Meta-Organizations and Evolution of Corridor Governance. Study of the Dakar-Bamako Logistic-Port Axis ()
1. Introduction
The development of cooperation between organizations is a major challenge for the transport sector, which involves many players in an increasingly constrained economic context.
For several years, transport players, both strategic and operational, have been encouraged to cooperate, pool, group together, and even create frameworks for exchange.
The question of bringing actors together is mandatory for a transport operation to take place. Even if all the actors are aware of the need for good cooperation, many questions persist. The objectives and concrete methods of this cooperation (choice of terms of reference, application of the conclusions of consultation frameworks at national and international level, etc.) are part of long negotiation processes, the outcome of which remains uncertain, especially at the of the West African sub-region. In the end, the forms of organization chosen are very heterogeneous.
Thus, the field of international freight transport is confronted with the emergence of a new type of organization that is larger and more complex than the traditional organizations, constituted on the principle of cooperation and community between several Member States (WAEMU, ECOWAS). The concept of meta-organization is very recent. Ahrne and Brunsson (2005, 2010) use it to name a heterogeneous set made up of organizations whose members are themselves organizations. Dumez (2008) defines the meta-organization as an organization constituted by other organizations, thus distinguishing it from the organization constituted by individuals (WAEMU, ECOWAS, etc.). It should also be specified that meta-organizations can be made up of networks of firms or actors not bound by links of authority based on employment relationships but characterized by an objective at the systemic level. In this direction, the works of Gadille et al. (2013), Ahrne and Brunsson (2010) and Kauffmann (2016) underline the existence of territorialized meta-organization. The literature on meta-organizations is rather focused on the analysis of structural characteristics. This article, from an approach focusing on the evolution of relations between actors within the organization, deals with the consequences of the implementation of meta-organizations on the governance of transport corridors. The impact of these new structures is twofold. On the one hand, the traditional boundaries of the organization are challenged by this process of cooperation. On the other hand, the cooperation process as such causes an increase in uncertainty for the actors (Crozier & Friedberg, 1977). Managing this uncertainty requires thoughtful management of corridor governance adapted to this new context.
In the first part of this article, we present, within the framework of corridor management, the notions of separate organizations which can, in a global organization approach, lead to meta-organizations (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010; Kauffmann, 2016). To illustrate the importance of these meta-organizations in the management of the corridors, we rely, in a second part, on a field study positioning the meta-organization in the field of the post-routing of goods on the logistics-port corridor Dakar-Bamako. The last part is devoted to the cross-analysis of the different organizations intervening on the corridor. It highlights the different elements allowing a gain in efficiency through a holistic approach that meta-organization suggests.
2. Materials and Methods
The empirical corpus of this research was constituted from a longitudinal study carried out with two categories of main actors in the governance of the Dakar-Bamako corridor, namely the sovereign actors (shippers’ councils, infrastructure managers, port authorities, control agents: police, customs, gendarmerie, weighing station, etc.) and user actors (transport auxiliaries, shippers, transport companies). They correspond to different stages in the evolution of cooperation relations and corridor governance.
To study this Dakar-Bamako corridor, we conducted a qualitative study with the collection of primary and secondary data. For the primary data, we collected them from a corpus of 14 interviews in the form of an interview guide. The list of respondents is given in Table 1. During these interviews, we used journalistic techniques such as the use of recorders and note-taking notebooks to gather as much information as possible.
For a good representation of road transport activities and stakeholders on the Dakar-Bamako corridor, we have made a small-scale presentation of the stakeholders. We took a sample of 5 transport companies, 3 of which are of Senegalese nationality and 2 of Malian nationality; to mark the binational character of the corridor. Two of the 5 transport companies are in the informal sector (which is a characteristic of many companies operating on this axis), one company is a logistics integrator (end-to-end transport, i.e. intervening throughout the international transport of goods: pre-routing, main transport and post-routing).
We also had interviews with the heads of the weighing stations in Diamniadio (exit from Dakar). We also spoke with agents from the shippers’ council in Dakar and Bamako, an agent from the port of Dakar, an agent from AGEROUTE (road works and management agency). And with a view to balance, two transport unions gave their opinions on the governance of the corridors.
