Micro and macro perspectives on market response strategy: focusing on the airline industry

Abstract

This dissertation integrates micro and macro perspectives on market responsive strategy, particularly focusing on the airline industry. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) have matured and influenced the global airline industry with their low fares. Because competitors can easily match prices, however, LCCs find it more challenging to hold on to their market position with this competitive edge. Whereas the low price is an important factor driving sales, it might communicate inferior service quality to customers and limit potential sales increases, particularly under severe market competition. Therefore, the first study investigates the factors that moderate the perception of LCCs’ services under the low-price condition to avoid this dilemma. This study examines two perception-related variables, subjective norms and self-congruence, as moderators of the relationship between customers’ purchase intention and service offerings.

In addition, the background of the second study is that service-dominant firms have strived to find ways of satisfying the shifting nature of customer needs and delivering customer values through customize services. Service reliability also matters because it reflects service quality and realization. To make these service factors effective and competitive, it is necessary for customers to disclose their personal information, which allows service firms to analyze data and draw managerial insights. From this perspective, the second study extends our understanding of the role of information privacy, particularly focusing on the perceived value of information disclosure in the service industry and how it relates to the association between service factors (i.e., customized service and service reliability) and purchase intention.

Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a time of crisis and uncertainty for the air transportation industry. The gloomy prospects for the industry have stretched business resilience to a critical point. Several researchers have investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on the airline industry from many different points of view. However, there remains a dearth of scholarship on the hampered business activities and crisis management of the airline industry. In the absence of sufficient response strategies against the COVID-19 panic, the third study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of both internally and externally generated airline response strategies by examining business practices for crisis management.