Transport research under Belt and Road Initiative: current trends and future research agenda

Abstract

A substantial amount of transportation research has been gathered under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), suggesting multi-dimensional impacts of the BRI on the transportation industry. This study identifies research trends in the BRI to elicit key agendas for future research by comprehensively reviewing 58 journal articles and applying combined methods of inductive content analysis and co-occurrence network analysis. Findings indicate that the BRI positively impacts the transportation industry by (1) building logistics capacity (2) strengthening connectivity of transportation network (3) diversifying shipping routes of oil transportation (thus enhancing energy security) (4) promoting intermodal transportation. A unified framework and four observations are presented, illustrating strategic risks and operational challenges associated with the BRI. Principal research agendas and questions are proposed, directing future research towards reconfiguration of transportation networks and healthy competition in transportation service standards.