Search Results (14)

Oil prices are volatile. How does this affect Japanese and South Korean firms? Since they import almost all of their oil, oil price increases may harm their economies. To investigate these issues, this paper examines how oil prices affect sectoral stock returns. Using Hamilton’s method to decompose oil price changes into portions driven by global demand and by oil supply, the results indicate that many sectors in both countries benefit from increases in global aggregate demand that raise oil prices. Many industrial firms in Japan that produce advanced products also benefit from supply-driven oil price changes. The finding that many firms benefit from higher oil prices indicates that blanket subsidies to compensate for oil price increases are unnecessary. Targeted subsidies would be more economical and eco-friendly. Many sectors in Japan and Korea that produce for the domestic economy are harmed by oil price increases. Large oil price swings will continue due to wars, tariffs, geopolitical events, and climate change. These will whipsaw sectors in both countries. To shield their economies from oil price changes, Japan and Korea should invest in technologies to improve wind, solar, and hydro power and should facilitate intra-regional trade in renewables. They should also encourage individual sectors such as airlines, cosmetics, agriculture, hotels, semiconductors, and automobiles to reduce their exposure to fossil fuels and to choose environmentally friendly production methods. In addition, both countries should expedite their targets for achieving carbon neutrality. This paper considers ways to achieve these goals. Full article

A company’s brand equity is built through sustainable development. Sustainability practices are increasingly being adopted by a wide range of organizations, with the aviation industry being particularly prominent. This trend can play a key role in enhancing brand equity within the Korean aviation sector. Specifically, the focus is on whether sustainability practices contribute positively to brand value within the aviation industry. The primary objective is to examine how service quality and sustainability practices influence airline brand equity through mediating factors. While previous research has predominantly explored airline service quality, this study aims to analyze the influence of sustainability practices on brand equity, particularly targeting Korean Air, amid the increasing interest in sustainability research within the airline industry. Additionally, a survey was conducted on 379 Korean Air passengers, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for analysis. The results indicate a strong positive correlation among service quality, sustainability practices, and brand equity, suggesting heightened passenger interest in airline sustainability practices, along with service quality. Hence, this theoretical investigation signifies a potential positive impact on the Korean aviation industry. Full article

This study examines the levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and state and trait anger of cabin crews, as well as the differences in the main variables and general characteristics between the depression and anxiety groups, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive cross-sectional study used data from 161 Korean cabin crew members. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, independent t-tests, and chi-square tests. Of the participants, 62.7% were women, and 52.2% and 46.6% were classified into the depression and anxiety groups, respectively. No differences in the general characteristics between the non-depression and depression groups were found. However, in the anxiety group, there were significant differences in age, marital status, position, and work type during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the anxiety group showed a higher anger state (approximately 6.76 times higher than the normal group) than the depression group (approximately 4.90 times higher than the normal group). In a pandemic, airlines should screen cabin crews for depression and anxiety. The development and applications of mental health education for high-risk groups should include anger intervention. Full article

Extant studies in medical and educational fields have demonstrated that employees’ device use (smartphones, tablet PCs, etc.) can enhance job performance. Correspondingly, global airline companies have made substantial investments to enhance passenger services. An earlier study examined the impact of flight attendants’ technology usage on job satisfaction by investigating the causal relationship between the benefits of tablet PC use, job performance, and its consequences. Based on the literature review, four advantages of technology use were derived: (1) efficiency, (2) convenience, (3) service effectiveness, and (4) pride. Additionally, three consequences of job satisfaction were derived: (1) team performance, (2) organizational commitment, and (3) turnover intention. Empirical data were collected from 208 flight attendants working for a South Korean airline, which provided tablet PCs for its employees. Data analysis revealed that work efficiency, convenience, and pride had a significant and positive impact on job satisfaction. However, flight preparation did not show a similar impact. This study is the first to investigate the benefits of using technology in the airline industry. Furthermore, it examined the convergence of airline management and information technology. The findings provide managerial implications for airline companies that are considering providing tablet PCs to flight attendants. Full article

