The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 6

THEMARITIME Economist Editorial Maritime Empathy: ME How can we integrate academic and business excellence? Okan Duru, Editor-in-Chief [email protected] Scholars and business professionals as well as policy makers have at times different motivations and different working environments. The compensation and promotion mechanisms work differently. Professionals need rapid solutions in the dynamic business environment, and performance evaluation is often based on short-term results. On the other hand, scholars tend to a long time to take a step further in an emerging topic. There is an explicit time-lag between necessities of professional and academic setting. Scholarly knowledge does not always improve the present state of intellectual knowledge and products in the maritime industry. Some may shed light on an issue far from today’s concern. Public interest, social responsibility and development are some priorities of policy makers which may collide with interests of corporates. ME Mag There are also some differences on representation of knowledge, motivational factors etc. However, all have their own unique environment and excellence. The Maritime Economist (ME Mag) may help to merge these unique perspectives. 6 I usually refer to the ‘ciliary muscle’ metaphor for illustrating the zoom in-zoom out skill. Ciliary muscle is located on our eyes, and it manages our eye lenses for different horizons. Our visual system is capable of recognizing different horizons without changing lenses with these muscles. Eye itself is capable of focusing on a single point as well as looking to a big picture. The emergence of ME Mag lies on the rationale behind our visual system: Eliminating ignorance, having a holistic perspective, survive in different conditions and keeping resilient under the dynamic environment. An integration of academic and professional perspectives and building a strong empathy between both sides may create powerful and durable solutions to problems in the shipping business. There are many examples of well performing integration of scholarly institutions and shipping firms. ME Mag may develop new ways of integrations while increasing awareness of the industry. Current Debates as Start-up Motives It has been more than seven years after the last global crisis with a historical peak and then a historical collapse of shipping markets. There are several lessons learnt with this disappointing experience. There are several reasons and several interpretations behind it. However, it is clear that we need to spend much more time on finding behavioral and institutional drivers. “ While researchers focus on the “impact factor” that measures the frequency with which they are being quoted in academic journals, they may forget that they may have a larger real impact if their research findings were actually read, understood and used by industry and policy makers. Marine technology offers new solutions at a fantastic speed. Mankind spent a century to shift between sail ships and steam ships or wooden ships and steel hull. However, shipping innovations in the last century are great! Speed of business and technology turned to be a critical challenge for corporate governance. Today’s executives need to be rapid decision makers with dynamic personalities. Above mentioned circumstances are some examples of what will define the future of the maritime industry and why we will need scholarly knowledge much more than the last few centuries. The initial motives of ME Mag have emerged in this multifaceted and complicated environment. ME Mag aims at improving the link between p eople while promoting pluralism and collaboration. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my colleagues at the Editorial Board of ME Mag (all are volunteers!) for their efforts to create the first issue. We are also thankful to our Art & Design Director as well as PR & Media Directors. ME Mag is a promising output of the team. researchers focus on the “impact factor” that measures the frequency with which they are being quoted in academic journals,