Employee perceptions on adoption of an intelligent Port terminal : a case study of Durban Port terminals.

Abstract

The global financial crisis of 2007–2008, which caused a decline in economic activities leading to the 2008–2012 global recession, has led to the need for performance improvement techniques and effective cost reduction mechanisms to be implemented in operating port terminals. Ports in Durban have to come up with effective ways of revamping their operations and adoption of an intelligent port terminal is an alternative. This study seeks to determine the challenges and limitations experienced with the current technology used for port terminal operations in Durban and the influence of technological, organizational and environmental factors on the adoption of an intelligent port terminal at ports in Durban. The findings from this will enable port terminals, which are planning to adopt an intelligent port to be aware of factors to be considered before embarking on the project. The TOE theory was used in this study as it includes the environmental aspect, which is not covered by other technology adoption theories. The proposed research seeks to obtain appropriate study conclusions by adopting a quantitative research. Non probability sampling was used to select the suitable employees from port terminals in Durban to participate in this study. A questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data, which was analysed with statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). The analytical tests carried out on the data include reliability and validity test, statistical tests; descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, mean and Standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, Regression analysis, and the one sample t-test). The study revealed that adequate technology needs to be acquired and emphasis should be on the compatibility and complexity of the technology as they have the biggest influence on the adoption of an intelligent port in Durban. Communication with stakeholders and IT skills retention are the most important organisational factors and customer readiness is the important aspect on environmental factors, which influence the adoption on an intelligent port terminal.