Factors that promote innovation in shipping companies

This study seeks to identify factors that promote innovation in shipping companies. The study is based on an empirical investigation of 63 companies headquartered in Norway. The results imply that organizational and interorganizational variables are important to innovation. Three aspects of innovation are focused on: (1) service/product innovations, (2) market innovations, and (3) production method innovations. The explanatory variables that are applied in this study capture between 13-51% of the variability of the measures of innovation. The results indicate that an explicit strategy that promotes innovation is very important for the actual level of innovation within shipping companies. In management literature, it is often assumed that organic organizational features like decentralized decision-making promote innovation. The opposite features are assumed to restrain innovation. However, the results do not support these basic assumptions. For example, it seems to be important that managers make precise decisions in order to promote innovation.     

Recreational Use of Developed Norwegian Shorelines: How Ambiguous Regulations Influence User Experiences

In principle, public rights of access to “outfield” along the Norwegian shoreline are protected by law. A case study from the village of Saltnes indicates that it is difficult for people to stay or walk along a populated shoreline area without feeling that they are violating privacy norms. Such “mental” barriers and subjective perceptions are not formally addressed in Norwegian regulations concerning legal rights of public access, but appear to affect the extent of recreational use. Interviews with property owners and visitors in Saltnes indicated that two key elements help to improve the situation. First, physical markers demarcating public land (“outfield”) and private land (“infield”) such as vegetation, small fences, signs, boulder walls, paths, and so on seem to reduce discomfort both for visitors and residents. Second, property owners and visitors value polite behavior highly, and communication between different groups of interests seems to clarify the challenging public/private divide. A main impression was that people find present rules and regulations unclear and diffuse and difficult to practice. It is relevant to ask whether the public accessible parts of developed and populated coastal zones are identifiable through the infield–outfield divide; more specific and adapted regulation of public traffic is needed on private shoreline properties.     

The performance effect of innovation in shipping companies

The aim of this study is to investigate how innovation contributes to company performance in Norwegian shipping and to extend our knowledge concerning what organizational and inter-organizational factors influence innovation in shipping firms. The study is based on a survey of 46 Norwegian shipping companies. We find that innovation contributes to firm performance. We also find that a conscious strategy, strategy involvement, external relationships, especially market relationships, and productivity slack have a significant positive effect on the degree of innovation. The results are dependent upon the companies' degree of differentiation and the type of innovation.     

A disaggregate stochastic freight transport model for Sweden

Transportation - This paper presents estimation results for models of transport chain and shipment size choice, as well as an implementation of the estimated disaggregate models (for two commodity...     

Stress concentrations at butt welds in pipelines

This is a technical note that is written to correct a mistake made by the author and to add some significant information to an already published paper in Marine Structures 2008. An additional assessment of analysis result is used to enhance and substantiate conclusions on stress concentration at weld root in pipeline welds resulting from fabrication tolerances.     

Fatigue reliability—measured response of the heidrun TLP tethers

One of the most important uncertainties associated with fatigue damage of TLP tethers is the uncertainty related to fatigue loading. Higher–order load effects are important and such effects are very complicated to determine numerically. The Heidrun TLP was installed in the summer of 1995 and for this platform the forces in the top of the tethers are measured during the operational phase. In this paper the results of these measurements are discussed and compared with numerical calculations. It is shown how the measurements of fatigue loading can be used to improve the fatigue reliability and reduce the need for in-service inspections.     

Innovation,capabilities and competitive advantage in Norwegian shipping

As a high-cost country, it is believed that Norway has to build its competitiveness in most industries on innovation and knowledge-intensive products. The shipping industry is no exception. It has to be innovative in order to prosper. This unison conclusion, which has been drawn in several research projects during the last 10–20 years, is probably also applicable for companies in other high cost countries. A major issue in this research is how the industry can develop and maintain innovativeness and international competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to discuss the conclusion drawn in previous research concerning how the shipping industry can be innovative. It concludes that shipping companies have to improve their skills and competencies in a stronger interplay between organizations within and without the maritime cluster. This may increase their total capability and innovativeness and create distinctive competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate.     

The marginal external costs of urban transport

A necessary input for the analysis of efficient transport policies is the marginal external cost of each transport mode. This paper studies the marginal external costs of urban transportation. These include the marginal external cost of congestion, accidents, air pollution and noise. The costs are computed for cars, buses, trams, metro and trucks. The methodology is described and applied to the urban area of Brussels for the year 2005.     

Stress concentration factors at welds in pipelines and tanks subjected to internal pressure and axial force

In this paper, analytical expressions for stress concentration factors in pipes subjected to internal pressure and axial force are derived for a number of design cases based on classical shell theory. The effect of fabrication tolerances in simple butt welds is assessed. Analyses based on classical mechanics are compared with results from axisymmetric finite element analyses for verification of the presented methodology. Stress concentration factors are presented for circumferential butt welds in pipes welded together from pipes with different thicknesses, welds at buckling arrestors, welds at flanged connections in pipelines, and welds at ring stiffeners on the inside and the outside of the pipes. It also includes stress concentration factors at end closures in pipes for gas storage. Larger pipes are fabricated from plates with a longitudinal weld. This fabrication process introduces out-of-roundness in the pipes. The actual out-of-roundness is a function of internal pressure. An analytical expression for the bending stress in the pipe wall due to this out-of-roundness is presented. The derived stress concentration factors can be used together with a hot spot stress S–N curve for calculation of fatigue damage.