Competitive dynamics in the international airline market: Exploring antecedents of competitive actions

Abstract

When airlines engage in competitive actions against each other, they are expected to do so for a variety of reasons. Although the ultimate goal of these competitive actions is to increase market share against competitors and to achieve above-average profits, some antecedents in the market provide different clues for airlines in the context of implementing competitive actions. The purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents that are believed to be effective on competitive actions and whether they vary according to the types of actions taken in the context of the Turkish international airline market. In the study, the dependent variables are the number of competitive actions and the independent variables are 12 variables related to the operational structure, resources, cooperation and market relations of the airlines. The models and hypotheses developed in the research were tested by panel regression analysis. As a result, models were obtained consisting of different antecedents according to the types of competitive actions and different effects of the same antecedent according to the type of action.