Service quality and non-salary mechanism for airline companies in Taiwan

Based on the affective events theory (AET), this study demonstrates how family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) and psychological detachment predict strain symptoms (the need for recovery and emotional exhaustion) and how the strain symptoms influence service quality. With data collected by convenience sampling from 206 airline employees, our results show that FSOP negatively influence strain symptoms, while psychological detachment mediates the relation between FSOP and the need for recovery. Although the need for recovery has no significant relation with service quality, emotional exhaustion does have a significantly negative association with service quality. Our contributions are more comprehensive for the literature on human resources, organizational behavior, and airline transportation. Moreover, based on the theory, our research fills the gap between FSOP and service quality by adding the strain symptoms as important mediation variables. The results can also be put to practical use on employment policies, such as retaining excellent employees in an organization and increasing an organization's competition advantages. The results may also apply to human resource management (HRM) and present that improvement in service quality is the most important competitive ability for the airline industry.     

The effect of code-sharing alliances on airline profitability

Code sharing and global alliances both have been increasingly adopted by airlines worldwide in recent years. A growing number of airlines, therefore, are embedded in networks of multilateral “coopetitive” (i.e., cooperative, but competitive) relationships that influence their product offering, pricing strategies, operating efficiency, market power, and their overall successes. There has been considerable research analyzing the benefits for airlines from joining global alliances, including bilateral code-sharing partnerships. However, the joint effect of code-sharing and global alliances on airline performance has not been fully investigated. In this paper, we study how the use of code-sharing strategies and their structural embeddedness into global alliances may impact airline performance. Using a unique dataset compiled from Flight Global and Airline Business's Annual Airline Alliance Report, the paper empirically investigates the joint benefits of code-sharing partnerships and global alliances on airline profitability. The results based on a group of 81 airlines during the 2007–2012 period show that the profit margin of an airline is positively associated with the number of code-sharing partners it has. Furthermore, the profit margin gains from code-sharing are greater when an airline has a higher proportion of its code-sharing partners in the same global alliance; i.e., allied code-sharing partners. Finally, we find no significant evidence that the percent of comprehensive code sharing partnerships to total partnerships has an impact on profit margin.     

Service climate, professional commitment and job performance of flight attendants in Taiwan

This study of airline managers and flight attendants uses survey information to look at relationships between service climate, professional commitment and job performance. It finds that service climate positively influences professional commitment, influences job performance while professional commitment positively influences job performance and smoothes the relationship between service climate and job performance.     

The influence of entrepreneurial talent and website type on business performance by rural tourism establishments in Spain

Entrepreneurs provide the engine of development, especially in economically unstable times. In Spain, rural tourism is undergoing a boom, and the Internet plays a vital role for tourism. This study therefore considers: (i) the importance of entrepreneurial talent for implementing a website; (ii) the relations among entrepreneurial talent, website characteristics and business performance; and (iii) the moderating effect of entrepreneurial experience. Using a sample of 150 rural tourism establishments in Spain, this study reveals how website content affects performance and how experience moderates the relationships between entrepreneurial talent and performance, and between entrepreneurial talent and website design. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inter-organizational relationships and knowledge sharing in green supply chains—Moderating by relational benefits and guanxi

This paper presents a new research model to examine the factors influencing the knowledge sharing and implementation in inter-organizational relationships. In this study, we examine how relational risk affects the willingness to share knowledge and how this association is affected by the tangible relational value (relational benefits) and intangible relational value (guanxi). Data are collected from 436 green manufacturing firms that are among the top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms of 2008 listed by Business Weekly. Relational risk is found to be negatively associated with willingness to share knowledge. Our results show that relational benefits and guanxi between partners improve the negative effect of relational risk on knowledge sharing. The findings of the study provide useful insights into how green supply chain members should reinforce their relational benefits and guanxi activities that would improve their value-based relationships, in order to enhance the environmentally knowledge sharing for the green supply chain as a whole.     

Exploring the impacts of employee advocacy on job satisfaction and organizational commitment: Case of Taiwanese airlines

The accessibility of information through the Internet has enables flight attendants to become more informed, as well as developing more control of their own affairs. Employee advocacy is related to the transparency of airlines' employment offers and the airlines' willingness to do what is best for their employees. After reviewing the relevant literature, this study focuses on how employee advocacy is influenced by the way employees are treated by their airlines. We explored strategies that airline administrations apply to employee advocacy, developed a research setting, analyzed the factors involved, and developed a casual model of the antecedents and consequences of employee advocacy. We formulated 5 hypotheses. Data were collected, using a questionnaire survey of flight attendants in Taiwanese airlines. All hypotheses were verified with data from a sample of the respondents, by using a structural equation model. Our results indicated that employee advocacy is positively related to flight attendants' job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. Organizational innovation, supervisor support, and employee empowerment are positively related to employee advocacy. Finally, this study concludes by discussing managerial implications and providing suggestions for future research.     

