Marketing strategies of Port Authorities: A multi-dimensional theorisation

Abstract

The study advances an innovative conceptualization of the marketing strategies developed by Port Authorities (PAs), framing a relevant case of hybrid organisation into a business marketing perspective. PAs have transformed to hybrid organizations mostly disassociated from operational activities and port services provision. Still, they maintain a key role as managing bodies advancing the prospects of respective port and associate clusters. Marketing is among the functions working towards this end. Aiming to advance theoretical constructs and related empirical research, the paper employs business marketing perspectives and their applications in hybrid organisations to introduce a novel conceptualization of PA marketing strategies. Within this theoretical angle, the study builds a multi-dimensional framework on PA strategic positioning that combines (a) PAs’ marketing objectives in various Strategic Business Areas (SBAs), (b) the multi-faceted geography of the targeted salient stakeholders, and (c) the induced portfolio of marketing actions, whose ramifications unveil virtuous cross-fertilization effects (CFEs) and fuel the success of PA marketing strategies. This model enables to identify five different patterns of market coverage across diverse SBAs.