Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Interestingly, strategic management theory, which focuses on the long-term activities and
structure of the organization, is also based on scarcity and shared problems serving as the basis
for collaboration. In the wider context of strategic management and the collective achieve-
ment of long-term, strategic goals, Gulati (1998) highlights a number of collaboration issues
of relevance, namely:
1 their formation;
2
their governance structure;
3
their dynamic evolution;
4
their performance; and
5
consequences for the performance of new entrants to such arrangements.
The emphasis of a strategic management approach to collaboration is primarily long term with
the commitment of management resources and capital invested in search of collaborative
advantage to achieve competitive positioning. At the outset, one has to question to what extent
any airline, or any organization for that matter, fully thinks through the longer-term consequences
of their decision to collaborate, or not as the case may be. The emergent nature of collaboration
and the turbulence of the external environment are such that predicting competitive, let alone
collaborative, outcomes is beset with problems. That said, the appeal of global reach appears
suffi cient in the context of most airlines to limit such concerns of the future direction of
international airline alliances.
The third resource-based view of collaboration is that of microeconomic theory generally and
transaction cost economics in particular which is underpinned by organizations seeking to
minimize costs incurred in economic exchanges generally and collaboration processes in particular
(Ross 1973; Williamson 1975, 1985; Barney and Ouchi 1986; Weaver 2009). Underpinning this
approach is the concept of the value chain whereby the various components of organizations are
broken up and reconfi gured in new relational forms to the benefi t of the organization, its costs and
outputs. Although the desire to achieve transaction cost effi ciencies is not doubted, the main driver
for membership of international airline alliances is value added with the considerable benefi ts for
both airlines and their passengers of global connectivity. One issue here, however, is the view that
rather than being bi-lateral in nature, transaction cost economics needs to recognize the multi-
lateral nature of tourism and the complexity and interdependence of the wider system as compared
to other industries. One of the negative outcomes of collaboration in a multi-lateral context is the
issue of 'free-rider' effects, this being where one partner or stakeholder is not contributing to
the collective good (Long 1997). If not contained, such behaviour can lead to the dissolution of the
collaborative arrangement which frequently is to the detriment of all participants. One further
issue with transaction cost economics is its focus on the costs of collaboration rather than the
benefi ts to be achieved. With all forms of collaboration fundamentally dynamic in nature, the more
rigid interpretation of transaction cost economics does not ideally fi t the more dynamic
phenomenon of collaboration. For example, collaboration in the context of international airlines is
continually shaped by a fast-changing market environment, crises of a natural and man-made
nature and a whole host of diverse organizational dynamics that include labour relations, contractual
legalities, fi nancial reporting, and the measurement and management of performance.
Relationship-based theories
The second theoretical approach advocated by Fyall
et al
. (2012) is relationship-based theories
where collaboration is explained by the search for, and acceptance of mutual dependency, and
