Is Augmented Reality the New Blue for Port Industry?

In today’s global world, firms notice the importance of designing and coordinating supply chains and distribution networks; while competing and surviving in harsh market conditions (Sengupta et al., 2006). To survive from intense competition, firms can choose blue ocean strategy. Blue ocean strategy mainly refers to creation of a new, uncontested market space -with the help of innovationthat makes competitors irrelevant and creates new customer value while generally decreasing costs (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005a). Ports must have a route that will differentiate themselves in order to adopt blue ocean strategy. Moreover, ports should use this tool in operations to differentiate themselves. One of the concepts that Industry 4.0 adds to our lives is Augmented Reality (AR) and it can act as a differentiating tool for port businesses in terms of services, processes, marketing communications, service delivery systems and pricing as well. The main aim of this paper is to provide an insight regarding the Augmented Reality concept in port business and discuss how such applications can serve in building blue ocean marketing strategies.