2rhalleron

My name is Rebecca Halleron. I�m a fourth year honours student at the University of Strathclyde. I�m studying International Business and Management. My degree requires me to carry out a Dissertation. My dissertation is titled �Fight of Flight, Strategic Change in the Airline Industry�.

I am looking for participants to answer a few questions on why airlines change

I am looking for airline managers, employees, engineers, suppliers and enthusiasts.

If anyone is willing to help me than it would be a great help as I am stuggling to find participants and the deadline is drawing closer

Thanks

Richard Chen

You're in the right place! It may take some time for some people to PM (private message) those in the industry who may not see this thread quickly enough, but you've come to the best of places. I'm not in the airline though if you post more specific questions or something we can survey or respond to, that'll increase reply rates. Best of luck in your studies.

2rhalleron

Thanks Richard for your reply. If you don't mind, can I ask what industry you work in or are you just an observer of airlines? I am in the process of developing a more general set of questions that look at airline strategy for people who do not directly work for an airline.

2rhalleron

1. How do you think political change affects an airline’s business strategy?

2. How do you think economic change affects the airline industry?

3. How do you think airlines accommodate social change (e.g. change in trends of holiday preferences...etc)?

4. What technological advances do you consider to of changed strategy in airlines?

5. Can you think of any legislation or legal factors that may result in strategic change? Please give details if so.

6. Which of the above; Political, Economic, Social, Technological or Environmental factors has caused the most strategic change in the industry?

aacharya

Your questions are a bit too general.

Also - quite a few grammatical errors.

Sweet Willie

Typically more response in TravelBuzz forum so that's where this thread goes.

Good luck on your dissertation.

Willie
co-moderator Community Buzz

2rhalleron

Sorry I'm pretty stressed out at the moment so forgot to double check grammar. PESTEL is quite a general concept so I don't really know how I can make it more specific.

squeakr

However, it is important not to just list PESTEL factors because this does not in itself tell managers very much. What managers need to do is to think about which factors are most likely to change and which ones will have the greatest impact on them i.e. each firm must identify the key factors in their own environment. For some such as pharmaceutical companies government regulation may be critical; for others, perhaps firms that have borrowed heavily, interest rate changes may be a huge issue. Managers must decide on the relative importance of various factors and one way of doing this is to rank or score the likelihood of a change occurring and also rate the impact if it did. The higher the likelihood of a change occurring and the greater the impact of any change the more significant this factor will be to the firm's planning.

It is also important when using PESTEL analysis to consider the level at which it is applied. When analysing companies such as Sony, Chrysler, Coca Cola, BP and Disney it is important to remember that they have many different parts to their overall business - they include many different divisions and in some cases many different brands. Whilst it may be useful to consider the whole business when using PESTEL in that it may highlight some important factors, managers may want to narrow it down to a particular part of the business (e.g. a specific division of Sony); this may be more useful because it will focus on the factors relevant to that part of the business. They may also want to differentiate between factors which are very local, other which are national and those which are global.

clacko

how about posting 1 example from your research for your items 1 thru 5 above?.......it would help....good luck.....

2rhalleron

Well in my research I am focusing on three types of Strategy: Low Cost, Differentiation and Niche

I have looked at the Failure of Laker Airways, due to losing sight of their strategy, which was originally Low Cost but tried to go more luxury.

I have Looked at Jet and Crude Oil prices and their affect on the industry and Ryanair's Cost Cutting Strategies.

I have looked at the affect of Natural Disasters (2010 Volcanic Ash Cloud) and Terror attacks

I have also researched M&A's (continental & United, IAG & BMI)

hyderago

I don't understand what your exact plan is. Are you trying to come up with different events in time that have affected the strategies of airlines? If so, you seem to have listed a few recent ones. Others include the development of the internet (cut down the need for travel), the introduction of new airplanes (the 747, 380 and 787 all opened up new routes/traffic patterns), regulation/de-regulation and macroeconomics (travel expenditure tends to positively covary with economic conditions). The list can go on. As aacharya said, I think you need to be more specific and introduce more structure into your thesis.

PS: I don't know what the goal of your research is. But I think it would be really interesting if you could say something like "In the past, we saw that airlines adapted to events X and Y by doing A and B respectively. Today, I forsee event Z happening. Because of the reactions to A and B in the past, I think that airlines will adopt strategy C if event Z happens."

2rhalleron

Its hard to explain my exact plan without my research proposal and explaining my methodology & lit review. Ive wrote 10,000 words already and it's a bit disheartening when your told it lacks structure 5 weeks before the deadline, when you've been given positive feedback from an academic since Oct. As my degree is on management, it focuses on how managers manage strategic change and when they see fit to change strategy based on PESTEL factors.

Baghoarder

Please don't be disheartened. Nobody here knows whether or not your dissertation lacks structure because we haven't seen it or your research proposal.

It's just that it is hard to provide quality answers in the abstract and people here will generally be able to respond with more useful information if they have more specific questions to focus on. Could you perhaps refine your questions with just a limited part of the thesis in mind, or a particular recent example or airline failure/evolution/merger similar to the ones you have mentioned?

2rhalleron

Mergers & acquisitions are a form of strategic change. There was a fairly high profile merger between united and continental a couple of years ago. What do you consider the advantages and disadvantages of this merger for the new company?

emma69

Re the earlier question, legislation and legal factors that may result in strategic changes, the European legislation regarding compensation to passangers when delayed etc. has probably had a not insignificant impact.

ESTA and advanced passenger information rules may have affected carriers to the US from visa waiver countries (people needing to book further in advance, not show up at the airport to book their flight).

Working time directive (in terms of crew scheduling etc)?

Equal opportunity legislation ?

Cabotage rules ?

Chapter 11 legislation ?