Revisiting Port Supply Chain Integration Complexity from the Perspective of Systems Leadership: A Bibliometric Analysis and Future Research Directions

Abstract

This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of 121 articles regarding the implications of the systems leadership perspective on the concept of port supply chain integration complexity. Since the systems leadership perspective characterizes an early stage of development and is still rare and has not been addressed nor studied widely, this paper reveals relevant results on the basis of citation analysis metrics. The bibliographic data is extracted from the world's most renowned scientific database ISI Web of Science, and analyzed via the VOSviewer and the HistCiteTM software. The bibliographic coupling methodology utilized in the VOSviewer software reveals four emergent and interconnected research clusters: (1) Port resilience and security vulnerabilities in complex maritime networks; (2) Big data and AI in ports; (3) Industry 4.0 essential elements for ports; and (4) Emerging best practices for systems leadership in ports – the case of BRI. A detailed and rigorous content analysis of the most impactful articles is conducted in order to reveal the intellectual structure of each research cluster, and the application of the HistCiteTM LCSe citation analysis metric reveals the trending articles within each research cluster, enabling the formation of future research directions for each research cluster. The findings obtained in this paper form the basis for advancing the perspective of systems leadership on the concept of port supply chain integration complexity because it provides scholars easy and quick access to the major articles forming the bedrock of each research cluster; while it may aid industry professionals with new information relevant for improving their decision capabilities, thus fostering the establishment of a more robust and better integrated maritime transportation system.