Demand chain management in the container shipping service industry

The growing service sector in the global economy signifies the need for applying service science to study the interdisciplinary nature of services. In particular, container shipping service is considered a key enabler of international trade and global economic development. To strengthen the role of shipping in supporting global seaborne trade, it is highly desirable to identify the determinants that influence the total capacity of the shipping industry, explain how the related business activities (e.g., demand for shipping service, vessel price, fleet size, etc.) are linked to the demand for container shipping service, and empirically verify the findings. This study builds on the demand chain management paradigm to analyze the service capacity of the container shipping industry. We establish a path‐analytic model to explain how shipping demand affects such shipping‐related variables as vessel price and to evaluate their effects on the service capacity of the industry. The empirically‐tested model provides managers and researchers with insights on how to enhance the coordination and integration of a series of shipping‐related variables from shipping demand to capacity management in the container shipping service industry.