price competition in the port sector. However they mainly focus on the marketing aspect. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature, especially from a combined marketing-economic perspective. Especially the paper's main objective is to identify the determinants of non-price competition in the port sector and evaluate their effect on various aspects of non-price competition. We start with a general conceptual framework to explain how competition in the sector can be affected by various factors and then propose an analytical framework on non-price competition. The analytical model is then used to support the design of a survey questionnaire. Next, hypothesis tests are conducted using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) and data collected from a survey of Turkish ports. Based on the analysis results, the implications for port management and future research are also discussed. Copyright (C) 2016 The Korean Association of Shipping and Logistics, Inc. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights Reserved. Peer review under responsibility of the Korean Association of Shipping and Logistics, Inc.