Smart ports as governance infrastructures for social and environmental accountability in the sustainable blue economy

Abstract

Digital transformation is increasingly reshaping maritime transport and port systems, yet its implications for sustainable blue economy governance remain insufficiently theorised. This paper develops the Visibility to Accountability Framework for Smart Port Governance (VAF), an integrative conceptual framework that explains how smart ports can function not only as digital logistics infrastructures but also as governance infrastructures that make maritime flows visible, measurable, traceable, and accountable. Using theory synthesis and framework development, the paper integrates research on smart ports and port digitalisation; socio-technical systems; port governance; collaborative and network governance; environmental and ocean governance; data governance; and socio-environmental accountability. It argues that technologies such as port community systems, digital twins, artificial intelligence, blockchain-enabled traceability, sensor networks, and emissions-monitoring platforms can support sustainable blue economy objectives by improving visibility, reducing information asymmetries, enabling environmental monitoring, and strengthening coordination among port actors. However, digitalisation does not automatically produce sustainability benefits. Without appropriate governance arrangements, digital port systems may reinforce throughput-oriented optimisation, data concentration, exclusion of smaller actors, cyber vulnerability, and weak accountability for environmental and social externalities. The VAF specifies how digital observability can be converted into socio-environmental accountability through coordination, translation, verification, and responsibility mechanisms. The contribution is an integrative framework linking digital technologies, governance mechanisms, failure pathways, and sustainable blue economy outcomes, offering propositions for future empirical research and implications for port authorities, policymakers, and maritime supply chain actors.