Strategic Adaptation of Seaports to Modern Trends

Abstract

The subject of the paper is to consider some basic perspectives for the development of seaport strategies, i.e. their strategic adaptation to modern technological, commercial, and environmental trends. The aims of the paper are: a) to explore the motives and possibilities of peripheral ports in the process of adapting to the concentration of container traffic and finding ways and strategies to overcome their peripheral status and include global trade routes, with reference to the Montenegrin port of Bar, and b) to con-tribute to the understanding of complex relationships, which affect the complex evolution of seaports. It starts with the basic hypothesis that the adaptation of peripheral seaports requires a broader systemic approach, which consists of institutional, functional, commercial, strategic, and environmental frameworks and determinants. The auxiliary hypothesis is that peripheral ports strive to adapt their development to the dominant world maritime trends through the application of various proactive and reactive strategies in a complex institutional environment. In terms of methodology, in addition to abstraction, concretization, induction, deduction, and descrip-tion, the paper uses qualitative and quantitative analysis. In conclusion, it is stated that the description and analysis of the available literature verified the correctness of the hypotheses. In addition, it is emphasized that seaport management needs to overcome various constraints and conflicts of the economic, institutional, and ecological environment by applying new strate-gies, knowledge, skills, technologies, and information..