IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v35y2014icp1-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Here we go again…the Permanently Failing Organization: An application to the airline industry in Eastern Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Akbar, Yusaf
  • Németh, Adél
  • Niemeier, Hans-Martin

Abstract

This paper analyzes the performance of the Central and Eastern Europe airline industry through the lens of the “Permanently Failing Organization†(PFO) framework. Based on elite interviews from management in the three airlines but also from other organizations within the industry, it confirms the salience of key theoretical features of the PFO framework by providing evidence for the persistence of short-term decision making; ongoing contradictions between articulated strategy and its poor or non existent implementation and frequently assiduous intervention by governments that rather than fostering decisive decision-making served to do the opposite. These factors contributed to reinforcing deeply held beliefs in the management that they would survive despite the obvious problems they have faced. External stakeholders – especially governments should reflect carefully on their role in fostering permanent failure.

Suggested Citation

  • Akbar, Yusaf & Németh, Adél & Niemeier, Hans-Martin, 2014. "Here we go again…the Permanently Failing Organization: An application to the airline industry in Eastern Europe," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:35:y:2014:i:c:p:1-11
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2013.10.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699713001245
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2013.10.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Button, Kenneth, 2003. "Does the theory of the ‘core’ explain why airlines fail to cover their long-run costs of capital?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 5-14.
    2. Barbot, Cristina & Costa, Ã lvaro & Sochirca, Elena, 2008. "Airlines performance in the new market context: A comparative productivity and efficiency analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 270-274.
    3. Romero-Hernandez, Manuel & Salgado, Hugo, 2005. "Economies of Density, Network Size and Spatial Scope in the European Airline Industry," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt9609m6hs, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    4. Beria, Paolo & Niemeier, Hans-Martin & Fröhlich, Karsten, 2011. "Alitalia – The failure of a national carrier," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 215-220.
    5. Dennis, Nigel, 2007. "End of the free lunch? The responses of traditional European airlines to the low-cost carrier threat," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 311-321.
    6. Bergamini, Elisabetta & Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2010. "Restructuring the Alitalia business model," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 16-19.
    7. Severin Borenstein, 2011. "Why Can't US Airlines Make Money?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 233-237, May.
    8. Creel, Michael & Farell, Montserrat, 2001. "Economies of scale in the US airline industry after deregulation: a Fourier series approximation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 321-336, November.
    9. AfDB AfDB, . "African Statistical Yearbook 2009," African Statistical Yearbook, African Development Bank, number 58 edited by Koua Louis Kouakou.
    10. Dean F. Eitel, 2004. "The Dynamics of Chronic Failure: A Longitudinal Study," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 243-250, August.
    11. Wojahn, Oliver W., 2012. "Why does the airline industry over-invest?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-8.
    12. Ciliberto, Federico & Schenone, Carola, 2012. "Bankruptcy and product-market competition: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 564-577.
    13. Pisarek Renata, 2009. "Air transport liberalisation in the European Union and its impact on development of the civil aviation sector in Poland," Comparative Economic Research, Sciendo, vol. 12(3), pages 45-58, January.
    14. Douglas W. Caves & Laurits R. Christensen & Michael W. Tretheway, 1984. "Economies of Density versus Economies of Scale: Why Trunk and Local Service Airline Costs Differ," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 471-489, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jankiewicz, Jacek & Huderek-Glapska, Sonia, 2016. "The air transport market in Central and Eastern Europe after a decade of liberalisation – Different paths of growth," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 45-56.
    2. Akbar, Yusaf H. & Kisilowski, Maciej, 2015. "Managerial agency, risk, and strategic posture: Nonmarket strategies in the transitional core and periphery," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 984-996.
    3. Stefan Gössling & Frank Fichert & Peter Forsyth, 2017. "Subsidies in Aviation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Kuljanin, Jovana & Kalić, Milica & Caggiani, Leonardo & Ottomanelli, Michele, 2019. "A comparative efficiency and productivity analysis: Implication to airlines located in Central and South-East Europe," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 152-163.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wojahn, Oliver W., 2012. "Why does the airline industry over-invest?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Chiuling Lu & Ann Yang & Jui-Feng Huang, 2015. "Bankruptcy predictions for U.S. air carrier operations: a study of financial data," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 39(3), pages 574-589, July.
    3. Scotti, Davide & Volta, Nicola, 2017. "Profitability change in the global airline industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-12.
    4. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2009. "An evaluation of European airlines' operational performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 525-533, December.
    5. De Nicola, Arianna & Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2013. "Airport quality and productivity changes: A Malmquist index decomposition assessment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 67-75.
    6. Stefan Gössling & Frank Fichert & Peter Forsyth, 2017. "Subsidies in Aviation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Yanhao Wei, 2018. "Airline networks, traffic densities, and value of links," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 341-370, September.
    8. Yu, Ming-Miin & Rakshit, Ipsita, 2023. "Target setting for airlines incorporating CO2 emissions: The DEA bargaining approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Assaf, A. George & Josiassen, Alexander, 2012. "European vs. U.S. airlines: Performance comparison in a dynamic market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 317-326.
    10. Mancuso, Paolo, 2014. "An analysis of the competition that impinges on the Milan–Rome intercity passenger transport link," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 42-52.
    11. Kristjanpoller, Werner D. & Concha, Diego, 2016. "Impact of fuel price fluctuations on airline stock returns," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 496-504.
    12. Beria, Paolo & Niemeier, Hans-Martin & Fröhlich, Karsten, 2011. "Alitalia – The failure of a national carrier," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 215-220.
    13. Fageda, Xavier & Suau-Sanchez, Pere & Mason, Keith J., 2015. "The evolving low-cost business model: Network implications of fare bundling and connecting flights in Europe," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 289-296.
    14. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2014. "Technical efficiency of mainstream airlines and low-cost carriers: New evidence using bootstrap data envelopment analysis truncated regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 15-20.
    15. Ye Li & Qiang Cui, 2017. "Airline energy efficiency measures using the Virtual Frontier Network RAM with weak disposability," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 479-504, May.
    16. Barros, Carlos P. & Liang, Qi Bin & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2013. "The technical efficiency of US Airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 139-148.
    17. Balliauw, Matteo & Meersman, Hilde & Onghena, Evy & Van de Voorde, Eddy, 2018. "US all-cargo carriers’ cost structure and efficiency: A stochastic frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 29-45.
    18. Johnston, Ahren & Ozment, John, 2013. "Economies of scale in the US airline industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 95-108.
    19. Steven, Adams B. & Dong, Yan & Dresner, Martin, 2012. "Linkages between customer service, customer satisfaction and performance in the airline industry: Investigation of non-linearities and moderating effects," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 743-754.
    20. Wanke, Peter & Pestana Barros, Carlos & Chen, Zhongfei, 2015. "An analysis of Asian airlines efficiency with two-stage TOPSIS and MCMC generalized linear mixed models," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 110-126.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:35:y:2014:i:c:p:1-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.