Analysis of Competitive Strategies and Cost Effects in the Digitalization of the Shipping Industry

The digital transformation of the shipping industry presents both strategic opportunities and cost challenges. This study employs a Cournot duopoly model to analyze how digital technology adoption affects freight pricing, market demand, and profit dynamics under varying cost structures. Methodologically, we integrate operational efficiency and carbon reduction effects into a competitive framework—a novel approach that reveals a tripartite prisoner’s dilemma in technology adoption, a phenomenon seldom explored in shipping literature. Our findings indicate that digitalization can lower freight rates when implementation costs are low, but may lead to price increases under high-cost conditions. Strategic asymmetries often result in winner-takes-all outcomes, while bilateral adoption may erode collective profits. For practitioners, this study offers a dynamic decision-making framework to help shipping firms align digital investments with cost-benefit realities and sustainability goals, thereby avoiding suboptimal competitive equilibria.