CHALLENGES TO THE EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF MARINE CONTAINER TERMINALS

Abstract

The first quarter of the 21st century is marked by multi-layered global events and challenges, which to one degree or another manifest their effects, primarily negative, on public relations on a network scale. The extremely dynamic changes in all areas of public life – political, economic, social – on the agenda provoke discussions in the public space and the search for approaches for effective management of public and private legal entities. And since, in addition to the security environment, the business environment is also of primary importance for public life, it is also subject to significant challenges and unpredictable risks. In this context, business structures and scientists are looking for opportunities for the applicability of appropriate business approaches for effective management of the business challenges of the 21st century. And this also means constant research into good practices in a given business area. Without putting all business areas under a common denominator and offering a universal model for effective management, the author sets himself the ambition to explore the general and specific manifestations of the business challenges of the XXI and their impact on the relevant business structures. His interests as a doctoral student are in the field of management of marine container terminals, which is why these terminals are the subject of research. Moreover, over the past few years, these marine container terminals and container transportation have been subjected to a number of risk factors and business challenges of a different nature, research in this direction is not only relevant, but also urgent. Regardless of the growth in the volume of container transportation, despite the threats they face, it is of utmost importance to study the good practices of the leading marine container terminals in terms of volume. The emphasis is on the approaches and factors determining their key place on a global scale and on this basis a summary of those that can contribute to the construction of an algorithm for effective management of Bulgarian marine terminals in a dynamically changing business environment. The research, results and discussions in this publication can serve as a methodological basis for a more extensive study for the purposes of the author's dissertation work. This is also the purpose of the research in this publication