Inter-port relationships management: A bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of influencing factors of port co-opetition patterns

Port relationship management has consistently garnered scholarly attention, while existing research has not provided a systematic discussion of the influencing factors of port co-opetition patterns (PIFs). As competition intensifies, the uncertainty and volatility of port co-opetition patterns present challenges to the sustainable development of ports. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of academic literature on port co-opetition management published between 2000 and 2024. Drawing on the 187 selected articles, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the PIFs based on published embedded scenarios that reflect the changes in port co-opetition patterns. To this effect, 14 papers are studied in detail, with a focus on scenarios, methods, evidence sources, and PIFs. The primary thematic clusters within the PIFs are identified, and an in-depth analysis is provided on the interrelations between policy, organizational, environmental, and technological factor clusters and the PIFs within the context of port embedding scenarios. A discussion is made concerning the challenges and future research directions in this area, particularly emphasizing the impact of non-technical rational factors on port co-opetition, as well as the discrepancies observed across the results of different case studies. This study may shed lights on promoting management practices and governance strategies on port co-opetition relationships.