Digitalization and Performance Management Systems: A Shipping Agency Case Study

This study examines how the digitalization of information processes embraced by shipping intermediaries (i.e. shipping agencies) within supply chain management (SCM) changes performance management systems (PMSs). This exploratory study uses the lens of stakeholder theory and adopts a case study methodology to investigate a shipping agency based in Italy. It uses primary data collected from semi-structured interviews and secondary data. The data were collected from November 2022 to March 2023. The results indicate that the digitalization of information accounting processes has boosted the adoption of key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of operational processes. The results also reveal that, in the agency relationship between agent and shipowner, the agent does not use the benefits of PMSs to identify strategic KPIs for the business. This study highlights that when adopting PMSs in shipping agencies, it is necessary to include both an information accounting and an organizational dimension. Managers should be involved in training programs supporting a culture of sharing information through digitalized systems. The main limitation of this study, due to its exploratory nature, is the lack of analysis including the shipowner’s perspective and the impossibility of generalizing based on the results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate digitalization, PMSs, and SCM in terms of the organizational-accounting frameworks of shipping agencies.