摘要
Identification and responsiveness towards customer needs is a notion that rests deeply in the heart of the marketing concept, and has been discussed in various fields of business and economic literature. At the same time literature in port economics and management has proposed various means for analyzing market conditions, overcoming competitive pressures in the port industry and pursuing sustainable competitive advantage. In line with this discussion, albeit with a significant time delay, port economics and management literature has also proposed the use of marketing strategies as a strategic tool towards achieving port competitiveness. However, the early approaches to port marketing, mainly based on consumer marketing principles, where followed by scarce references, mainly dealing with particularities of marketing implementation in ports and terminals. This paper attempts to provide a solid theoretical background to the notion, the need and the applicability of the marketing concept in the container port industry. It investigates the preconditions under which port marketing strategies are designed and formulated, by measuring the level of market orientation of ports and terminals. Furthermore, it attempts to examine the impact of market orientation on port performance, under the mediating role of marketing tactics and the moderating effect of the ports＇/terminals＇ internal and external environment.
