Dr. Helen A. Thanopoulou is Professor in Operations Management of Shipping Companies at the Department of Maritime Studies, University of the Aegean where she has served as Head of Department (2014-2016) and Vice-Rector of Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance of the University (2017-2018). An Honorary Visiting Professor (2018-2024) of Bayes Business School, City, University of London, Dr. Thanopoulou has taught at the University of Piraeus, and then as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University (1995-2003) serving there as Chair of the Academic Assembly, Director of shipping related MSc schemes etc. She has taught/lectured in various guest capacities across Universities in Greece, the UK, S.Korea and China and has published in maritime economics, shipping investment and ports. She has been/is reviewer, Guest Editor and/or Editorial Board member for/of international journals, evaluator of research and educational programs in Europe and senior researcher in a number of national and EU projects.
The analysis of the 2002 Prestige tanker accident showed how public misinformation can worsen mar... more The analysis of the 2002 Prestige tanker accident showed how public misinformation can worsen marine pollution incidents, rendering their management suboptimal as these evolve, thus raising the issue of appropriately informing and educating coastal and island populations who are at risk. Two decades later, developments in electronic platforms, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for ship signal transmission, and social media, provide a set of means for public monitoring of such incidents, creating the possibility to antagonise effectively erroneous or malevolent information, which can hinder efficient actions for containing marine pollution risks even without active training of the populations concerned. The authors, in the framework of the development of the Marine Coastal Observatory and Risk Management project “AEGIS+”, have developed E-S.A.V.E., an online innovative platform that (a) meets the needs of different users as reve...
World Transport Research. Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Transport ResearchWorld Conference on Transport Research Society, 1996
Traditionally Greek shipowners are believed to move in the sale and purchase market opposite to t... more Traditionally Greek shipowners are believed to move in the sale and purchase market opposite to the state of the respective freight markets. This paper relates such a pattern of investment, among other factors, to the increased resilience of Greek shipowners to the last major shipping crisis and to the considerable improvement of the share of the Greek-owned fleet in world shipping after the revival of the markets.
The paper explores the importance of sustainability from the perspective of prospective employers... more The paper explores the importance of sustainability from the perspective of prospective employers of future and existing Maritime Education and Training (MET) graduates. More specifically, it investigates employers’ views on the incorporation of sustainability into MET provision. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey that addresses the concept of sustainability – among other emerging trends - from the angle of maritime education and training was distributed to European shipowning companies in the context of related EU funded research (SkillSea). A total of 23 responses were received but, albeit the relatively small sample, the findings suggest clearly that there is a significant gap between the skills presently acquired through MET. They also reveal the need for METs to develop a strategy aiming at a more comprehensive inclusion of the mega-trend of sustainability as a subject into the curricula of the various types of MET institutions. This paper contributes to the literature by...
The presentation focuses on the establishment of a new thematic library network in Greece encompa... more The presentation focuses on the establishment of a new thematic library network in Greece encompassing the majority of organized maritime orientated collections within special and/or University libraries: The Maritime Libraries Network (MarLiNet). The Network originated from the initial cooperation of three libraries with significant maritime collections, namely those of the Eugenides Foundation Library, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library and the Library of the University of the Aegean about a decade ago. The interest of the three institutions to cooperate on the maritime transport collections resulted in the signing, in 2010, of a first Memorandum of cooperation and in the establishment of the “Triangle of Maritime Libraries” with the written intent for it to become one day a “Polygon”. Today, the network consists of 8 libraries1. Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation2. Eugenides Foundation3. Hellenic Maritime Museum4. Hellenic Naval Academy5. National Technical University of ...
The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and a... more The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and analyse transhipment port selection by global carriers. Forty seven relevant service attributes were recorded from a literature review. Two rounds of Delphi surveys – followed by brainstorming sessions – were conducted among experts in industry and academia, in order to narrow their number to four main service attributes/criteria comprising 12 sub-criteria. An AHP designed questionnaire survey was distributed to 20 port users which covered the total population of global ocean container operators and to 20 transhipment service providers (port operators/ authorities). The results of the AHP analysis revealed that both global container carriers and port service providers had a similar perception of the most important service attributes for transhipment port-selection. However, the AHP weight ranking of the sub-criteria involved was not identical between the two surveys providing scope for further adaptation of service providers to users’ priorities. Differences in the performance ranking of six major container ports by global carriers, as revealed in the AHP survey, were then combined with the calculated weights for the 12 transhipment port selection subcriteria to explore critical attributes where transhipment market strategy could focus. 14 of AHP on
Research in transportation business and management, Dec 1, 2015
The paper explores mid and long-term scenarios of energy trends and relative energy price reversa... more The paper explores mid and long-term scenarios of energy trends and relative energy price reversals and their impact on the configuration and potential volume developments of fossil fuel seaborne trades. International fora have called for removing fossil fuels from the place of major primary energy sources by the end of this century. This, along with the development of fracking projects for oil and gas, located closer to consumers than most alternative fossil fuel sources, and geopolitical considerations, adds to a cluster of potential negative influences on future traded volumes of fossil fuels. While demographics and GDP growth still favour the growth of energy consumption, the rise of shale oil and gas and of renewables may challenge the direction of the trend, due also to the declared will of the international community to limit energy dependence on geopolitically sensitive areas. Yet, recent price upheavals have underlined that any positive or negative developments are unlikely to evolve in a linear way. Short-term reversals are secondary, however, in relation to long-term trends. The authors focus on the potential impact on the demand for transport of energy of changes in relative energy export prices and in the priorities of main importers.
