Content Analysis and Thematic Analysis

352 Pages·2010·7.1 MB·English

Cranfield University

Navatasn Kongsamutr

Airline Key Change Drivers and Business Environmental
Analysis in Southeast Asia: Strategic Planning Perspectives

School of Engineering

PhD Thesis
Cranfield University

School of Engineering

PhD THESIS

Academic Year 2009-2010

Navatasn Kongsamutr

Airline Key Change Drivers and Business Environmental
Analysis in the Southeast Asia: Strategic Planning Perspectives

Supervisor: Dr. K. Mason

Academic Year 2009 to 2010

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

© Cranfield University, 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder.
ABSTRACT

This thesis is involved with exploration of key changes drivers and market
phenomena in the Southeast Asia and the development of new conceptual frameworks
for business environmental analysis of airlines. The research is constructed under the
phenomenology paradigm which adopts a coherentism approach and mainly takes
airline industry’s publications, statistics, and executives as units of analysis.
Hermeneutic phenomenology, a single-embedded case study, concurrent triangulation
mixed method, and grounded theory are all used as methodologies. Methods using
document reviews, interviews, and questionnaires are applied to surface the key
changes drivers, market phenomena and the perceptions of the importance of changes
factors. The collected data are analysed by content analysis, thematic analysis,
cognitive mapping analysis, constant comparative analysis and descriptive analysis to
classify, generalise and develop into proper forms.
The research reveals that ‘market’, ‘competition/strategy’, ‘regulation/policy’,
‘infrastructure/resource’, ‘cooperation’, ‘distribution’, ‘technology, and ‘broad’
factors are discovered as key change drivers. Their different importance levels are
measured by occurrences, density, centrality, and tail occurrences as root causes of
changes. The characteristics of their interrelationships are based on directional and
influential dimensions. There are 16 emerged changes/market phenomena and 11
generalised conceptual frameworks and 3 newly developed frameworks for analysing
the airline business environment. The quantitative findings from content analysis are
evaluated by inter-coder analysis which achieves kappa coefficient = 0.87 indicating
high reliability of the analysis. The qualitative findings are qualified through ten
criteria assessment of research quality. The deliverables provide both theoretical and
methodological contributions. The research limitations are found in some sources of
collected data and findings which are caused by scarce data availability and three
types of biases. The recommendations for future research into financial performance,
changes’ leading indicators and comparative in-depth study in other ASEAN
countries and regions are made.
Keywords:
Environmental scanning, airline competition, liberalisation, market phenomena,
mixed methods, grounded theory
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest thankfulness to the following people who
offered me helpful hands to successfully complete my Ph.D. in Air Transport
Management at Cranfield University. I have the greatest respect and feel truly grateful
to Dr. Keith Mason, my research supervisor, who provided valuable advices and
inspired me to pass through a number of difficulties and finally reach this precious
achievement. I would also like to thank Professor Fariba Alamdari, who was my
supervisor during her presence at Air Transport Department, for her tremendous
guidance to lead me to attain this interesting research topic and introduced me to
know my present excellent supervisor.
My grateful thanks also go to all wonderful research participants including
Thai DCA’s Directorate General and executives, airlines’ CEOs and executives,
IATA country manager, and the industry experts who scarified their valuable time,
granted me interviews and/or completed questionnaires, and offered me their
exclusive data and information. Without their contributions, this research would have
been impossible.
Furthermore, I wish to acknowledge with gratitude to the Royal Thai
Government and all tax payers who sponsored my study, Kasetsart University and all
staff of its Aerospace Engineering Department for their continuous supports, all of the
staff and colleagues in the Air Transport Department at Cranfield University for their
friendship and helpfulness. Special thanks to Sawat Sittiwong who was the former
Directorate General of Thai DCA, though he passed away but is always my greatest
role model; Dr. Araya Sakburanapech as my other coder; Sutthipong Meeyai for
helping me to develop essential Excel skills; Ayudh Nakaprasit for his continuous and
sincere helpfulness; and all Thai community in Cranfield and Bedfordshire for their
kindness. At last but not least, my deepest appreciation is dedicated to my family,
especially to my mom and dad; for their endless support, inspirational encouragement
and routine delivery of care and love, which undoubtedly propel all my achievements.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..........................................................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................v
TABLE OF FIGURES..................................................................................................ix
TABLE OF TABLES....................................................................................................xi
TABLE OF EQUATIONS..........................................................................................xvi
ABBREVATIONS......................................................................................................xvii

