Core Competences of River Ports: Case Study of Pearl River Delta

With the sound development of ASEAN, more and more attention is paid to hub ports that support cargo and information flows in this marine region. However there are few studies on river and feeder ports. To fill this gap, this study takes a river port as an example to illustrate how to utilize the Balanced Scorecard for evaluating the Core Competences of river and feeder ports. Core competences are helpful for terminal operators when focusing on core strategies, core business and core products / services development for resource limitation. The business pattern which regards core competences as a foundation is beneficial for terminal operators to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. A questionnaire survey has been conducted. The Cronbach alpha method confirms testing reliability of the questionnaire. Study results reveal that two core competences are "capabilities of valuing employee and organization improvement" and "national and municipal government support" for a river port.