Green strategies of Port Managing Bodies: empirical evidence of stakeholder prioritisation in italian ports

Port managing bodies (PMBs) are in the front row for reducing the environmental impact of maritime logistics activities and supporting the decarbonisation of the whole industry. They are expected to act as principal performers, or orchestrators, of green strategies (GSs) and meet the increasing requirements of the main port stakeholder groups (PSGs). According to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) principle, a new sustainable approach to port management has been introduced to consider PSGs objectives in the planning process and face the challenges of climate change. However, CSR can contribute substantially to the overall port performance only when PMBs identify critical PSGs and carry out specific GSs to meet their expectations. Although GSs are an emerging topic, no prior contributions have theoretically and empirically investigated stakeholder prioritisation practices of PMBs when designing and implementing GSs. Therefore, the paper contributes to the academic debate on sustainability in the port domain providing an overarching taxonomy of GSs. It also aims to estimate the stakeholder prioritisation for GSs through an indirect methodological approach that is empirically applied on four Italian PMBs. The findings stress multiple objectives of GSs consistent with the CSR perspective and trace the trends of green initiatives in the Italian ports to meet the diverse PSGs’ expectations. Port managers can also benefit from the implication of the study to improve the decision-making process concerning GSs.