1 Introduction..........................................................................................................19
1.1 Changing Global Business Environment: Flattening world creates the global
single horizon.............................................................................................................19
1.2 Future Scenes of Airline Business: Interdependent Characteristic................21
1.3 The Emerging ASEAN Airline Market: regionalisation in globalisation
regime ........................................................................................................................23
1.4 Research Rationale and Conclusions..............................................................24

2 Literature Review.................................................................................................26
2.1 Strategy...........................................................................................................26
2.2 Strategy: Evolution and Classifications..........................................................28
2.2.1 Evolution of Strategy..............................................................................28
2.2.2 Classifications of Strategy......................................................................30
2.3 Strategic Planning...........................................................................................38
2.4 Business Environment Analysis.....................................................................40
2.4.1 The Conventional Perspectives of Business Environment.....................42
2.4.2 The Ecological Perspectives of Business Environment.........................43
2.5 Airline Industry..............................................................................................45
2.5.1 Airline Industry Characteristics..............................................................45
2.5.2 Airline Future Changes and Key Drivers...............................................46
2.5.3 Airline Deregulation, Liberalisation, and Competition..........................47
2.5.4 Airline Strategies Issues.........................................................................49

3 Research Methodology.........................................................................................51
3.1 Summary of Research Problems ....................................................................51
3.2 Research Philosophy and Paradigm...............................................................53
3.2.1 Philosophy of the Research....................................................................53
3.2.2 Research Paradigm.................................................................................54
3.3 Research Design Concepts.............................................................................55
3.4 Research Questions and Objectives................................................................57
3.4.1 Research Objectives (RO)......................................................................57
3.4.2 Research Questions (RQ).......................................................................57
3.5 Research Design and Conceptual Framework................................................58
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3.6 Research Methodology...................................................................................61
3.6.1 Hermeneutic Phenomenology................................................................62
3.6.2 Case Study..............................................................................................64
3.6.3 Mixed Methods.......................................................................................66
3.6.4 Grounded Theory....................................................................................69
3.7 Research Methods..........................................................................................70
3.7.1 Interview.................................................................................................70
3.7.2 Questionnaire..........................................................................................72
3.8 Data Analysis..................................................................................................73
3.8.1 Content Analysis....................................................................................74
3.8.2 Thematic Analysis..................................................................................76
3.8.3 Cognitive Mapping/Causal Mapping/Diagrams.....................................77
3.8.4 Constant Comparative Method...............................................................78
3.9 Evaluation of Research Quality......................................................................80
3.10 General Conclusions.......................................................................................83

4 Exploration of ASEAN Airline Business Environment.....................................84
4.1 ASEAN Community in the Differences.........................................................84
4.2 Exploration of ASEAN Airline Market..........................................................90
4.2.1 ASEAN Airline Market..........................................................................91
4.2.2 Context of ASEAN Country and Its Airline Market..............................94
4.3 General Conclusions.....................................................................................152

5 Discovery of Key Change Drivers and Emerged Changes in 10 ASEAN
Countries: Content Analysis and Thematic Analysis..............................................154
5.1 Sample and Content Analysis of Key Change Drivers................................154
5.2 Reliability of the analysis.............................................................................155
5.3 Key Change Drivers Coding Categories......................................................157
5.4 Sample and Thematic Analysis of Emerged Changes..................................159
5.5 Research Findings: Key Change Drivers and Emerged Changes................160
5.5.1 ASEAN’s Overview.............................................................................160
5.5.2 Brunei Darussalam...............................................................................165
5.5.3 Cambodia..............................................................................................168
5.5.4 Indonesia...............................................................................................171
5.5.5 Laos......................................................................................................175
5.5.6 Malaysia...............................................................................................178
5.5.7 Myanmar...............................................................................................181
5.5.8 Philippines............................................................................................184
5.5.9 Singapore..............................................................................................187
5.5.10 Thailand................................................................................................190
5.5.11 Vietnam................................................................................................194
5.6 General Conclusions.....................................................................................197

