Smart ports for sustainable shipping: concept and practices revisited through the case study of China’s Tianjin port

The development of smart ports is digitally transforming shipping and logistics operations, paving the way for a more sustainable shipping paradigm. Research has begun exploring this burgeoning field from diverse perspectives, from technological advancements to evaluation methodologies. Nevertheless, more research on the smart port concept is needed to gain insights into practices and evaluation. We fill the knowledge gap by applying population ecology theory to revisit the smart port concept. The “Tianjin port” is used as an illustration. By leveraging policy documents, industry research, company annual reports, and corporate social responsibility reports, we analyze the key stakeholders in the smart port ecosystem, their relationships, the system’s evolution, and the cargo and information flows within smart ports, drawing analogies to the ecological concepts of components, relationships, evolution, and flows. Based on these findings, we revisit the smart port concept from an ecological perspective. We also introduce the ecological concept of “health” into evaluating smart ports. “Health” in this paper concerns the evaluation of progress in smart port implementation (i.e., the varied pace of smart port development), overall stability (i.e., ability to maintain stable operations amid external uncertainties), and readiness for fully-fledged operations. This concept is operationalized through a novel evaluation framework comprising 4 first-level indicators (Vitality, Coordination, Development, and Growth) and 12 second-level indicators, enabling managers to identify their smart port’s development status and areas for improvement.