ABSTRACT

A voluminous body of research and literature has been produced in the domain of strategy for non-shipping companies. Yet, the shipping industry which transports more than 90% in volume of those companies’ physical output has been allotted an altogether humble share of strategy researchers’ time. It is only in the 1970s and 1980s that we see strategy literature coming to the fore, perhaps not coincidentally in periods when shipping experiences its periodical crises. Recently, strategy for ocean shipping companies has enjoyed somewhat more of an interest from various angles including economic historiography, organisational behaviour, operational research, game theory, behavioural economics and quantitative fi nance. In the public’s mind, shipping is readily associated with some of its charismatic denizens past and present like Aristoteles Onassis, Stavros Niarchos, Erling Naess, John Fredriksen and Chang Yung-fa. This is testimony to the entrepreneurial nature of the shipping industry, and entrepreneurs tend by nature, and out of business necessity, to take a holistic view. It is this wider, more holistic, approach which deserves more attention in future research. Prior to engaging in such a review, it is necessary to assess where shipping strategy stands in the literature to date and how holistic in nature this strategy analysis has been.