6 The In-Depth Field Study of Airline Market in Thailand..............................198
6.1 Country’s Market and Context.....................................................................198
6.1.1 Growing Buying Power and Changing Consumer Lifestyle................199
6.1.2 Expanding Tourism Market and Air Travelling...................................204
6.1.3 Air Transport Market Size and Growth................................................208
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6.2 Airline Industry Characteristics and Structure.............................................210
6.2.1 Deregulation and Liberalisation Scheme..............................................210
6.2.2 Airline Route and Operational Characteristics.....................................212
6.2.3 Airline Players and Market share.........................................................217
6.2.4 Industry Concentration.........................................................................220
6.3 Airline Competition......................................................................................222
6.3.1 Competition at Route level: Domestic Market.....................................222
6.3.2 Competition at Route Level: International Market..............................225
6.4 Intra-industry Analysis.................................................................................228
6.4.1 Airline Strategic Choices......................................................................228
6.4.2 Airline Strategic Group Mapping.........................................................236
6.5 Sample and Analysis of Interviews: Cognitive Mapping.............................238
6.5.1 Concept Density...................................................................................242
6.5.2 Concept Centrality................................................................................243
6.5.3 Concept Tail.........................................................................................244
6.5.4 Section Conclusions.............................................................................245
6.6 Sample and Analysis of Questionnaire Survey: Descriptive Analysis.........247
6.6.1 Respondents’ Background....................................................................248
6.6.2 Impact of Key Change Drivers.............................................................248
6.6.3 Key Change Drivers’ Importance and Effort Put into Environmental
Analysis ..............................................................................................................250
6.6.4 Section Conclusions.............................................................................251
6.7 General Conclusions.....................................................................................253

7 Generalisation of Key Changes Drivers, Emerged Changes and Market
Phenomena and Development of New Conceptualised Frameworks....................256
7.1 Generalisation of Key Change Factors, Emerged Changes and Phenomena257
7.1.1 Generalised Eight Key Change Drivers................................................257
7.1.2 Emerging Airline Market in ASEAN...................................................261
7.1.3 Evolving Airline Strategic Moves........................................................266
7.1.4 Regulation and Regulatory Body in Transition....................................273
7.1.5 Resources and Infrastructures Changes................................................282
7.1.6 Emerging Cooperative Patterns............................................................283
7.1.7 Creation of New Airline Distribution Channels...................................285
7.1.8 Implications of Technology for Airline................................................287
7.1.9 Broad Factors Classifications...............................................................288
7.2 Development of New Conceptualised Airline Business Environmental
Analysis Models.......................................................................................................289
7.2.1 Discovery of Mutual Characteristics....................................................289
7.2.2 New Perspectives of Business Environmental Levels..........................291
7.2.3 Inter-Factors Evolutionary Analysis Matrix.........................................293
7.2.4 Multi-Angles Coevolution Analysis Matrix.........................................295
7.2.5 Advantage Discussions of the Model...................................................297
7.3 Research Quality Assessment.......................................................................299
7.4 General Conclusions.....................................................................................303

8 Research Conclusions.........................................................................................305
8.1 Research Objectives, Questions and Answers..............................................305
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8.1.1 Research Objectives (RO) and Rationales............................................305
8.1.2 Research Questions (RQ) and Design..................................................306
8.1.3 Research Answers.................................................................................308
8.2 Research Contributions................................................................................313
8.2.1 Theoretical Contribution of the Research.............................................314
8.2.2 Methodological Contributions of the Research....................................317
8.3 Research Limitations....................................................................................317
8.3.1 Limitations of Research Data Collections............................................317
8.3.2 Limitations of Research Findings.........................................................318
8.4 Recommendations for Future Research........................................................319
8.5 Conclusion Remarks.....................................................................................321