In the end, the interviews were carried out for a total of 16 hours 27 minutes, or an average of 70.5 minutes per interview.
The corpus of the administered interview guides was made in such a way as to allow the interviewees to have the possibility of explaining themselves very broadly on the questions asked. It is this information that even stabilizes our research, which starts from individual organizations for the need for overall consistency.
In addition, we also had exchanges with control agents (an agent for each dressed body: police, customs and gendarmerie).
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Table 1. Characteristics of targets interviewed.
Source: I. Dia; field surveys.
In addition to the primary data collection techniques laid out above, we also collected secondary data using reports, regulations and treaties from ECOWAS (CEDEAO, 2005), WAEMU (UEMOA, 2001, 2005, 2020), but also elements materializing the bilateral cooperation between Senegal and Mali relating to the port areas specially dedicated to Mali, the tariff advantages, the grace periods, the docking priorities for ships transporting Malian goods, etc. (Tam-Tam du Docker, 2014).
The selection of the structures that were the basis of our qualitative survey was carried out taking into account the international nature of our research theme; Senegal and Mali, but also because the goods imported by Mali are across the Atlantic and the port of Dakar is the ocean gateway.
3. Meta-Organization as a Fundamental Element of Corridor Governance
3.1. From Formal Organizations to a Meta-Organization
In management sciences, the notion of organization generally refers to a group of individuals, members of a regulated structure, having a communication system to facilitate the circulation of information, with the aim of meeting needs and to achieve specific goals. This group of interacting individuals can take the form of a company, a public administration, a trade union, a political party, an association, etc. The profiles of these structures show their natural openness to their environment.
The question of the interactions between an organization and its environment is at the heart of much research in strategic management and has been the subject of several theoretical approaches. In this approach, the organization is not content with constantly adapting to the sometimes contradictory expectations and requirements of its environment. It participates in the action of shaping this environment. Moreover, authors such as Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) describe it by the notions of negotiated environment and created environment. In another study, Koenig (2008) believes that the distinction between the organization and its environment is less and less relevant to explain contemporary organizations. This reflection is extended by Ahrne and Brunsson (2010) who propose the notion of incomplete organization. This concept, according to Leys (2011) has an important heuristic scope because it allows to invoke the existence of organized processes beyond the classical organization.
This theory developed by Ahrne and Brunsson (2010) is based on the idea that completes (formal) or incomplete organizations are not emergent but based on decisions that can always be challenged. The advantage of this definition of organization is that it is broader than the classic definition, thus making it possible to encompass incomplete forms of organization that may exist outside or between formal organizations (Table 2). Also in this study, the complete organization includes five elements, five pillars essential to its functioning: membership, rules, hierarchy, supervision, sanctions. Conversely, an incomplete organization is a little more flexible, and can therefore combine some of these elements but not all of them. Better yet, an incomplete organization is made up of organizations that are themselves legally autonomous (Dumez, 2008).
This notion of incomplete organization refers to the notion of meta-organization. Meta-organizations are created for several reasons. According to Ahrne and Brunsson (2010), this can start from a desire to create a strong
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Table 2. Characteristic analysis of formal organizations and meta-organizations.
Source: I. Dia, (personal surveys) and based on the work of Dumez (2008), Ahrne and Brunsson (2010), Leys (2011).
identity between the members of a project, either from the need to create a collective actor or from the need to regulate the interaction between the members of a group. Gulati et al. (2012) emphasize the existence of a goal to achieve and which the meta-organization helps its members to face.
These objectives are in line with those of the corridors. The main purpose of the corridors is to better serve their hinterlands from the ports upstream of them, by improving the performance of transport, and to facilitate the coordination of the logistics and industrial organizations operating in the territory, and this, in an optimal way (management security of goods and means of transport, at the lowest possible cost and as soon as possible) (Debrie & Comtois, 2010; Lihoussou, 2014; Dia, 2021). Among the parties involved in the delivery of goods through the corridors, and who influence the governance of the corridors, we can cite the road transport companies, the transport unions, which are associations whose objective is to defend the interests of their members, the police, customs, the gendarmerie, shippers’ councils, etc. It should be remembered that the members of a meta-organization have different and completely decompartmentalised governance mechanisms, but which can gradually be homogenized via recommendations and directives from governments or states. This is called “winning combinations”; it is a way of using the leverage effect to gain a new competitive advantage. An example is topical in Senegal following the strike by transport unions. The government of Senegal has proposed joint checkpoints for police, customs and gendarmerie officers to reduce the number of checks on the Dakar-Bamako corridor. And to create avenues for solutions, all the different organizations must necessarily allow mobility from their border to move towards a meta-organization in order to find global solutions.
