earticle

영어

Changes in the shipping industry are highly erratic and difficult to grasp. Recently, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) between shipping companies have received much attention due to the long-term recession of the maritime economy. The purpose of this study was to identify trends in studies on M&A between shipping companies using SNA (Social Network Analysis). A total of 69 research papers were collected by utilizing English keywords such as “M&A” and “shipping liner” in Science Direct, Emerald Insight, and Springer. After excluding 29 research papers that had little direct relevance to inter-shipping company M&A, structural analyses of degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality were conducted using UCINET on the 264 keywords that were derived from the remaining 40 research papers. Following this, inter-shipping company M&A research trends both before and after 2010 were identified. From the analyses’ results, we were able to confirm that studies on M&A between shipping companies preceding 2010 focused on cooperation and market sharing, and studies relating to the analysis of the industrial structure as a whole, rather than on specific examinations of M&A activities, were carried out. After 2010, we were able to ascertain that studies were carried out on the M&A method between shipping companies, the uncertain M&A market, and shipping company management. This study presented the changing tendencies of studies on inter-shipping company M&A, which are contingent upon the economy of the entire shipping industry, and has implications in understanding the constantly changing trends of M&A between shipping companies.