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a significant factor in determining business sustainability. This trend is particularly evident in the airline industry, as airlines endeavor to navigate highly competitive market circumstances. CSR activities constitute a significant duty as one of the survival strategies and to sustain their business based on the customer loyalty in the airline industry in Korea. The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of CSR on airline loyalty through meaningful mediators within the airline industry in order to elicit important insights and provide relevant conclusions for airline experts to apply toward business sustainability. This study employed three factors—passenger satisfaction, airline brand, and airline trust—as key mediators between CSR and airline loyalty. An online survey was carried out through private SNS channels targeting airline service users, and 312 completed surveys were collected. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) enabled the study to determine that CSR activities among airlines significantly impact passenger satisfaction, airline brand, and airline trust. Moreover, passenger satisfaction and airline trust have a notable influence on airline loyalty. Limitations and implications for both academia and management are also presented based on the results of this research. Full article

The South Korean aviation market has grown rapidly since the emergence of Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs), and in response to this emergence, the two Full-Service Carriers (FSCs) of South Korea adopted the airline-within-airline (AWA) model and introduced their LCCs to compete with independent LCCs (ILCCs). A few years back, ILCCs filed a petition against Asiana Airlines, one of the two FSCs in South Korea, as Asiana Air was launching another subsidiary on the model of AWA. This, interestingly, indicates that AWA are doing well in the South Korean aviation market. However, a detailed study is required to evaluate the performance of this model, as in the global market the success of AWA is blurred. This study attempts to shed light on the performance of South Korean AWA, which may provide fruitful insights considering the post-COVID-19 dynamics of the aviation market. Full article

In the airline industry, customer satisfaction occurs when passengers’ expectations are met through the airline experience. Considering that airline service quality is the main factor in obtaining new and retaining existing customers, airline companies are applying various approaches to improve the quality of the physical and social servicescapes. It is common to use data analysis techniques for analyzing customer propensity in marketing. However, their application to the airline industry has traditionally focused solely on surveys; hence, there is a lack of attention paid to deep learning techniques based on survey results. This study has two purposes. The first purpose is to find the relationship between various factors influencing customer churn risk and satisfaction by analyzing the airline customer data. For this, we applied deep learning techniques to the survey data collected from the users who have used mostly Korean airplanes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the one of the few attempts at applying deep learning to analyze airline customer propensities. The second purpose is to analyze the influence of the social servicescape, including the viewpoints of the cabin crew and passengers using aircraft, on airline customer propensities. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method of considering human services increased the accuracy of predictive models by up to 10% and 9% in predicting customer churn risk and satisfaction, respectively. Full article

This study expands Carroll’s CSR typology with the public health and safety dimension to examine how the airline industry’s CSR and public health and safety activities influence flight attendants’ organizational identification, self-esteem, and commitment to the company during COVID-19. A total of 342 South Korean flight attendants participated in online surveys. Based on social identity theory and using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study reveals that ethical-, economic-, and philanthropic-CSR and public health and safety are positively related to organizational identification and that all are linked to the self-esteem and organizational commitment of flight attendants. However, legal-CSR did not affect their organizational identification. The results suggest that “public health and safety” should be applied when initiatives aim to enhance flight attendants’ organizational behavior. The study’s findings contribute to the literature by extending the original CSR model and providing theoretical and practical implications for academic researchers and airlines during a pandemic. Full article

The purposes of this study were (1) to identify MBTI (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator) personality profiles of Korean cabin crew in Middle Eastern airlines, (2) to determine whether MBTI personality affects their cross-cultural adjustment competency, occupational competency, and coping competency, and (3) to analyze the impact of these variables on their mental health and turnover intention. Furthermore, we verified (4) the moderating effect of cabin crew’s previous overseas experience on the relationship between cross-cultural adjustment competency and turnover intention. MBTI-Form M test and a survey questionnaire were distributed to 185 Korean cabin crew members in Middle Eastern airlines, and 172 valid datapoints were used for analysis. It was revealed that the cabin crew members showed significantly different levels of cross-cultural adjustment competency, occupational competency, and coping competency depending on their personality traits. Furthermore, those with higher cross-cultural adjustment competency and stress coping are more likely to have positive mental health, which also had an influence on lowering their turnover intention. Occupational competency had no significant association with mental health; however, it directly affects turnover intention. The findings will contribute not only to career plan guidelines for cabin crew aspirants, but also to airlines’ recruitment strategies as well as human resources management in aviation industry. Full article