It thus emerged from the study of the evolution of organizations with circumscribed roles towards this incomplete organization or meta-organization, that the corridors call for a certain openness for their governance.
3.2. Consequences of Meta-Organization on the Governance of Transport Road Corridors
3.2.1. The Evolution of the Corridor Concept
The term corridor began to be used in transport geography since the 1960s and at the time exclusively designated the major transport axes linking large cities and urban centers (Luiz & Paulo, 1996; Lihoussou, 2014). The corridor can also be used to serve the hinterland of a port and to facilitate access to a distant locality or access to a resource (Comtois, 2012).
Over the years, the definition of the corridor has broadened to include the territory that surrounds the axes of transport infrastructure. This dynamism of the transport corridors gives it the possibility of development (Fau, 2019). Comtois (2012) lends him the notion of trade corridor by invoking the flows of goods, people and information, the systems and infrastructures that allow these flows and facilitate them, as well as the policies and laws that regulate the functioning of the corridor. In this definition, the corridor moves away from the simple road to summon the aspect of organization and governance.
Still in this same perspective of movements and stakeholders, Alix and Daudet (2012) see the corridor more as a network of actors coordinated in a territory, focusing particularly on the case of corridors with a port interface, called “corridors logistico-ports”. Transport corridors, since the beginning of their study, have continued to evolve and be analyzed from different angles. Debrie and Comtois (2010) in their analysis, propose a diachronic characterization of the evolution of the concept of corridor mainly in three points starting from the territory and the figure of Kauffmann (2016) supports it well:
· an infrastructural layer: it is a dense network of logistical infrastructures which constitute links carrying the flows generated by the territories which surround it;
· infrastructure by transport and logistics service companies, both technical (transport service provider for example) and organizational (logistics integrators for example);
· a governance structure that steers the corridor on a strategic level.
Drawing inspiration from Figure 1, the corridor appears as a succession of layers, first territorial, then infrastructural, then logistical (transport services and organisations) and finally governance. It is this governance that pilots the corridor on a strategic level, but above all it constitutes the most favorable field of research for the management researcher wishing to adopt the corridor as a field of analysis.
We will reason in this paper on the case of West African logistics-port corridors like Dakar-Bamako, which is an opening to world trade. The actors of this corridor are presented in Table 3.
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Table 3. Actors of a logistics-port corridor.
Source: I. Dia.
The analysis of this table leads us to consider the corridor as an inter-organizational network, which justifies its treatment in management sciences. According to a definition of the FNEGE (“National foundation for the education of business management”, France) “the purpose of management sciences is to shed light on the action carried out collectively by organized human groups, companies, organizations, administrations, etc. It is also important to justify the inter-organizational nature of the logistics-port corridor to propose a review of the literature in order to show why the corridor would be closer to meta-organization than other concepts such as the district (Becatini, 1979) and the business ecosystem (Torrès-Blay, 2000).
All these structures are considered as organizations with a system of governance, targeted objectives and constituent actors (Mintzberg, 1998). The mode of governance of a structure can be defined in relation to its leadership, but can also be defined through the way in which its institutional capital accumulates (Garrabé, 2008). Like any organization, the corridor, which can be assimilated to a network, aims to develop a network and reduce transport costs. As for the constituent actors, it is important to measure their autonomy and the public or private nature of its members.
It is important in this part to analyze the main forms of network (named above) and to determine which is best suited to qualify a corridor.
· The business ecosystem is a relatively recent type of network (Moore, 1993) inspired by ecological ecosystems. It starts from simple elements to form a structured community. According to Torrès-Blay (2000) it is a coalition of companies structured in a network around a leader in order to enable him to achieve his objectives. It is also important to note that the actors of a business ecosystem can be dispersed in very distant territories (Gueguen et al. 2004; Koenig, 2012) contrary to the case of a logistics-port corridor.
