Container Terminal-Inland Transportation Linkage Platform Model Factor Analysis

Abstract

Purpose – This research aims to derive factors when developing a data platform for container terminalinland transportation and provide implications for platform quality improvement to cope with supply chain security issues such as COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, an extensive literature review and interviews with related business practitioners were performed to obtain detailed survey results. Independent sample T-tests were conducted to verify differences between container terminal groups and inland-carrier groups, including forwarders. Then, exploratory factor analysis and importance-performance analysis were performed using SPSS26.0. Findings – The results showed that system accessibility, quality, and diversity of information should be considered preferentially, suggesting that the efficient management of fixed capital could be possible through the strengthening of practice-oriented container terminal-inland transportation linkages. Research implications – This study proposed the introduction of a modular container terminal-inland transportation platform considering the characteristics of relatively small-scale inland-carriers and forwarders. In addition, it is possible to create competitive edge that connects maritime and inland transportation in a balanced way from the perspective of a port-based logistics cluster if the range of platform availability related to container terminals and background logistics connectivity is expanded in phases.