ABSTRACT
The essence of the knowledge about ‘what competition was’ was the striving of rivals to gain advantages relative to one another (Stigler 1957). Whatever its definition, competition is at the core of the success or failure of firms and determines the appropriateness of a firm’s activities that can contribute to its performance (Porter 1985). Meanwhile, competitive strategy is the search for a favourable competitive position in an industry, the fundamental arena in which the competition occurs, where 2 central questions arise: (1) industry attractiveness for long-term profitability and its determinant factors, which may be assessed by the framework of five competitive forces or elements of industry structure, embodying the competition rules-threat of entry of potential new competitors and substitutes, bargaining power of buyers
1 INTRODUCTION
Ports are powerful turntables of greatest economic interests for a country. This is, per se, a very sufficient reason why the port competition is very important. Found in changing environmental conditions of a global economy, ports are trapped in the grips of competition for having the best position and, therefore, the best benefits than others.