REFERENCES...........................................................................................................322
APPENDIX A: Cover Letter.....................................................................................337
APPENDIX B: Interview Questions.........................................................................340
APPENDIX C: Questionnaire Survey Questions....................................................341
APPENDIX D: Inter-coder Reliability Calculations...............................................348
APPENDIX E: Samples of Memos...........................................................................349
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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1 The Boeing’s air passenger growth forecast.................................................22
Figure 1-2 Southeast Asia region...................................................................................23
Figure 2-1 Academic area integration in the research....................................................26
Figure 2-2 Generic perspectives on strategy..................................................................32
Figure 2-3 The corporate life cycle and functional areas of corporate activity..............35
Figure 2-4 Model of Strategy Formation........................................................................39
Figure 2-5 Strategic planning as one element of strategic management processes........40
Figure 2-6 The comparison between the original SCP model and the one with feedback
................................................................................................................................41
Figure 2-7 Business Ecosystem......................................................................................45
Figure 3-1 Academic areas integration in the research..................................................52
Figure 3-2 Foundationalism contrasted with coherentism.............................................56
Figure 3-3 Research Design Concept.............................................................................59
Figure 3-4 Research Conceptual Framework.................................................................61
Figure 3-5 Basic Types of Designs for Case Studies.....................................................65
Figure 3-6 Visual diagram of a concurrent triangulation mixed method design with
merged results.........................................................................................................68
Figure 3-7 Applications of ‘Mixed Method’ in the research design..............................69
Figure 4-1 Thematic diagram of the ASEAN economic community development
scheme....................................................................................................................90
Figure 4-2 The Southeast Asian airline passenger traffic by inter/intra region in Y 2000,
2007, and 2027.......................................................................................................92
Figure 4-3 Ten ASEAN member countries’ air traffic statistic: 2003-2008..................93
Figure 5-1 Brunei’ airline businesses thematic diagram..............................................167
Figure 5-2 Cambodia’s airline businesses thematic diagram.......................................170
Figure 5-3 Indonesia’s airline businesses thematic diagram........................................173
Figure 5-4 Laos’ airline businesses thematic diagram.................................................177
Figure 5-5 Malaysia’s airline businesses thematic diagram.........................................180
Figure 5-6Myanmar’s airline businesses thematic diagram.........................................183
Figure 5-7 Philippines’ airline businesses thematic diagram.......................................186
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Figure 5-8 Singapore’s airline businesses thematic diagram.......................................189
Figure 5-9 Thailand’s airline businesses thematic diagram.........................................193
Figure 5-10 Vietnam’s airline businesses thematic diagram........................................196
Figure 6-1 Map of Thailand and its neighbouring countries........................................199
Figure 6-2 Number of registered aircraft by purpose of usage: 2001, 2005 and 2009.213
Figure 6-3 Strategy Canvas of all nine operating airlines in Thailand.........................236
Figure 6-4 Strategy groups mapping of nine operating airlines in Thailand................237
Figure 7-1 Five types of market phenomenon..............................................................265
Figure 7-2 Air Transport Market Driven Forces Model...............................................266
Figure 7-3 Four types of strategic behaviour of Thai airline operators........................270
Figure 7-4 Airline strategic changes model..................................................................272
Figure 7-5 Liberalisation Matrix..................................................................................279
Figure 7-6 Regulatory/policy changes model...............................................................280
Figure 7-7 Airline Distribution Channels System........................................................286
Figure 7-8 Airline business environment levels...........................................................292
Figure 7-9 Inter-factors evolutionary analysis framework...........................................294
Figure 7-10 Multi-angles effects matrix.......................................................................295
Figure 7-11 Multi-angles coevolutionary matrix: sample and instruction of analysis.296
Figure 7-12 Contextualisation of concepts...................................................................301
Figure 8-1 Schematic diagram of the research programme implementation................314

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