The competitive landscape of air transport in Europe

Competition between airlines and airports increased significantly since the deregulation of the intra-European air transport market in 1997. The passenger has a wider choice in terms of routings and departure airports than twenty-five years ago and pays a lower price. In this paper we investigate in which parts of Europe airline and airport competition are most intense and how the competitive landscape has changed since the liberalisation of the intra-European market.Competition levels are modelled for all air transport markets available to consumers in each western-European municipality using a Multinomial Logit (MNL) model. This allows us to determine how competitive the air transport product available to consumers in each of those municipalities truly is and how competition levels have changed. As opposed to most other competition studies we take all viable direct and indirect flight alternatives into account, as well as competing alternatives from nearby (adjacent) airports. This makes it the most extensive analysis of competition in the European aviation industry performed to date.As expected the results show that airline competition, allowing for grouping of the airlines belonging to the same alliance together, has in general increased since the liberalisation of the intra-European market. This can mainly be ascribed to the rise of the low cost business model. The spatial analysis however shows an uneven outcome. Changes in airline competition are most pronounced in areas that were previously not well served, such as the more remote regions in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. In Germany airline competition is lagging behind due to the strong dominance of the STAR alliance. In large parts of Scandinavia, but also in parts of France and Spain, airline competition is considerably less. These areas are often served only by a handful of airports and/or airlines, limiting airline choice and therefore competition.     

Price dispersion,competition, and the role of online travel agents: Evidence from business routes in the Italian airline market

In this article, using data from the Italian airline market, we study the role of online travel agents (OTAs) in driving price dispersion as compared to the effect of airlines’ websites. Specifically, we investigate how distinctive factors between OTAs and airlines’ direct channels influence price dispersion. We find that after controlling for OTAs’ features related to airline competition, price dispersion should be lower in the OTA channel relative to airlines’ direct channels. On the other hand, we also find that OTAs’ features related to the presence of airline competition play in favor of higher price dispersion in such indirect channel.     

Paternalistic leadership and cabin crews’ upward safety communication: The motivation of voice behavior

Being the frontline operators in the airline industry, flight attendants constantly obtain and collect first-hand information from their interactions with passengers and other crew members. Their experiences and observations may contribute greatly to airlines' safety management and policy making. It is thus critical to learn how to enhance cabin crews' voice behavior, particularly communicating safety related issues upward through specific leadership styles. The current research aims at the flight attendants working for Taiwanese international airlines. The cabin crew department managers' paternalistic leadership style is adopted to observe how it may trigger cabin crews' different types of voice behavior. This research addresses the following two major questions: 1. What is the motivation for cabin crew to conduct upward safety communication? 2. How does department managers' paternalistic leadership style impact cabin crew's voice behavior? Regression analysis is used to analyze the empirical data collected by the questionnaire survey. The results are applied to provide airlines with practical references for constituting human resource management policies, and the findings also enhance existing literature regarding management applications and employees voice behaviors.     

A study on the impact of airline service delays on emotional reactions and customer behavior

This study is intended to identify the influence of service delays on emotional responses and customer behavior. For this research, a survey was conducted on airline passengers that experienced service delays. A total of 395 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling. According to the analysis results, service delays positively influenced negative emotions and negatively influenced repurchase intention. In addition, service delays positively influenced negative word-of-mouth. This study provides a basic knowledge on how airlines can develop their service strategies to make good use of the motivating effect of service delays on emotional responses and behavioral intentions.     

Clustered airline flight scheduling: Evidence from airline deregulation in Korea

This paper explores the impacts of competition level on airline scheduling in the Korean domestic short-haul routes where a hub-and-spoke system is not the optimal air transport network strategy. The empirical findings using the Korean airline panel data for the period 2006–2010 suggest that competition leads to less differentiated departure flight times as expected from spatial competition theory. Unlike the previous study on the U.S airline industry, the degree of this tendency for less differentiation differs across the type of routes: the Jeju island routes (leisure type) and the inland routes (business type), in the deregulated period. Following the May 2008 Deregulation Act we find an increasingly clustered pattern of airline scheduling in the Jeju island routes where there have been competitive pressures associated with new low cost entrants. This recent evidence would imply that airline carriers strategically schedule departure flight times and allocate flights between routes as competition increases in the deregulated period.     

Inter-urban competition and air transport in the deregulated era: The Nashville case

American cities are acting in a competitive environment as a result of forces like economic restructuring, capital mobility, and state devolution. Since the late 1970s, the federal government has dismantled the spatial boundaries of investment through the deregulation of several important sectors of the economy, including the airline industry. Transportation geographers have investigated how deregulation allowed airlines to develop a hub-and-spoke system. However, post-deregulation airline development has yet to be approached from the perspective of urban entrepreneurialism. Another layer of inter-urban competition has been added through new geographical patterns of airline investment, and capturing hub status through airport development may be especially valuable for mid-size cities. Most large cities have hub status, while small cities have no realistic chance of becoming major players in the air transportation network, thus making the hub an opportunity for mid-size cities. A case study of Nashville, Tennessee illuminates the strong local emphasis on airport expansion in the deregulated environment. Local business and government have been active and innovative, although not always successful, in policies that improve Nashville’s accessibility and position in the urban hierarchy.     

