Modeling Airline Crisis Management Capability: Brand attitude,brand credibility and intention

Crisis management consists of a number of capabilities which evaluate crisis signals and implements actions to minimize damage. Both identifying these capabilities and understanding their influence on perceptions of brand attitude, credibility and intention to purchase offers significant theoretical and managerial insights. This paper, therefore, proposes a cause-effects model of perceived airline crisis management capabilities and their influence on brand credibility, brand attitude and purchase intention in the aftermath of large-scale Taiwanese airline strikes. Using data collected via an online survey, the study makes three contributions to airline crisis management. It, firstly, identifies a set of crisis management capabilities for strike-hit airlines, secondly, it offers a causal chain of perceived airline crisis management capabilities, brand attitude, brand credibility and purchase intention. Furthermore, it the full mediating effects of brand credibility and brand attitude in the causal chain. This study, thus, makes conceptual and methodological contributions to crisis management and purchase intention research and provides practical insights into effective airline crisis management and brand management for the airline industry.     

Do global airline alliances influence the passenger's purchase decision?

This study examines the influences of airline global alliances on the purchase intention of international air passengers in Taiwan. The findings indicate positive relationships between global airline alliances, brand equity, brand preference and purchase intention with a moderation effect of involvement impacting on the relationship between global airline alliances and brand equity, and the relationship between brand preferences and purchase intention. In particular, for highly involved passengers, the effect of global airline alliances on brand equity, and brand preference on purchase intention, is significant.     

Consumers' attitude of endorser credibility,brand and intention with respect to celebrity endorsement of the airline sector

To achieve product differentiation, airlines spend millions of dollars annually in signing celebrities to endorse their brands’ endorsement contracts, as source effects that play an important role in persuasive communications. Based on source credibility theory and product differentiation theory, this study examines the causal relationship between endorser credibility, brand attitude, brand credibility and purchase intention of air transportation services provided by airlines that adopt a celebrity endorsement strategy. Meanwhile, endorser credibility was tested as a second-order construct of the proposed model. The results indicate that positive relationships exist between all the hypothesized constructs. Therefore, in addition to having a favorable celebrity to endorse a customer oriented advertisement, the credibility of the celebrity is as important in enhancing brand attitude, brand credibility and purchase intention.     

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.     

The influence of tourists' expectations on purchase intention: Linking marketing strategy for low-cost airlines

Drawing on an integrated framework of marketing strategy, this study develops and tests a novel perspective for low-cost airline tourists that explicates the critical attributes of service quality through which Corporate Reputation (CR) and Word of Mouth (WOM) are associated with purchase intention. The study also examines the buffering role of empathy in tourists' purchase decision making processes. In a sample of 535 international and domestic tourists, this study found service quality to be related to increased purchase intention by boosting tourists' positive evaluations for airlines' corporate reputations and word of mouth received from other tourists. Additionally, the results demonstrated a positive correlation quality of service and WOM, depending on tourists' levels of empathy. Specifically, they suggested that WOM was positively related to purchase intention when high levels of empathy from tourists were perceived for the low-cost airline.     

Assessing the effects of perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic) in LCCs and FSCs: Evidence from South Korea

In the airline industry, passengers choose and buy service based on their perception of which airline delivers better value. Thus, it is important to compare two types of airlines, Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) and Full Service Carriers (FSCs), to measure how much their product or service is worth and the effect of perceived value on passengers' purchase decisions. This study examined the relationship between perceived value, satisfaction, and purchase intention in both FSCs and LCCs. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were performed for data analysis. Our findings reveal that passenger satisfaction in LCCs is affected by hedonic value and utilitarian value, but passengers' future purchase intention is not dependent on satisfaction even when passengers are satisfied. In FSCs, moreover, utilitarian value is not a significant factor for satisfaction and purchase intention. This research provides implications for airline marketers and directions for future research.     

How airline service quality determines the quantity of repurchase intention - Mediate and moderate effects of brand quality and perceived value

Drawing on an integrated framework of service quality theory, this study develops and demonstrates a mediation-moderation model of airline service quality that influences the repurchase intentions of passengers. This model associates service quality with individual behavioral and perception—brand awareness and perceived values and examines the buffering role of brand attractiveness and experience in the decision-making processes. In a sample of 451 passengers, somewhat as expected, airline service quality enhances the positive effect of repurchase intention on airline company service because it fosters a positive link between brand awareness and perceived value. Unsurprisingly, brand attractiveness and memorable brand experiences are found to strengthen the positive effect of brand awareness and perceived value. Several alternative models were used to check the robustness of our findings. Patterns of moderated mediation modeling for theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.     

