Source: Adapted from: Baltazar R and Brooks M.R.(2006). Port governance, devolution and the matching framework: a configuration theory approach, Research in Transportation Economics 17, 379-403.
The port governance model is defined by the configuration of three inputs: (a) the strategy (in other words, the objectives, the decisions about its product-market scope, and the plan for effecting these) of the port, as developed by the port authority (PA); (b) the structure, which is implemented as a result of government regulations and policies, and the strategy chosen by the PA; and (c) the contextual environment in which a port operates represent, which has both controllable and uncontrollable factors. In the absence of a better framework, changes in the structures and strategies of the respective ports aim to generate a matching framework. The quality of which results from the consistency or fit of the inputs when taken together. There are two configurations of the triangle environment-structure-strategy that might produce a matching framework:
- First Configuration. Characterized by an environment of low uncertainty, low complexity, and dynamism. It is an efficiency-oriented strategy that focuses on the delivery of the basic services, and a mechanistic structure of centralized decision-making characterized by procedural standardization.
- Second Configuration. Characterized by a highly uncertain environment with an effectiveness-oriented strategy offering peripheral products and services in addition to basic services. It is an organic structure of decentralized decision-making.