Essays on safety and security issues in shipping and transport logistics

Abstract

Managing safety and security is critical for socially responsible operations in a globalized supply chain. Stakeholders have become increasingly concerned about safety and security issues in shipping and transport logistics operations. Faced with safety and security risks inherent in global supply chain management, organizations must understand the effectiveness of logistics security practices and their performance contingencies that may influence the effectiveness of such practices. Also, organizations need to take a multi-level approach to examine whether their internal and national contexts would affect accident performance in global operations. The major goal of this thesis is two-fold: To understand (1) the impacts of logistics security certification on adopter firm's operational performance and the contingency factors in affecting such impacts, and (2) the role of external context in the relationship between organization's internal context and safety accident likelihood. To this end, I conduct this research grounded in related organizational theories to empirically address the above issues through three independent but interrelated essays. Specifically, the first study (Essay 1) helps identify the research gaps in the existing literature on supply chain security. The second study (Essay 2) fills one of the research gaps identified in study 1 by exploring the performance impact of a well-recognized logistics security certification (i.e., Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) and incorporating supply chain contingencies. The third study (Essay 3) investigates the role of national context in the relationship between organization's internal context and safety accident performance.