From Exploration to Explanation: Effects of the organizational dimensions of port congestion on logistics costs at the port of Agadir

Abstract

This study will build on previous work that attempted to examine how the investment will change over time by examining the areas of operations and logistics cost controls of ports at Agadir. The first part of our research was intended to look at the components and framework for these issues. The second part of our study was to use the information collected in the first study to evaluate the impact that four operational dimensions will have on logistic costs, these include port facilities and infrastructure, port operational structure, logistic coordination and congestion. To collect the data required for our study, we established a sample of 192 respondents from the Port Logistics Ecosystem. Using SPSS software, we performed multiple regression analyses to identify significant findings. Based upon the analysis done on the data, we found that the entire model was significant overall and explained 33.3% of the variation in logistics costs. The most important driver of logistics costs is port congestion and is positively and significantly related to logistics cost. The organization of port operations, on the other hand, has a negative and significant relationship with logistics cost. There is no direct significant connection between port infrastructure or logistics coordination with the estimated model. These results suggest that controlling costs associated with logistics will be best achieved by reducing port congestion and improving fluidity of operations, rather than by just increasing the capacity of the infrastructure alone. This study contributes to the existing literature on port performance by distinguishing between dimensions that were identified through exploratory methodology and those that have an influence on explaining logistics costs.