ABSTRACT
Although management is more of an art rather than a science and management achievements may depend to a large extent on individual managerial characteristics and traits (e.g. Malmendier et al., 2011), managerial decision-making and other management practices can benefit from the knowledge created through scientific inquiry. Management in the shipping industry is even more challenging, bearing in mind the specific external environmental circumstances that maritime companies face in the pursuit of their short-term and long-term strategic goals. Shipping is a highly capital-intensive industry and financing and other management decisions are made within a highly risky economic, physical and financial environment. The highly volatile freight rates (see Kavussanos, 1996) dictate, to a large extent, various managerial decisions in operational ship deployment (e.g. time vs spot market decisions), whereas the consequent impact on ship prices influences ship sale, purchasing, newbuilding and scrapping decisions. At the same time, the volatile market environment may present shipowners and other maritime decision makers with an array of opportunities that effective managers and entrepreneurs may be able to spot and take advantage of (see Harlaftis and Theotokas, 2013). For example, in the late 90s, low freight-rate levels forced Norwegian investors to sell off their K/S shares at distress prices allowing a quick-thinking entrepreneur to establish majority shareholdings in K/S companies and later on force the sale of assets at higher prices. Based on this business acumen, the entrepreneur went on to establish one of the biggest and most successful maritime enterprises, General Maritime Corporation. It is also part of the shipping folklore literature how Aristotle Onassis, John Fredriksen, Stavros Niarchos and other shipping entrepreneurs managed, through shipping business acumen and shrewd managerial decisions, to establish successful enterprises and amassed fortunes in a highly competitive business environment.