Drivers and barriers to online airline ticket purchasing

Although online sales of airline tickets are growing, many travellers are still reluctant to use the web as a purchase channel. Given the cost advantages of online sales for airlines, it is useful for them to know the main drivers and barriers affecting the use of the Internet to purchase tickets. This study analyses the influence of risk, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the airline ticket online purchase intention. The results of a survey show that perceived purchase risk and perceived usefulness exercise a direct influence on airline ticket purchasing intentions, while perceived ease of use has an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. Psychological risk, performance risk and privacy risk are the predominant perceived risk dimensions in airline tickets purchase, whereas social risk and time loss risk are negligible.     

Attracting tourists to travel companies’ websites: the structural relationship between website brand,personal value,shopping experience,perceived risk and purchase intention

This article aims to examine the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention from travel websites. Built upon the theory of consumers’ perceived risk, a theoretical model was proposed and a questionnaire was developed. The fieldwork utilized responses from 409 participants who purchased travel items from websites of Malaysian travel companies. Partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM), was used to assess the overall goodness-of-fit tests, measurement and structural model. The results highlight different aspects related to the effectiveness and attractiveness of travel companies’ websites. Its unique finding highlights the importance of personal value as a user characteristic factor that can strongly affect online purchase intention. In addition, by combining user characteristics and website characteristic and examining them in a single model, this study provides a clear multidimensional picture of causal relationship between latent constructs in an online travel purchase context. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Service quality and price perception of service: Influence on word-of-mouth and revisit intention

Drawing on an overarching framework of marketing theory, this study develops and tests an integrated model of service quality that explicates the affective mechanisms through which service quality is associated with price perception of service (e.g., monetary price and behaviour price), word of mouth (WOM) and revisit intention. In a sample of 484 low-cost airline passengers, we found service quality to be related to increased price perception of service as a result of increasing passengers' WOM, which also creates success in this regard by increasing their revisit intention. Moreover, it is not surprising that there was a positive relationship between service quality and WOM mediated by perceived value of monetary price. The theoretical and empirical implications of these results are discussed.     

Celebrity livery featured aircraft,the Moneki Neko (fortune cat) of airlines

Aircraft livery is a painting scheme on the aircraft that allows an airline not only to differentiate its aircraft from those of others, but also to promote the perceived values of the airline. Besides being visually attractive, celebrity-themed aircraft liveries also become increasingly popular today because they can influence consumers' perceptions of airlines. This study uses the data collected from Taiwan international airport, ranked the world's top 15 heaviest passenger traffic, to investigate the influences of celebrity worship on the original Theory of Planned Behavior's constructs, and purchase intention. The results reveal significant positive relationships between celebrity and attitude, perceived behavioral control, and purchase intention. Finally, contributions and implications are discussed.     

Influence of perceived service fairness on relationship quality and switching intention: an empirical study of restaurant experiences

Restaurants and dining out are an important part of the tourism industry and are a major business in their own right. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived service fairness, relationship quality, and switching intention in fine dining restaurants. Data were collected through a convenience sampling method from 164 customers from only fine dining restaurants in the northern region of West Malaysia (Kedah, Perak, Penang, and Perlis States). Unlike all previous studies which have focused exclusively on the role of justice in service failure and recovery, this study considers all-inclusive service delivery contexts. The results of this study showed that all the dimensions of perceived service fairness have a significant relationship with switching intention. In addition, perceived service fairness has a positive relationship with trust in all dimensions except for outcome fairness. Moreover, the results found that among the perceived service fairness dimensions, only procedural fairness and interactional fairness had a positive relationship with commitment and price fairness; outcome fairness was not related to commitment. Finally, the results confirmed the negative and significant relationship between relationship quality (trust and commitment) on switching intention. Managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.     

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.     

Investigating the effects of service recovery quality elements on passengers' behavioral intention

This study intends to analyze how the elements of restoring the quality of airline service influences the airline image, recovery satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of airline passengers. For this testing, a survey was conducted on passengers with an experience of dissatisfaction of airline services. A total of 240 responses were analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that among the recovery quality elements, promptness had a positive influence the image of the airline. Additionally, a recovered image of the airline had a positive influence on the recovery satisfaction and behavioral intention. The findings of this study may improve our understanding of consumer responses to the airline company's efforts to recover service failure.     

The experience of flying with Hello Kitty Livery Featured Theme Jet: moderating effects of destination image

One main purpose of adopting a celebrity-themed aircraft campaign is to differentiate an airline from its competitors through delivering and/or reforming consumers' flying experience. This practice has become a popular tactic of airlines' experiential marketing efforts. Based on the data collected from Taiwan, this study investigates the influences of five antecedents – customer return on investment (CROI), playfulness, aesthetics, service excellence, and destination image – on purchase intention. The results reveal significant positive relationships among all five antecedents and purchase intention. Meanwhile, destination image moderates the relationships between CROI, and service excellence and intention. Furthermore, this study proposed a more integrated strategic experiential modules with the combination of destination image.     

