Importance of inter-firm collaboration
 Firm-to-firm competition  Supply chain (SC) to SC competition (Daugherty
et al., 2006)
 Collaborative advantages (Kanter, 1994; Dyer, 2000) such as
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Acquisition of complementary resources (park et al., 2004)
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Reduced transaction costs (Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995)
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Improved performance (Cao and Zhang, 2011)
 Competitive advantages (Kumar and Nath Banerjee, 2014)
 Repetitive periodic crises in the globalised shipping industry
 The collapse of Hanjin Shipping Company
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Research model
 How to judge the existence and extent of inter-firm collaboration
 Cooperative and collaborative spirit indices (CCSIs)
 Components of collaboration: Cooperation is a subset of collaboration
Transparency
Cooperation
Fairness
Mutuality
Collaboration
Trust
Relationship
Strength
Sustainability
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Methods for computation of CCSIs
 Questionnaires consisting of seven-point Likert scale
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167 usable responses (150 shipping companies in South Korea)
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Total response rate: 25.5%
 Items development (cooperation: 16 items, collaboration: 24 items)
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Literature review and Interviews with industrial experts
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Content analysis
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Two rounds Q-sorting and a pilot testing
 Index: weighted average of factors
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Exploratory factor analysis (EFA): Maximum Likelihood (factor extraction),
Oblimin (oblique rotation)
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EFA: Final 15 items for cooperation and 22 items for collaboration
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EFA: Weights methods for factors (constructs) and items
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Major findings of this research
 Container recorded the lowest CCSIs among vessel types
Container
Bulk
Tanker
Others
Cooperative Sprit
index (CSI1)
47.94
54.04
55.86
61.15
Collaborative spirit
index (CSI2)
51.99
55.76
57.89
61.57
* Container: based on responses from 16 shipping lines out of 17 population
 Fairness and mutuality obtained lower scores
Transparency
Fairness
Mutuality
Trust
Sustainability
CSI1 (47.94)
53.71
43.56
45.76
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CSI2 (51.99)
53.60
43.19
46.18
66.90
51.03
Implications of this research in the container trades
 The powerful supply chain members need to ameliorate
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Distributive fairness
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Mutuality
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Sustainability (Relationship extendedness)
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Two-way communication
 The weaker supply chain members should endeavour to acquire trust from
the other members
 The government’s mediating roles are requested
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Forming consultative groups
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Collating, disseminating good practices of cooperation and collaboration
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Institutional considerations
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