Planning practices in the Greek ocean shipping industry

To investigate and portray the nature and use of formal strategic planning in the Greek ocean shipping industry.

Studies carried out in well‐developed industrialised countries, predominantly in the manufacturing sector, have contributed significantly to a better understanding and development of the strategic planning field. Nevertheless, there is lack of research based on countries and sectors/industries that are less conventional in nature. The study attempts to shed some light on how shipping management companies (SMC) carried out strategic planning, through a cross‐sectional study based on a random sample of 34 Greek shipping organisations.

The main findings of the study concern the main planning dimensions: planning completeness, formality, internal and external orientation, CEO's involvement, planning horizons and revision frequencies.

The study provides a benchmark for the measurement of the development of strategic planning in an important service sector in Greece. In addition, it highlights the extent to which indigenous companies operating in a highly uncertain business environment adopt formal, structured and sophisticated planning approaches.

It has been suggested that, if Greek shipping management companies are to obtain the full benefits of planning, systems should be developed which can accommodate advanced financial and scenario planning as well as other strategic tools and techniques. In addition the comprehensive education of the middle level management may contribute significantly to the deeper and timely understanding of the increasingly unpredictable external contingencies.

The paper contributes to the existing voluminous literature on planning diffusion by discussing the adoption of planning practices in organisations that operate in a highly uncertain international environment.