Linking brand commitment and brand citizenship behaviors of airline employees: “The role of trust”

Despite the growing interest in understanding employees' brand related behaviors in the airline industry, the research in this area mainly focus on the effect of employee brand commitment and limit the empirical support as well. Although, brand commitment explains brand behaviors of employees, commitment in a relationship usually works through trust. Therefore, this study integrated brand trust and analyzed the relation between brand trust and brand commitment on brand citizenship behaviors of employees. Data were collected from 523 flight attendants of a corporate airline company. The findings reveal that brand trust has a significant effect on brand citizenship behaviors as well as it mediates the effect of brand commitment on these behaviors. The uniqueness of this study is the integration of brand trust for its effect on commitment and brand citizenship behaviors of employees as well providing empirical support for their relationship within the context of airline industry.     

Air deregulation in China and its impact on airline competition 1994–2012

China’s air transportation has experienced rapid growth and major reforms in the past three decades, some of which have been partially successful and are still ongoing today. The paper aims to analyze China’s air deregulation experience over the last two decades and its impact on airline competition from a geographical perspective. After the establishment of the “Big Three” in 2002, the paper reveals that there has been a trade-off between the extent of deregulation and airline competition in China because the central government has tended to strengthen the “Big Three” rather than totally open the market to private and locally owned airlines. The paper uses each airline group as the basic unit of analysis and reveals that (1) the air market has been more concentrated in the “Big Three” as a result of the process of air deregulation; (2) airline competition in over two thirds of the airports and one half of the routes has increased in the last 18 years, but the core airports and trunk routes are chiefly dominated by the “Big Three”. The peripheral airports and thin routes have been operated by private and locally owned airlines; and (3) regionally, airline competition has occurred in most airports of the eastern region, and it is more intense than in the central and western regions. But even here, competition in the eastern region has however decreased in 1994–2012. The three main contributions of the paper are: (1) the use of two measures of competition in the airline market; (2) the analysis of the historical evolution of competition; and (3) an understanding the role of the geography of competition in the Chinese airline market.     

The influences of airline brand credibility on consumer purchase intentions

This study investigates how brand credibility affects consumer purchase intention in the airline sector. Based on signaling theory and relationship marketing theory, it explores the relationships among four constructs: brand credibility, decision convenience, affective commitment and purchase intention. A structural equation model applied to consumer survey data supports the argument. The results indicate that airline brand credibility increases consumer purchase intention by increasing consumers' decision convenience and enhancing affective commitment. Decision convenience can be considered a new mediator of a causal relationship between brand credibility and purchase intention. The results offer implications for airline marketers and directions for future research.     

Emissions trading for international aviation—an estimation of the economic impact on selected European airlines

International aviation is responsible for between 2.5% and 3% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions that are partly held responsible for climate change. International aviation is not subject to any regulatory framework for the limitation of these emissions. From an economic point of view, the introduction of an emissions trading scheme would be an appropriate instrument to limit these emissions. This paper outlines the possibilities on how aviation could be included in existing emissions trading schemes and gives an overview on the current political discussion. It continues with an empirical estimation of the impacts on operating costs and transport demand for low cost, full service, holiday and regional airlines taking Ryanair, Lufthansa, Condor and Air Dolomiti as examples, under three different design options for an emissions trading scheme. Finally, conclusions about the impacts on intra-European and worldwide airline competition are drawn.     

Investigating the effects of economies of scope on firms’ pricing behavior: Empirical evidence from the US domestic airline industry

This study investigates to what extent cross-product (belly cargo) output affects (passenger ticket) prices in the US domestic airline industry. The empirical analysis indicates that greater cargo volumes generally result in lower air fares, presumably as a result of the airlines’ realization of economies of scope. This magnitude of this price effect, however, depends on certain firm and route market characteristics. The findings of this study add to extant research on economies of scope, multi-product yield management and airline pricing and provide important insights for policy makers and airline managers alike.     

Effects of enterprise bargaining and agreement clauses on the operating cost of airline ground crew scheduling

Labour conditions in enterprise agreements dictate airline worker rostering and affect operating costs. By using an airline ground crew shift optimisation model in the context of Australian labour regulations, this paper explores how labour agreements could affect costs and potential options to improve labour conditions for mutual benefits. Results found that a reduction of shift length could save 30 percent of airline employee costs. The ratio of full-time and part-time staff could significantly affect staffing costs. A portion of staff cost savings could be redirected to employees as wage rises, while maintaining job security and benefiting both parties.