Exploring relationships between customer-based brand equity and its drivers and consequences in the hotel context. An impact-asymmetry assessment

The development of customer-based brand equity plays a critical role in tourism. This paper attempts to study which variables contribute to brand equity creation and to examine whether brand loyalty can be considered as a consequence of brand equity in the hotel context. In addition, it seeks to provide more detailed insights into possible asymmetric effects among customer-based brand equity and its drivers and consequences. Four constructs are found to influence significantly brand equity: two perceptual (image and perceived quality) and two relational variables (trust and affective commitment). Additionally, both behavioural and attitudinal components of loyalty are confirmed as brand equity outcomes. The impact-asymmetry analysis reveals that perceived quality does not play a significant role in explaining brand equity, while awareness and trust emerge to have a significant negatively asymmetric impact. The paper is novel as the proposed model includes two new variables that are deemed critical to hospitality research, that is, trust and affective commitment. The relationship structure of the model is new to the literature as loyalty is conceptualized as a consequence of brand equity, thus confirming theoretical assumptions with limited empirical evidence. Finally, it is the first study that examines asymmetric impacts of customer-based brand equity drivers.     

The impact of airline internal branding on work outcomes using job satisfaction as a mediator

Within the context of the airline industry, this study offers an integrated approach measuring the effects of internal brand communication, brand-centered training, transformational leadership, brand ideology, and internal brand communities on job satisfaction and work outcomes. It further explores the role of job satisfaction as a mediator between internal branding and work outcomes. Following an analysis of 485 responses, we find that leadership, ideology, and communities positively influence job satisfaction, which in turn affects intention-to-stay, team performance, and brand commitment. Job satisfaction is also found to mediate the relationships between internal branding (i.e., transformational leadership, brand ideology, and internal brand communities) and work outcomes. These findings highlight that appropriate branding strategies can enhance airline development through employee satisfaction.     

The impact of social media and offline influences on consumer behaviour. An analysis of the low-cost airline industry

This study analyses the impact of social media as well as offline environments upon tourist online purchase and recommendation behaviour of low-cost airline services. Drawing on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), this research considers the effect of offline social influences (interpersonal and external influences) and analyses online Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) information exchanges as a driver of customer attitude towards online purchases. We propose that these factors improve online repurchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth communication (WOM and e-WOM) in low-cost settings. Using structural equation modelling, the conceptual model is tested with a sample of 441 Spanish Internet buyers of low-cost airline services. Interpersonal offline influences (e.g. friends, relatives, and family) have a significant effect on online repurchase intentions and WOM but do not affect e-WOM. External offline influences (e.g. media and experts), however, only affect consumer intentions to recommend future purchases of low-cost airline services on social networking travel sites and have no effect on online repurchase intentions or WOM. Findings also show that online C2C information exchanges influence attitude which, in turn, has a significant effect on repurchase intentions WOM and e-WOM.     

Achieving relational outcomes in casual dining restaurants through consumer commitment

The purpose of the study is to identify how we can achieve positive word-of-mouth (WOM) and share of purchases through consumer commitment in casual dining restaurants. This study proposes the theory of organizational commitment and the framework of the relationship development process as the theoretical foundation to identify the antecedents of consumer commitment (i.e. identification, switching costs, and satisfaction), and tests the role of consumer commitment between its antecedents and relational outcomes (i.e. share of purchases and positive WOM). The results of the study support that commitment plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between its antecedents and share of purchases. In addition, commitment exerts a full mediating role on the effects of identification and switching costs on positive WOM intentions, while it plays a partial mediating role between satisfaction and positive WOM intentions. Managerial implications are discussed to maximize delivering relational outcomes based on consumer commitment and its antecedents.     

Customer value of purchasable supplementary services: The case of a European full network carrier's economy class

There is a general trend in the airline industry to try to find ways to generate ancillary revenue by offering additional or unbundled services. Low-cost carriers in particular are known to offer unbundled services, but only a few network carriers have started to unbundle their services and seek ancillary revenues. Meanwhile, others do not attempt this, due to a possible negative impact on customer perception and their brand image.The goal of this study is to determine the viability and customer value of purchasable supplementary services for economy class passengers of European full-service network carriers. The focus of the study lies in determining specific characteristics of the customer value concept in the context of purchasable supplementary services. By conducting a choice model the implicit preferences in regard to purchasable supplementary service of economy class passengers were analysed. A survey was conducted at Zurich Airport in Switzerland and the results and analysis were built on the data of 249 respondents. The results show that economy class passengers do perceive value in purchasable supplementary services and display a general intention to purchase such services provided they give the passenger added value and utility.