· If we rely on the definition of Daumas (2007) which corroborates the studies of Zeitlin (1992), the district according to him is an agglomeration of specialized SMEs, linked together by relations of competition, located on a territory organized around a small town. It is therefore obvious that a problem of scale excludes the corridor and prevents it from being established within the framework of a district. Not to mention that the corridor brings into play a set of very heterogeneous public and private organizations both in terms of size and sector of activity. In addition, the district is not a place of passage whose logistics are the backbone, unlike the corridor.
· The members of a meta-organization are organizations that can be companies as well as states, associations or agencies for example (Dumez, 2008; Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010). They can also be inter-organizational networks (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010), which brings it very close to a corridor, which is nothing more than a set of networks housing nodes (port areas, logistics clusters, etc.). It should also be noted that, while the members of a meta-organization may differ with respect to their size, field of activity or culture, the governance mechanisms of the meta-organization tend to gradually homogenize them, particularly with regard to concerns their modes and processes of operation via recommendations, directives, etc. which constitute a discussed governance or of the “soft law” type (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010). This type of governance, ensured by a governance structure at the scale of the network, which cannot be a focal firm. From this point of view, there are similarities between corridors and meta-organizations. Indeed, the actors are very diverse (Table 3) and the governance actions tend to involve all the actors in order to put in place “buffer” decisions for the smooth running of the corridor.
3.2.2. Corridor Governance
The establishment of transport corridors requires teamwork based on cooperative decision-making processes in order to implement and manage an efficient transport system both nationally and internationally. Transnational transport corridors are typical examples of such shared efforts and cooperative decision-making processes, as smooth transport operations in one country should not be slowed down in other countries due to poor quality infrastructure. or management. In addition, relevant public agencies should work together with stakeholders to achieve harmonization of standards and regulations, with the aim of improving the overall performance of transport corridors, knowing that the most important performance and yield indicator common would be the reduction of the overall costs and the duration of the post-routings. On the other hand, achieving effective governance of multinational transport corridors requires intense preparations and strong coordination efforts. Partner countries should not only recognize the need to work together, collaborate and cooperate, but also to engage and pool their resources, if the situation demands it, because the transport corridor constitutes a political, economic and development (Priemus & Zonneveld, 2003). In order to solve such problems, the partners of the transnational transport corridors, coming from different jurisdictions, use various tools such as the signing of bilateral/multilateral agreements, the establishment of joint committees and groups for the exchange of experts or senior management, and the establishment of dedicated secretariats and other executive bodies such as boards of directors/management to lead transnational transport corridors (Debrie & Comtois, 2010). This could help achieve an effective and well-functioning governance structure. However, despite these cooperation efforts, the corridors still live under the yoke of defenses of local interests. The literature demonstrates how these local interests can arise from jurisdictional issues affecting the functioning of corridors in technical terms (Eriksen & Casavant, 1996), load breaks (Konings & Ludema, 2000), cross-border movements (N’guessan, 2003) safety, types of products transported, and cabotage (Lakshmanan & Anderson, 1999). The governance of a corridor in a context of growth of activities is based on a form of coordination between each territorial component of a corridor. The hybrid character of the corridors means that an appropriate governance framework must be developed in collaboration with a multitude of actors.
3.3. From the Convergence of the Objectives of the Actors of the Dakar-Bamako Logistics-Port Corridor towards a Meta-Organization: A Field Study
We are now going to present two categories of actors which make it possible to highlight the different managerial issues related to the constitution of a meta-organization in the context of the transport of goods on a transport corridor. These two categories of actors have essential roles in the realization of the transport of goods on the corridor, but also are sufficiently opposed in their position to allow us to demonstrate, through the analysis which will follow, the specificities of the meta-organizations taking into account their paradoxical dynamics.
3.3.1. The Sovereign Actors
The State, through its public services and quasi-State agencies, is responsible for exercising its sovereign functions on behalf of user actors in the context of the maintenance and financing of transport infrastructure, the regulation of transport and its application (safety for people and transported goods).