The analysis of the 2002 Prestige tanker accident showed how public misinformation can worsen mar... more The analysis of the 2002 Prestige tanker accident showed how public misinformation can worsen marine pollution incidents, rendering their management suboptimal as these evolve, thus raising the issue of appropriately informing and educating coastal and island populations who are at risk. Two decades later, developments in electronic platforms, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for ship signal transmission, and social media, provide a set of means for public monitoring of such incidents, creating the possibility to antagonise effectively erroneous or malevolent information, which can hinder efficient actions for containing marine pollution risks even without active training of the populations concerned. The authors, in the framework of the development of the Marine Coastal Observatory and Risk Management project “AEGIS+”, have developed E-S.A.V.E., an online innovative platform that (a) meets the needs of different users as reve...
World Transport Research. Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Transport ResearchWorld Conference on Transport Research Society, 1996
Traditionally Greek shipowners are believed to move in the sale and purchase market opposite to t... more Traditionally Greek shipowners are believed to move in the sale and purchase market opposite to the state of the respective freight markets. This paper relates such a pattern of investment, among other factors, to the increased resilience of Greek shipowners to the last major shipping crisis and to the considerable improvement of the share of the Greek-owned fleet in world shipping after the revival of the markets.
The paper explores the importance of sustainability from the perspective of prospective employers... more The paper explores the importance of sustainability from the perspective of prospective employers of future and existing Maritime Education and Training (MET) graduates. More specifically, it investigates employers’ views on the incorporation of sustainability into MET provision. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey that addresses the concept of sustainability – among other emerging trends - from the angle of maritime education and training was distributed to European shipowning companies in the context of related EU funded research (SkillSea). A total of 23 responses were received but, albeit the relatively small sample, the findings suggest clearly that there is a significant gap between the skills presently acquired through MET. They also reveal the need for METs to develop a strategy aiming at a more comprehensive inclusion of the mega-trend of sustainability as a subject into the curricula of the various types of MET institutions. This paper contributes to the literature by...
The presentation focuses on the establishment of a new thematic library network in Greece encompa... more The presentation focuses on the establishment of a new thematic library network in Greece encompassing the majority of organized maritime orientated collections within special and/or University libraries: The Maritime Libraries Network (MarLiNet). The Network originated from the initial cooperation of three libraries with significant maritime collections, namely those of the Eugenides Foundation Library, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Library and the Library of the University of the Aegean about a decade ago. The interest of the three institutions to cooperate on the maritime transport collections resulted in the signing, in 2010, of a first Memorandum of cooperation and in the establishment of the “Triangle of Maritime Libraries” with the written intent for it to become one day a “Polygon”. Today, the network consists of 8 libraries1. Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation2. Eugenides Foundation3. Hellenic Maritime Museum4. Hellenic Naval Academy5. National Technical University of ...
The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and a... more The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and analyse transhipment port selection by global carriers. Forty seven relevant service attributes were recorded from a literature review. Two rounds of Delphi surveys – followed by brainstorming sessions – were conducted among experts in industry and academia, in order to narrow their number to four main service attributes/criteria comprising 12 sub-criteria. An AHP designed questionnaire survey was distributed to 20 port users which covered the total population of global ocean container operators and to 20 transhipment service providers (port operators/ authorities). The results of the AHP analysis revealed that both global container carriers and port service providers had a similar perception of the most important service attributes for transhipment port-selection. However, the AHP weight ranking of the sub-criteria involved was not identical between the two surveys providing scope for further adaptation of service providers to users’ priorities. Differences in the performance ranking of six major container ports by global carriers, as revealed in the AHP survey, were then combined with the calculated weights for the 12 transhipment port selection subcriteria to explore critical attributes where transhipment market strategy could focus. 14 of AHP on
Research in transportation business and management, Dec 1, 2015
The paper explores mid and long-term scenarios of energy trends and relative energy price reversa... more The paper explores mid and long-term scenarios of energy trends and relative energy price reversals and their impact on the configuration and potential volume developments of fossil fuel seaborne trades. International fora have called for removing fossil fuels from the place of major primary energy sources by the end of this century. This, along with the development of fracking projects for oil and gas, located closer to consumers than most alternative fossil fuel sources, and geopolitical considerations, adds to a cluster of potential negative influences on future traded volumes of fossil fuels. While demographics and GDP growth still favour the growth of energy consumption, the rise of shale oil and gas and of renewables may challenge the direction of the trend, due also to the declared will of the international community to limit energy dependence on geopolitically sensitive areas. Yet, recent price upheavals have underlined that any positive or negative developments are unlikely to evolve in a linear way. Short-term reversals are secondary, however, in relation to long-term trends. The authors focus on the potential impact on the demand for transport of energy of changes in relative energy export prices and in the priorities of main importers.
The authors analyse the prospects for the typical small family-owned Greek shipping company amids... more The authors analyse the prospects for the typical small family-owned Greek shipping company amidst the current transformation of the shipping industry using a SWOT analysis. Greek-owned shipping thrived benefiting largely from comparatively lower sums of capital initially laid; a significant number of acquired ships were eventually resold as shipping cycles created such opportunities strengthening further its profitability and thus its resilience in the context of a cyclical market. Small firms have constituted the main mass of Greek shipping companies. The management of these opportunistically behaving firms remained essentially in the hands of family; successful investment and managerial techniques were thus propagated within the closed family circle. The new environment in shipping seems at a first level to challenge all competitive traits of small family firms while the very basic Greek recipe for competitiveness itself might be in question; in literature, even the prospect of survival of asset-players in the new context has been seriously doubted. The authors claim that while the turn of century has marked an equally turning point for the organisation of shipping activities showing the limits of this form of shipping firm, the increased flexibility and close personal ties among key managers and personnel of these small scale organisations may at the same time prove the means for the survival of the typical small Greek shipping company in the 21st century.
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Papers by Helen Thanopoulou