Limanlarda ilişkisel yönetişim stratejilerinin irdelenmesi: Örgütlerarası bir analiz

Ports' relationships with port users are at great importance for the overall performance of supply chains, depending on the increasing role now attached to ports. Although the exchanges in port supply chain are usually supported by contractual governance mechanisms, it is important for ports to develop certain relational norms in order to maintain their relations with port users at high quality levels, which eventually helps ports to achieve desired performance outcomes. In this sense, ports should carefully govern their relationships with other port industry actors through relational governance strategies with the purpose of creating synergies that guarantee high levels of productivity. Although the related literature on port governance partially covers the role of relational norms, the motive of this study is derived from the need of a theory based qualitative research that would help understand how these norms are established and maintained. By adopting Relational Exchange Theory proposed by MacNeil (1974) as the theoretical foundation of its model, this dissertation focuses on the role that relational norms play in determining the success of port industry relations. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to reveal whether the development of certain relational norms positively influence quality of the relationships and thereby relationship-specific performances obtained from them. Moreover, the study aims to reveal context specific manifestations of relational norms in order to point out what exactly needs to be done for the development of relational norms. The data have been gathered via interviews conducted through the professionals from the terminal operating companies in Aliağa port cluster and port customers/users that use at least one of these terminals. The results reveal that relational governance plays an important role in constituting trust, commitment and satisfaction in between parties, which in turn help improving operational and financial performances of the parties. On the other hand, the tendency on contractual governance is found to be related to the organizational culture of the parties, but relatively limited because of the intense competition in the region. What is more, development of certain relational norms namely solidarity, flexibility, information sharing and conflict resolution is found to be critical for the success of ports under investigation, since they are considered as relational determinants which shape port users/customers' decision of port choice.