**2. Smart adoption of ICT&S in maritime**

We live in a time of massive progress in the field of info-communication technology and systems (ICT&S). The question is do we really need all these innovations and do they always make our lives easier and better. In order to get the best out of ICT&S, we need to know which of these technologies we actually need and how to use them purposely. When it comes to a business environment, it is very important that higher management structures are aware of these needs and discuss them with employees. This is especially important in maritime business, bearing in mind that, stakeholders in maritime are usually conservative and not early new technology adopters. Several studies considered ICT&S rational, intelligent or smart implementation and adoption of advanced ICT&S in maritime [5–10]. On the Holtham's & Courtney's model, in this chapter, it has been examined how stakeholders in maritime assess key constructs in the model, regarding some developed and developing countries in Europe. The considered countries were treated as the European Union (EU) and non-European Union (non-EU) ones. Before presenting the methodology and the obtained results, the overview of the applied Holtham's & Courtney's model is given.

#### **2.1 The Holtham's & Courtney's model**

This model is composed of four constructs: knowledge, ICT&S strategy, system effectiveness, and ICT&S management. These constructs are supported by organizational culture and top manager's mindset (**Figure 1**).

Knowledge can be described as the understanding of a subject that one gets by experience or study, known either by one person or by people generally; or, as the state of knowing about or being familiar with something [11]. Furthermore, Cambridge dictionary depictures knowledge as awareness, understanding, or information that has been obtained by experience or study, and that either is in a person's mind or possessed by people generally; or, as skill in, understanding of, or information about something, which a person gets by experience or study. Symbolically, knowledge is one of the steps in the so-called ladder of knowledge. This ladder of knowledge encompasses data, information, knowledge itself, and wisdom stairs. The data and information have easier explanations than the concepts of knowledge and wisdom. In this context, the focus will be on knowledge stair, as a key for understanding contemporary ICT&S and their rational implementation in maritime business. Knowledge here means consciousness about advanced ICT&S availability at the market, including the ICT&C purposiveness regarding particular business strategies, processes, and activities.

**Figure 1.** *Adapted Holtham's & Courtney's model (source: Own).*

The ICT&S strategy brings together business and technology. Due to the Holtham's & Courtney's model, there are five different strategic orientations.

*Pathfinder*: Systematically seeks and selectively exploits relevant ICT&S trends to gain competitive advantage and enable entry into new markets. Pathfinder is willing to experiment with new, advanced ICT&S. Pathfinder constantly seeks a competitive advantage by detecting or sensing emerging ICT&S trends and opportunities.

*Adapter*: Functions at two types of market: one relatively stable and focused on efficiency, and the other where ICT&S plays an increasingly important role. Adapter applies different rates of technological uptake in each. This split feature is typical for businesses where different rates of technological adoption are present, and adaptability rather than uniform solutions are applicable.

*Protector*: Meticulously assesses ICT&S investment for its efficiency orientation and applies technology primarily to reduce costs of investments and increase communication processes rather than new market opportunities creation. Protector is control orientated and slow to innovate. These organizations work in domains where core ICT&S-based technologies are commonly available and easily replicable.

*Reactor*: This is a characteristic of an organization where technology is not perceived as a strategic tool. It responds slowly to change and tends to view ICT&S applications as standalone tools. In this strategic orientation, the ICT&S platforms usually appear to be weak or obsolescent. The risk is that the organization could quickly become non-competitive through a lack of capacity to meet customers' needs.

*Heatseeker*: Seeks upon ICT&S fashioned instead of strategically analyzing the best ICT&S fit for its business processes. Heatseeker is typical for an organization whose structure is in constant change, experimenting with innovations before obtaining steady business performance. This organization is receptive to ICT&S spending and subsequent partial reversals when intended benefits are not realized quickly.

The system effectiveness can be achieved by setting and communicating critical success factors (CSF) [12] and developing them steadily. The first step is to use technology to create an effective operational platform, primarily with internal information. Then, the CSFs can be widened to foster improved skills to use technology. This will start with employees and then extend to suppliers and customers. Once when these two steps work well, the CSFs can be broadened to encompass external information about markets, customers, and competitors. After these, three steps comes business intelligence, which allows organizations to identify and manage risk while developing new products, services, and markets to ensure a successful future.

The ICT&S management is based on ICT&S builders, ICT&S managers, and ICT&S users. A person or management team that communicates the needs of ICT&S users into ICT&S builders or designers has to be engaged in the organization as a knowledge navigator, or information resource manager. There are business organizations, which recognized this triangle and which are working on filling and improving the personnel skills towards achieving this goal [13, 14].

These four constructs, which form the backbone of the Holtham's & Courtney's model are underpinned by organizational culture and top manager's mindset.

Concerning the organizational culture, there is universal agreement that it exists and plays an important role in shaping behavior in organizations. However, there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is. Here are quoted several expressions that can be used in absence of universally accepted one [15]: organizational culture is how organizations do things; organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals, which serve as glue to integrate the members of the organization; organizational culture is civilization in the workplace, etc.

