Inter-organisational relations in liner shipping as a cooperatiye game

In recent years, almost all the liner companies seek extensive cooperation with others reflected mainly by shipping alliances as well as other forms including shipping consortia, and much closer cooperation in mergers and acquisitions. Despite this, there are still some liner companies rvho prefer the (o-it-alone' policy and achieve relative success when compared with a number of liner companies who have, to some extent, failed in their adoption of the cooperative approach. It seems that cooperation is not always necessary for a liner company's success. This paper aims to apply cooperative game theory to analyse the cooperation among members of liner shipping cooperation, and the in-depth rationales behind linei shipping cooperation (or non-cooperation) is studied with the objectives to explain interorganisational relationship and decision-making behaviour in the liner shipping sector.Department of Logistics and Maritime Studie