Maritime logistics research in South Asia: a systematic review

Abstract

Systematic reviews are trending because they inform future studies by providing a snapshot of the existent research within the relevant field. We found a dearth of systematic reviews and bibliometric analysis in maritime logistics. This study discusses the contributions of authors based in South Asia to research in maritime logistics. Moreover, maritime logistics research in this geographic region needs to be examined in the context of South Asia’s emergence as a geopolitical and maritime hub. This review reveals that an overwhelming majority of research on maritime logistics in South Asia originates from India. This review identifies five research clusters on examining networks between authors and countries. These were derived based on author keywords found in the pool of research using systematically derived through Scopus. We find that, among the South Asian research on maritime logistics, research focusing on the Indo-Pacific receives particular attention. There is also a rapidly growing focus on sustainability in shipping and in optimising container terminals.