FN Archimer Export Format
PT J
TI Capacity management by global shipping alliances: findings from a game experiment
BT 
AF Cariou, Pierre
   Guillotreau, Patrice
AS 1:1;2:2,3;
FF 1:;2:;
C1 KEDGE Business School, 680 Cours de la Libération, 33000, Talence, France
   University of Nantes, LEMNA, Nantes, France
   MARBEC, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, France
C2 KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL, FRANCE
   UNIV NANTES, FRANCE
   IRD, FRANCE
UM MARBEC
IN WOS Cotutelle UMR
   copubli-france
   copubli-univ-france
IF 4.6
TC 10
UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00680/79187/92890.pdf
LA English
DT Article
DE ;Oligopoly;Directed networks;Serious game;Shipping;Global shipping alliances;Capacity management
AB The present article uses game experiments to understand the dynamics of oligopolistic competition in liner shipping markets. We show how a limited number of carriers, interacting over time, acting independently or grouped into global shipping alliances, are able to effectively and jointly reduce excess capacity. A serious game (called TRALIN) has been designed to this end, mimicking the global liner shipping market where four to five global shipping alliances compete on a set of 12 routes, connecting four ports of call for a few sequential voyages. Carriers are initially subject to low profits due to over-capacity and have to anticipate competitor capacity decisions and vessel deployment simultaneously. Results from 18 experimental games with 4644 decisions were collected and statistically analysed to confirm the main tenets of oligopoly theory and to highlight the existence of a learning effect from successive interactions (rounds in games). Our results suggest that a ‘coordinated’ reduction in capacity is more likely to occur when the number of competitors is limited, but even more when excessive capacity is high, urging the need for cooperation; a learning effect amongst market participants is detected over time. Serious games are flexible tools for improving our understanding of competition, the organization of liner shipping networks, and the role played by global shipping alliances. This tool may help practitioners to understand how over-capacity is evolving within the competitive process, and what factors may influence it. Although voluntarily made simplistic for the purpose of experiments, our design allows one to focus on the main tenets of oligopoly theory as applied to shipping markets. 
PY 2022
PD MAR
SO Maritime Economics & Logistics
SN 1479-2931
PU Springer Science and Business Media LLC
VL 24
IS 1
UT 000614793200001
BP 41
EP 66
DI 10.1057/s41278-021-00184-9
ID 79187
ER

EF