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Firms aim to achieve time-based competitiveness to reach their target market sooner and better to meet consumers’ changing demands and cater to rapidly changing markets. One efficient approach is t...

This paper analyzes the spatial–temporal evolution of the attractiveness of a country’s gateway for its international trade, using Shanghai as an example. The attractiveness is regressed on the transportation facilities and geographical conditions. Seaport development is found to have a major positive impact, followed by inland waterway, highway, and airport development. These positive impacts decrease with the need for highway haulage and with the distance from Shanghai—showing an inverse U-shape distribution. Rail appears to have a U-shape distribution, implying a low application of multimodal transportation. A geographical pattern for the impacts of different transportation modes is delineated.