Strategic investment in enhancing port–hinterland container transportation network resilience: A network game theory approach

•Quantitatively investigates the port–hinterland container transportation network resilience against man-made unconventional emergency events.•Propose to enhance resilience by strategic investment in vulnerability reduction.•Adopt the network game theory to model the complex business relationships among players.•Provide managerial insights on resilience improvement through theoretical discussions and numerical experiments. China's “Belt and Road” strategy emphasizes the significance of maritime logistics. To ensure the efficiency and safety of landside maritime logistics, this study aims to investigate the strategic investment of players in a port–hinterland container transportation network to enhance network resilience to man-made unconventional emergency events by reducing vulnerability. Given the complexity of the involvement of multiple players and their interacting complementary and competitive business relationships, network game theory is adopted. Results show that the complementary influence Bonacich centrality of players plays a critical role in determining their investment decisions and serves as basis from which useful managerial insights can be derived.