The post-routing of goods on a logistics-port corridor necessarily starts with the port. In the case of the port of Dakar, it is an autonomous port, that is to say a public company which is responsible for the management of a port area, endowed with a legal personality and benefiting from an autonomy of management vis-à-vis its supervision. In the case of the Autonomous Port of Dakar, it is the State of Senegal which is responsible for the port facilities which are entrusted to a general management. It can operate the tools and terminals itself or concession them to private port operators.
Beyond the port, other sovereign actors are assigned to traffic control on the corridor. These structures are generally made up of three orders, namely the police, customs and the gendarmerie, and each according to very specific specifications.
The protective role is a characteristic feature of the sovereignty of a State: this role is exercised in circulation within the country through routine checks by the police, the gendarmerie, water and forest agents and customs. The latter, namely customs, is exercised at the borders in military terms. But international trade is essential for the development of the country and it is necessary to find an organization capable of regulating while protecting. To do this, one of the first missions of a State is to set up an administration at the borders of its territory in order to:
· to tax goods on import (or export when possible),
· to prohibit the entry of prohibited goods (example: drugs) and,
· to check whether the various laws and regulations applicable to these goods are respected (standards) to protect its territory and its citizen-consumers. This mission is, in general, fulfilled by a specific administration placed in priority at the borders of the State: the customs. In reality and in practice, the role of customs at the border is threefold: first, it is fiscal because most often attached to the Ministry of the Budget, customs collects the duties and taxes due. Next, customs has an economic role. It monitors commercial flows by ensuring fluidity, security and quality in accordance with business needs. For example, the transit in suspension of duties and taxes of goods from one point of the territory to another, or even to a foreign country ensures the fluidity of port traffic and energizes the transport corridors. Finally, customs has a mission to protect the territorial space in order to protect its inhabitants, its consumers and the country from dangers and abuses.
In addition to state services, shippers’ councils, chambers of commerce, axle tax audit agencies and some trade associations are important groups of quasi-state actors.
Contrary to what their name suggests, the shippers’ councils are not professional organizations of shippers but bodies under the ministries of transport. West African Shippers’ Councils collect information on shipments and issue Cargo Tracking Notes (covering sea transport and also inland transport). As for the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, they are traditionally the national guarantors of the road transit guarantee scheme and collect taxes on goods in transit. But for these administrative phases to take place, the road infrastructure must be available and able to receive traffic. In this context, agencies that generally depend on the ministries that are in charge of road management watch over them. In Senegal and Mali, they are respectively AGEROUTE and AGETIER. Their role is to implement all construction, rehabilitation and maintenance works for roads, bridges and other engineering structures. Finally, to secure these roads in accordance with ECOWAS and WAEMU directives, weighing stations are installed to ensure the control of the gauge and the weight of the axle load of the trucks. The presence of these control instruments on this corridor leads carriers not to indulge in overloading, to preserve the state of the track, to maintain the rationality of freight management and to reduce accidents. This constitutes a gain for all carriers and for the State and facilitates control on the road.
3.3.2. User Actors
User actors in the road transport sector in West Africa are categorized between those who respect the legal and regulatory provisions (the formal sector) and those who do not. The user actors who intervene directly in the sector are shippers, freight forwarders, transport brokers (called coxeurs), transporters and truck drivers, as well as their respective professional associations.
The intermediation between transport demand (from shippers or their agents who are forwarding agents) and supply (by trucking companies) is devolved to transport brokers known in West Africa under the name of “coxeurs”. They are deemed to have predatory practices and are only bound to the carrier by a verbal agreement. They develop their influence by maintaining a network of carriers, shippers or freight forwarders. Thanks to them, they are informed about transport needs (loads, destinations) which allows them to mesh their network.
The management model for road transport services that takes place in West Africa, particularly on the Dakar-Bamako corridor, adapts to the category of operator. Import/export companies provide transport services to shippers and include both very small operators (one man-one truck) and companies. Small-scale operators most often lack training in logistics and transport management and operate older vehicles using traditional management practices that rely on extended family ties. This category does not dwell on administrative management by keeping records, including financial, tends to exceed authorized axle loads, and are often complicit with officials in charge of control on the road who tolerate these operations. On the other hand, road transport companies use more modern technology and newer vehicles in good condition. Small truckers would represent up to 90% of the international trucking industry in the region (Zerelli & Cook, 2010).
