Measuring Port Digitalisation and Its Outcomes at the Port Community Level
Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Instrument, evidence from the Moroccan port system
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23882/emss26408Keywords:
scale development, port digitalisation, port performance measurement, confirmatory factor analysisAbstract
Research on port digitalisation increasingly relies on surveys of port actors, yet few studies report how their measures were developed and validated, and no instrument jointly captures port digital maturity, its organisational enablers and the four dimensions of port performance. This article develops and validates such an instrument. Thirty-seven items measuring eight constructs — digital maturity, digital dynamic capabilities, port community governance, digital skills, and operational, economic, environmental and social performance — were derived from published scales and port indices, reviewed by experts, back-translated between French and Arabic, and pre-tested. The instrument was administered to 150 members of the port communities of Tanger Med and of the ports managed by Morocco’s National Ports Agency in 2026. Exploratory factor analysis recovered the eight intended factors without cross-loadings above 0.30, although parallel analysis suggested a more parsimonious solution. After removing two items, a confirmatory factor analysis of the 35-item model showed good fit (χ²/df = 1.10; CFI = 0.977; TLI = 0.974; RMSEA = 0.026; SRMR = 0.053). Composite reliabilities ranged from 0.79 to 0.88, all average variances extracted exceeded 0.50, and discriminant validity was supported by the Fornell–Larcker criterion and heterotrait–monotrait ratios below 0.60. Compositional invariance held across the two port units, known-groups comparisons distinguished Tanger Med from the other ports on digital maturity (d = 0.68), and correlations followed theoretical expectations. The instrument offers researchers and port managers a validated, transparent tool for assessing digitalisation and its outcomes, and the article documents its limitations — notably the weaker measurement of social performance — to guide its refinement
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