MARITIME POLICY AND THE SUCCESS OF NATIONS THE CASE OF GREEK-FLAGGED OCEAN SHIPPING by KATERINA KONSTA A study submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSHOPHY Graduate School of Management, Faculty of Business August 2017 Copyright Statement This copy of the study has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the study and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. ii MARITIME POLICY AND THE SUCCESS OF NATIONS THE CASE OF GREEK-FLAGGED OCEAN SHIPPING by KATERINA KONSTA A study submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSHOPHY Graduate School of Management, Faculty of Business August 2017 iii Dedicated to my husband Nikos Koliniatis, our beautiful daughter Tina, and our four-legged children Hera, Leon, and Lola Αφιερωμένο στον άντρα μου Νίκο Κολινιάτη, στην όμορφη κόρη μας Τίνα, και στα τετράποδα παιδιά μας Ήρα, Λέων, και Λόλα iv Acknowledgments There are numerous people without whom the completion of this thesis would never have been achievable. They have contributed in a myriad number of ways and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their selfless moral support and generous intellectual input over the duration of this work. I would like to thank my husband Nikos Koliniatis and my beautiful daughter Tina Koliniatis for their unwavering love, as well as Hera, Leon and Lola. They are my world, and I want to devote this work to them. This study could never have been completed without the generous, kind, professional guidance, and help of my supervisor and good friend Professor Michael Roe. When Professor Michael Roe retired, Professor Jingjing Xu my second supervisor at the time, became my supervisor. Professor Xu is sincerely thanked for her constant support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr James Benhin as my second supervisor for his support. Many thanks to my oral defence committee, Dr Sarah Tuck (the internal examiner), Professor Maria Lekakou (the external examiner), and Dr Simon Ashby (the Chair of the Board) for their time, interest, and helpful comments. It is an honour being guided, supported, and examined by experts. Many thanks to the University of Plymouth for the provision of the facilities and the infrastructure. Special thanks must be made to the Delphi panel members who rendered their valuable time and effort to participate in the research. Unfortunately due to the anonymity assurance, I am not able to mention their names. In particular, special thanks to the former Minster of the Hellenic Ministry of Shipping, Professor Louka Katseli for her time, ideas, and support. Many thanks to the Publishers for granting permision to use their materials. I must sincerely thank my good friends Vaggelis Rodopoulos and Aggeliki Chatzistyli for their endless encouragement, and support throughout the whole period of writing up the thesis. I would like to sincerely thank my mother Matina Konsta, my brother Dr.Nikos Konstas, and my sister in law Martina Slajerova. Last but not least I wish my father, Captain Avgoustis Konstas would be with us. He heritaged me with his passion for shipping, and his endless love for his hometown Vrontados at Chios Island, the land of Captains and shipowners. I was 3 years old, the first time I went on board a bulk carrier with my mother to join him, and there after I used to spend every summer on board bulk carriers. Acknowledging this, I believe that shipping runs in the Greek DNA. v I would also like to thank the potential reader, and researcher who will be inspired by my work, and will take it one step further. Katerina Konsta August 2017 vi Authors Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without the prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. This study has been privately financed. Relevant scientific and commercial conferences were regularly attended at which work was presented and contacts with experts from Greek shipping; external institutions and individuals were either visited or contacted for consultation purposes and papers were prepared and published. PUBLICATIONS Refereed Konsta, K., (2013), Searching for literature on Greek Maritime Policy, Reflections on legal issues in a diverse maritime world, Cambrian Law Review, Aberystwyth University, Volume 44, 50-86 (Appendix 5) Presentation at conference Konsta, K., (2016), Multilevel and Holistic Methodology Application to National Maritime Policy: The Case of Greek Shipping Policy, Plymouth Doctoral Colloquium, (UKPDC) 2016, Thursday 16 – Friday 17 June 2016, University of Plymouth, http://www.ukpdc.org. (Appendix 6) vii Konsta, K., (2014), Mapping the Greek Maritime Policy, 1970-2010: Mapping the Abyss?, Postgraduate Society Conference, Plymouth, UK, 12 November 2014. (Appendix 7) Signed Word count: 78,223 words Date: Tuesday 1st of August 2017 (excluding figures, tables, footnotes, bibliography, and appendices) viii KONSTA KATERINA. (2017). MARITIME POLICY AND THE SUCCESS OF NATIONS: THE CASE OF GREEK-FLAGGED OCEAN SHIPPING Abstract In an era that national flags are dying off (Sletmo 2001) there is no dispute about the success of Greek flagged shipping. How can a small nation like Greece retain the highest percentage of all national fleets? Literature identifies that this success is due to several reasons. However, what are the elements that contribute to the success of Greek-flagged shipping? This study establishes that ‘the success of Greek ocean-going flagged shipping is a blend of a tendency for governments to experiment with various policies intended to promote national competitiveness, individual entrepreneurship, the cluster as well as culture, knowledge and skill’. Litrature from different disciplines and sources are summarised, compared, contrasted, and synthesised in order to develop a coherent outcome and gain a new perspective in the respective field. Since “policy is like beauty in the eye of the beholder…” (Roe 2007c) a multilevel, holistic, exploratory, inductive, deductive, abductive, and overall pragmatic methodological approach is considered, as the only viable option for complex research questions related to maritime policy. A three-method approach is applied with every method contributing to each other: the Timeline A to Ω and Literature Analysis, Delphi Method, and the Application of Porter’s diamond on national competitiveness. The belief that traditional flags are dying off, implies that they are not dead yet. The Greek Registry, and every ship registry is a system of people, organisations , and processes and it is that system that contributes to the success of the flag. Contrary to the belief of some players, government policy affects the size and the quality of the national flag ocean-going fleet undertaking various polices intented to promote national competitiveness. This study contributes to academic knowledge as well as to the Greek and any other registry’s competitiveness, as well as to the govenemental decision making and development of maritime policies. Recommendations are made for the Greek flag and the maritime policy, as well as for the application of the GREKON MODEL to the real maritime world and academia. ix Contents Copyright Statement ........................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ v Authors Declaration ....................................................................................... vii Abstract ........................................................................................................... ix Contents .......................................................................................................... x List of Figures ............................................................................................... xiv List of Tables................................................................................................. xvi List of appendices ........................................................................................ xviii List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................... xix Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................. 1 1.1 Reasoning, Objectives and Hypothesis ............................................... 1 1.2 Definitions ............................................................................................... 8 1.2.1 Greek-flagged ........................................................................................ 8 1.2.2 Policy ..................................................................................................... 8 1.2.3 Timeframe ............................................................................................. 9 1.3 Tramp shipping, bulk carriers and tankers. ....................................... 10 1.4 Structure of Study ................................................................................ 10 Chapter 2. Literature Review ....................................................................... 13 2.1 Literature Methodology ....................................................................... 13 2.2 National Competitiveness & Porter’s