Top manager or top management team's role is to weave a fabric of horizontal (information, technology, people, and organization) and vertical (direction, knowledge, process, and climate) threads mutually intertwined. In organizations where knowledge is a core dimension, managers have frequently identified people's skills as the major influence, along with organizational climate. Moving from the informationbased to the knowledge-based enterprise is a major challenge for today's companies [16]. Therefore, managers have to combine proper notions from several different domains: organizational behavior, human resource management, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, etc. Technology is a key enabler, but not usually as significant as skills and climate. Top managers' team mindset covers all considered constructs and it affects intelligent or rational use of ICT&S.

These constructs are used in the following analysis as independent variables. As a control variable is used non-compliance between technology-led potential and its everyday usage, while the dependent variable is intelligent use of ICT&S, which reflexes efficient and smooth communication between tasks, technologies, and employees [4].

#### **2.2 Case study on smart ICT&S adoption**

Based on the Holtham's & Courtney's model, a survey was conducted among stakeholders in maritime in terms of how rationally they use the ICT&C in their business. Selected stakeholders from four EU (Croatia, Greece, Italy, and Slovenia) and from four non-EU countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina (B&H), Montenegro, and Serbia) were included in the survey. Forty experts (five per each considered country) from maritime administrative bodies, agencies, private marine companies, ports, and universities (maritime departments) were asked to evaluate the set of fifteen statements by means of Likert (1–5) scale (**Table 1**). The last two statements refer to the control and dependent variables in the model, respectively, while the rest of the statements correspond to the independent variables.

The level of respondents' agreement with the proposed statements is labeled due to the following scheme: (i) if the average score per group of experts from a certain country is between 1 and 2.5 then the level of experts' agreement is "low"; (ii) if it is between 2.6 and 3.5, then the level of agreement is "moderate", and (iii) if it is between 3.6 and 5, then it is "high". The results of the survey are presented in **Table 2**.

According to the results presented in **Table 2**, it is obvious that all respondents evaluate knowledge, ICT&S management, and manager's mindset as highly important for rational application of ICT&S in maritime organizations. When it comes to the system effectiveness and organizational culture, the experts assessed these constructs as high or moderate important for intelligent implementation of ICT&S. Control variable confirms validity of the assessments assigned to the dependent variable "intelligent use of ICT&S in maritime". Namely, all experts highly agreed with the statement "the ICT&S serve as a connective tissue among tasks, technologies, and employees in your organization", which in fact justify smart exploitation of ICT&S in maritime business. When it comes to ICT&S strategy orientation, the respondents are dominantly *adapters*, while only one of the respondents is *reactor*. The *adaptors* are looking for the third path, while reactors leg behind regarding adopting new ICT&S. Adaptation means that emphasis is on modification rather than fundamental reconfiguring of the existing ICT&S. On the other side, reaction means using weak and obsolescent ICT&S platforms. The reasons behind this orientation should be examined through in-depth interviews with respondents and through further analysis


## **Table 1.**

*The survey content.*

of their business strategies, including the position of the ICT&S in it. This might be the subject of further investigation in the field.

In addition to the analysis of the degree to which ICT&S are used rationally in the maritime business, it was also examined which advanced info-communication platforms are available to the maritime organizations in which the respondents in this study work. The results of this part of the survey are presented in **Table 3**. It is evident that there are efforts to modernize ICT&S in maritime business, but also that some of the analyzed maritime organizations, i.e., countries are lagging behind, especially those that are not members of the EU. Namely, the non-EU countries have to reconsider their business development strategies and ensure funds for implementing new ICT&S and renewal of the existing ones. These countries should follow actual trajectories and scenarios towards efficient and effective digitalization in maritime [17].

Through this case study, it is shown that responders, who are employed in maritime administration and business organizations in four EU and four non-EU countries, have similar attitudes towards concerned constructs inherent to intelligent exploitation of contemporary ICT&S. They all identified knowledge, ICT&S management,

*On Maritime Digitalization in Emerging Environments DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104185*

#### **Table 2.**

*The assessments of the constructs.*

system efficiency, organizational culture and manager's mindset as key perpetuators of rational and purposeful use of the ICT&S. This speaks in favor of their sound education and awareness about the importance of ICT&S in today's dynamic maritime business environment. Regarding ICT&S strategical orientation, the respondents are cautious, i.e., not prone to take risks of investing in new ICT&S solutions and experimenting in the market.

When it comes to the availability of common and advanced ICT&S in analyzed maritime organizations, it is shown that there are big differences among EU and non-EU countries. For instance, maritime organizations in Slovenia have almost all listed ICT&S except blockchain technology, AGVs, digital twins, are UxVs. The companies in Italy have, e.g., digital twins and UxVs. Croatia and Greece have also quite an extensive list of available ICT&S. On another side, explored non-EU countries are modestly equipped. The examination of the reasons for such difference and how it can be alleviated in order to avoid disruptions in maritime ecosystem and negative economic implications for the non-EU countries should be the subject of further, more profound studies. None of the considered maritime entities does have on disposal Blockchain-based Maritime Supply Chain System (BMSCS), e.g. Since BMSCS is the advanced emerging ICT&S platform in contemporary maritime business, the following text attempts to explain the basic principles of this platform, including its benefits and challenges.
