Beneath the surface: discovering the fascinating factors shaping blue economy investment behaviour and paving the way for sustainable performance: an empirical study of the marine shipping firms in Egypt

Abstract

ABSTRACT The blue economy investment behaviour has become highly important in the past decades as it relies on making positive investment decisions which lead to the development and growth of sustainability of every country. This paper contributes to the literature through the investigation of the drivers affecting blue economy investments, and the overall impact on the sustainability of the supply chain performance of marine shipping firms in Egypt. Egypt has a strategic geographic location with long coastlines along the Red, Mediterranean and Gulf of Aqaba seas, in addition to around 50 marine ports to which logistics firms have access to. Relying on the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) theory and Appiah et al. (2023) model, this paper finds positive impacts of five factors – technological, organisational, environmental, cost spending and supply chain management on blue economy investment decisions in Egypt; however, it finds an insignificant impact of the regulatory factors on stimulating substantial investment. In addition, this paper finds an overall positive impact of blue economy investments on the sustainability of the supply chains of the Egyptian marine shipping firms. This paper suggests actions to be implemented by the Egyptian government to entirely switch to a blue economy to support the sustainability of its blue waters.