This study compared the competitiveness of the Commonwealth Independent State Airlines (Azerbaijan Airlines, Air Astana, Aeroflot) with Korean airlines (Asiana Airlines, Korean Air) using customer online reviews through big data analytics. The purpose of this study was to get the understanding of airline issues, especially the relationship between airline traveler experience and satisfaction. This study also shows which group has a better service and is more developed and provides significant and social network-oriented suggestions for another group of airlines. Data were collected from Skytrax and the collected reviews were written from January 2011 to March 2019. The size of the dataset was 1693 reviews, and a total of 199,469 words were extracted. As part of the qualitative analysis method, semantic network analysis through text mining was performed, and linear regression analysis was conducted using SPSS as part of the quantitative analysis method. This study shows which group of airlines has a better service and provides significant and social network-oriented suggestions for another group of airlines. The common concerns, as well as special features for different airlines, can also be extracted from online review data. Full article

This study was designed to better comprehend airline customers’ purchase and pay intention formation by involving perceived airline corporate social responsibility (CSR), emotional factors, volitional factors, moral obligation, and brand involvement as key concepts. A survey methodology with quantitative data analysis was used. Our empirical results revealed that perceived CSR contributed to eliciting positive and negative emotions, brand attitude, and social norm. These variables significantly activated a sense of obligation to take pro-social actions. In addition, brand involvement acted as a significant moderator in the moral obligation and pay intention relationship. The adequateness of the higher-order structure of perceived CSR was verified. Full article

Little is known about the effectiveness of managerial influence tactics on job creativity and performance in the airline industry. Based on previous research, eleven hypotheses and a theoretical model was conducted under the assumption that individual influence tactics affect job creativity, job creativity has a positive influence on job performance, and job creativity mediates both influence tactics and job performance. This study implemented a quantitative method using multiple regression analysis, a three-step multiple regression analysis, and a Sobel test. According to an empirical method, among nine total influence tactics, inspirational appeals, ingratiation, exchange, and pressure acted as crucial drivers of job creativity, which had the greatest influence on job performance. Job creativity also had a mediating effect. On the other hand, the tactic of legitimating also positively influenced job creativity unlike previous studies. These findings may help managers by providing some insights for promoting job creativity and performance. Full article

With the continuously increasing demand for air travel, competition among airlines has increased as well. The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the causal relationships among the perceived service quality, corporate image, customer trust, and corporate reputation of Asiana Airline in South Korea using SERVQUAL measures. An onsite survey of Korean passengers was conducted. The results of this study reveal that responsiveness and reliability of service quality significantly affect corporate image and customer trust, whereas tangibles, empathy, and assurance of service quality are not significant antecedents of corporate image and customer trust. It is also found that corporate image and customer trust significantly affect corporate reputation. Based on these findings, theoretical importance and practical implications are discussed in this paper. Full article

Since the introduction of corporate social responsibility (CSR), it has become an important duty of companies and organizations. In addition, academic and industry researchers have attempted to explore the effects of corporate social responsibility on firm performance. To this end, this study examined how corporate social responsibility and service quality are notably associated with customer satisfaction and behavioral intention to use by employing a structural equation modeling method. A research model with nine constructs was introduced and the findings revealed that economic, social, and environmental responsibility, as well as in-flight service quality, significantly determined customer satisfaction, while there were notable connections between customer satisfaction and behavioral intention to use. However, service quality at airports did not have a significant effect on satisfaction. The practical and theoretical implications of the current study are discussed. Full article