One Belt one Road, but Several Routes: A Case Study of New Emerging Trade Corridors Connecting the Far East to Europe

Under the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, two new emerging trade corridors connecting the Far East to Europe have been built. One is the China-Europe Sea-Land Express Line (CESEL) and the other is the New Eurasian Land Bridge (NELB). This paper aims to understand the attitude of relevant stakeholders towards the performance of the Traditional Sea-Land Line (TSLL) alongside the two emerging container routes under the B&R initiative. To achieve this objective, we first of all built a performance evaluation system to understand the relative performance of these trade routes. A questionnaire survey was carried out to reveal the differing views on route performance, and Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was then used to examine and interpret the survey data. Secondly, by dividing the interviewees into two groups, we examined whether the government’s development priorities are at variance with the preferences of industry practitioners. Thirdly, we explored the reasons for the variance by conducting an intensive interview with ten key stakeholders and then explain the findings from the perspective of institutional theories. Finally, we addressed the uncertainty and dynamics of route development under three different scenarios. Several managerial implications are proposed on the basis of our findings.