Road transport is a profession with a very high rate of unionization but whose representation is very fragmented. However, the objectives that the two major unions on the side of Senegal (USTR) and Mali (SYNACOR) share are to clean up traffic on the Dakar Bamako corridor. It is clear that the road transport of goods is characterized by a set of dysfunctions such as:
· the predominance of craft businesses and the informal sector
· automation of the transport offer Inadequate quality assurance
· the dilapidation of the large aircraft fleet, the average age of which exceeds 20 years.
It should be noted, among other things, certain difficulties at the level of infrastructures which are not of quality, which have a negative impact on the fluidity of traffic and a multiplicity of checkpoints and road harassment. It should also be noted that there is a lack of awareness, monitoring and evaluation for the implementation of the various regional transport facilitation and road governance projects before the implementation phase (WAEMU Regulation 14, center of technical visits).
The objective of all these structures studied above is to carry out actions in the direction of the effectiveness of the post-routing of goods on the corridor (control, governance, organization of transport, etc.). The transport corridors have several actors (regulators and users) and each makes available to the common project which is to carry out a post-transportation operation, part of its human, financial and material resources. And this common desire to build new solutions by overcoming established divisions opens the doors to a meta-organization for better governance of the Dakar-Bamako logistics-port corridor.
4. Cross-Cutting Analysis of Results
After an analysis of the various organizations involved in post-routing on the Dakar-Bamako logistics-port corridor, it appears that each has its field of intervention but whose success is closely linked to collaborations with the various actors in the corridor. Thus, the decisions taken for the success of the operations are created between the rules fixed in relation to the orientation of the company and the framework of the real activity.
One of the major challenges of this type of framework is to get players from different worlds to work together (e.g. control services and transport companies). The objective of the governance of the logistics-port corridor will be to create a meta-organization in which all the members are totally committed, and this around a culture of efficiency in the services deployed in an optimization of time and resources. In other words, ensure that the success of the meta-organization has the same importance as our own organization.
The development of this feeling of belonging will be reinforced with the implementation of a global management system which will be the cultural vector of the organizations of origin. This type of organization will be characterized by its strong ability to challenge the boundaries initially established. It will invent its operating model.
During our discussions with the head of the USTR union (Senegal) on the importance of setting up a meta-organization and the various management constraints that will result from it (work framework, in particular working hours and the governance of the meta-organization), he pointed out to me that for this to be effective, it would all have to be done in the most perfect harmony without neglecting the importance of each stakeholder.
However, in the world there are different economic communities for the development of which, transport corridors facilitating exchanges are being created: the harmonization of transport and logistics services at the regional level, to create a regional freight market, and the integration customs. In West Africa, two main regional bodies provide the institutional frameworks for regional cooperation and integration—ECOWAS and WAEMU. Each aims to strengthen trade integration and policy coordination among their member states. WAEMU has made greater progress towards economic integration as a customs and monetary union, while ECOWAS has shown greater strength in coordinating regional policies in areas such as security and infrastructure. Despite the missions assigned to them, the reality of the corridors, in particular that of Dakar-Bamako, puts us face to face with structural problems of governance, which further justifies the need to create a meta-organization that would federate all energies and would engage the responsibility of all for a common goal.
This meta-organization will acquire its legitimacy through its ability to overcome the traditional oppositions between organizations. It brings together different organizations and creates synergies, modes of collaboration between actors from different backgrounds. A meta-organization must create a bubbling and adversities of ideas and professional practices that allow each actor to enrich themselves through confrontation with other actors responding to a different system of rules.
In terms of governance, it will be necessary to lighten certain practices to bring everyone up to speed through information, support and openness in order to mitigate the shocks that could be created between actors.
