Transformations  in
Business & Economics

ANALYSIS ON INFLUENCING FACTORS OF PORT INTEGRATION: DATA FROM THE YANGTZE RIVER DELTA REGION IN CHINA¹⁰
Haiwei Fu, Qian Ding

ABSTRACT: Port integration, which has been a hotspot in global port research, is not only an important means of improving the competitiveness of port clusters but also an effective path to the formation of regional unified big markets. However, empirical research on the influencing factors of port integration is lacking. The Yangtze River Delta region was taken as the area of survey data samples in this study to identify the key factors that influence the development level of port integration and their influence paths. The restricting factors of port integration and their acting paths were empirically verified based on 312 valid questionnaires. The correlations of port integration with five aspects of factors—regional cooperation mechanism, port service standardization, logistics element circulation barriers, homogenization of port competition, and ecological synergy—and the promoting effects among port integration, unified big markets, and the competitiveness of port clusters were quantitatively measured. Results demonstrate that the regional cooperation mechanism, port service standardization, and ecological synergy are key influencing factors that promote port integration with significantly positive effects. Logistics element circulation barriers and homogenization of port competition are important factors that impede the progress of port integration, indicating significantly negative influences. Port integration, unified big markets, and competitiveness of port clusters present positive influence relations, which promote one another to a great extent. This work provides evidence for the key driving factors of port integration and their action mechanisms, and it can provide a decision-making reference for boosting regional high-quality integrated development and enhancing the competitiveness of regional port clusters.

KEYWORDS:  port integration, port clusters, competitiveness, structural equation model.

JEL classification:  R11, R4, R58, O18, O25.

¹⁰Acknowledgments:  This study was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Social Science Planning Zhijiang Youth Project of China (Grant No. 19ZJQN24YB); the Humanities and Social Sciences Project of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 20YJC790025); the Zhejiang Provincial Soft Science Project of China (Grant No. 2021C35146).