The resilience of US container ports is increasingly challenged by disruptive and stressful events such as regulatory change, adverse weather, larger container ship sizes, changing patterns of trade and sea routes, and the still to be quantified effects of enlarging the capabilities and capacity of the Panama Canal. Port sustainability requires the port managers to be resilient in their practices, to maintain existing performance levels and to increase market share when opportunity presents. The primary question that this paper addresses is how US container ports might be affected by adverse events and how they undertake resilience processes when faced with complex problems and uncertain outcomes. The paper gathers insights from literature on complex adaptive systems to discuss how US container ports may adapt to changing circumstances through innovation and the emergent outputs of self-organised agents (components) of their port organisations. The paper suggests that by conceptualising ports as complex adaptive systems, port managers may be able to better understand the complexity of change and organisational dynamics and thus harness the phenomenon of self-organisation towards their strategic intent.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	US container ports, sustainability, resilience, complex adaptive systems
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Transportation, logistics and supply chains
Research Field:	Transportation, logistics and supply chains not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Transport
Objective Group:	Water transport
Objective Field:	Port infrastructure and management
UTAS Author:	Bhaskar, P (Associate Professor Prashant Bhaskar)
UTAS Author:	Pateman, H (Dr Hilary Pateman)
UTAS Author:	Cain, P (Mr Peter Cain)
UTAS Author:	Cahoon, S (Professor Stephen Cahoon)
ID Code:	110024
Year Published:	2016
Web of Science® Times Cited:	20
Deposited By:	Maritime and Logistics Management
Deposited On:	2016-07-11
Last Modified:	2018-03-22
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