Considering the corridor as a network, and more particularly as a meta-organization that unfolds over a territory, allows the researcher to understand the corridors through management sciences and to analyze their governance, which is increasingly networked. This first raises the issue of decision-making, strategic task assignment and conflict resolution/sanctions mechanisms. This naturally stems from the theme of managing the authority of the meta-organization over its members, but especially over its characterization (Gulati et al., 2012). According to Kauffmann (2014), an authority can have charismatic legitimacy, traditional legitimacy or legal legitimacy. Extensive work on this question of authority would make it possible to better understand how corridor actors (especially user actors) perceive the authority of governance institutions, which could help to understand the sources of inter-organizational conflicts.
In addition, one can ask the question of what is the role of the actors in the governance of the corridors as well as the roles of the institutions set up in the corridors as tools of governance. As observed on the ground, the presence of institutions such as WAEMU and ECOWAS is not always a success factor. According to Garrabé (2008) it can even become counter-productive.
In addition, is the evolution of corridors towards increasingly institutionalized meta-organizations a sign of better coordination of actors or, on the contrary, is it a sign of an inability of members to coordinate themselves? In order to adapt to changing economic, social, technical and legal contexts, be that as it may, the Dakar-Bamako logistics-port corridor through its major sovereign members (States of Mali and Senegal which instruct their control agents) are trying to set up standardization mechanisms (example: development of one-stop shops).
The link between the corridor and its various constituent members (organizations) and the notion of meta-organization that characterizes it is still a new element in management sciences. Gaps currently seem to exist in the literature on mobility in general (Albert-Cromaria & Bourlier-Bargues, 2021) but also in the study of corridor governance. Detailed studies on the meta-organizations will make it possible to measure the impacts on the members of the corridor, the way in which they experience certain decisions that they are forced to respect and the degree of freedom they have vis-à-vis these mechanisms.
Finally, it would be interesting to conduct research on quality management within logistics-port corridors. But above all, make it a reticular study including all the actors within the framework of a meta-organization. This is still a point for which there is not yet a lot of scientific production, which makes this field of research interesting.
5. Conclusion
Carrying out a study on the concept of logistics-port corridor allowed us to verify the possibility of considering corridors as inter-organizational networks. The basis of this analysis is a comparison of the genesis, purpose, stability, space and governance of two types of inter-organizational networks compared to the meta-organization in order to justify that the corridor is a meta-organization whose different members are deployed in a well-defined territory. However, taking into account meta-organizations seems essential for us to understand the issues that cross this mobility sector in general and particularly the corridor, particularly in its governance. Does this new organizational model bear witness to lasting change? We can think that gradually installing a meta-organizational approach in the Dakar-Bamako corridor could gradually lead the actors to change their logic and to favor simpler and more reactive modes of organization, the identity issue, observed everywhere among actors (regular as well as users) then becoming secondary.
At the end of this study, we come to the conclusion that the traditional benchmarks no longer allow us to understand the complex evolution of organizations in the field of the service of goods by the logistics-port corridors today. The solution is meta-organization. But setting up a meta-organization on the Dakar-Bamako logistics-port corridor will prove difficult due to the lack of commitment of certain sovereign actors (Dia, 2020) and sometimes conflicting relations that can oppose the members. For example, transport unions which oppose control agents (police, customs, gendarmerie), port service providers to the port authority, etc.
In addition, this work has made it possible to define a series of theoretical and managerial challenges conducive to the study of the corridor considered as a meta-organization, particularly with regard to governance and its processes, its functioning, its impact on the behavior of its members but also how it could be boosted if the notion of meta-organization is applied to it. Among these challenges, opportunities to complement existing work on the corridors, particularly in terms of competitive advantage, were highlighted. This article also allowed us to deal with the issue of meta-organizations in a public and private sector of activity in the field of road post-routing on a corridor. Our point of view, centered on governance and the position of members as stakeholders in the organization of traffic, is part of a search for a contribution to the emergence of documentation on corridors from the perspective of management sciences whose objective is to study the acts carried out by human groups organized through structures, organizations, etc. This is what it is about in a logistics-port corridor. Furthermore, it seems appropriate for us to develop these results through a sector widening. Indeed, other sectors of activity relating to public policies but also to private projects are subject to dynamics of collaboration, as is the case, for example, in the field of international trade (import and export) but also in the case of logistics in general, particularly in atypical logistics such as humanitarian or hospital logistics.