Advertising Contribution to a Firm's Profit: Theory and Evidence from the Airline Industry in the United States

The author examined how to make advertising efficiency more effective in achieving the profit objective of a firm. The current study allowed profitability to be influenced by both multiple controllable efficiency factors (e.g., advertising efficiency and operations efficiency) and one uncontrollable environmental factor (i.e., growth timing). The results showed that advertising efficiency was most effective in driving up a publically-traded U.S. airline's profitability when the airline happened to grow its business later than average, whereas advertising efficiency was least effective when the firm ended up growing its business earlier than average. Also shown in the results was that drivers of profitability also included operations efficiency and growth timing.