<p>Background</p><p>Strategic alliances have become increasingly popular within the business world, they can be seen as a way to improve the total output of the firm. Over the last 10 years, the industry endured trying times, the most notable being the events of September 11, 2001. That event drastically changed airline traveling all across the world. It also showed the importance of collaborations in order to stay competitive. Star Alliance began in 1997 and has since then grown into</p><p>the world’s largest airline alliance with a total market share of 25.1%.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The raison d’être of this study is to quantify and analyze the augmentation of load factors over time, in terms of distribution, as they pertain to capacity performance of allied carriers within Star Alliance.</p><p>Method</p><p>In order to fulfill the purpose, a deductive approach to the research has been taken. Furthermore, due to the nature of the data, a quantitative approach has been used within. Two hypotheses will be stated and several research questions as well.</p><p>Result</p><p>It can be clearly seen that distribution of load factors has transformed during the years. There is a shift in both the skewness and the kurtosis of the distributions that can be seen when examining the frequency distribution charts. The kurtosis increases and the skew decreases, measures that are positive for the airlines, while the anomalies of 0% and 100% load factor have remained stable throughout the years. A general increase in the average load factors has also been seen.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>By analyzing the empirical findings, it is clear that the load factor of the allied members has increased and that the proportion of the denied boardings decreased in relation to the average load factor. This means that the alternative hypothesis was accepted in the first hypothesis and that the second alternative hypothesis was accepted in the second hypothesis. The research also reveals a generally increased mean which together with the changes in the skew and kurtosis lead to an acceptance of the beta distribution. Furthermore, higher load factors were shown to have a strong correlation with the increase in efficiency and decrease in overselling.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Advisers: Raj Echambadi, Jai Ganesh. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-102).

Thesis (M.S.)--North Carolina State University, 2003. / Includes vita. "Jun 04, 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-82). Available also online as a PDF file via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-153). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-215).

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Concerns over the future of the nonprofit sector due to increasing resource pressures and an economic rationalist political climate in Australia have led to increasing public and private interest in partnerships between nonprofit organisations and the private sector. The purpose of this research is to describe, understand, map and analyse the experiences of nonprofit staff in organisations that are linked to businesses in a variety of funding relationships. The major questions that drove the research were: 1. Does the language used by nonprofit staff and in organisational documentation relating to relationships with for-profits reflect the status of and contribute to the reproduction of the power relationship between the organisations? 2. Do nonprofit/for-profit relationships affect the organisational capacity of nonprofit organisations and the social agency of individuals? If so, to what extent can balanced power-sharing arrangements contribute to increased organisational capacity? 3. Does the media aspect of the institutional context of relationships in which nonprofits operate affect the social agency of individuals and the capacity of nonprofits? The thesis presents a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss 1967; Strauss & Corbin 1998) of language and power in inter-sectoral relationships, using five case studies, a media analysis and a quantitative component as the data from which to draw theoretical implications. The work develops an innovative methodological tool called 'linguistic threads' and uses Clegg's circuits of power model (1987) to culminate in static state and process theories of language and power in relationships between nonprofits and for-profits in the Australian context.

The formation of alliances has become a key strategy for businesses wishing to grow. Yet the majority of these alliances fail. Most of the research into strategic alliances has focused on the benefits to the business itself, such as access to new markets, new technology or new knowledge. Surprisingly little research has examined the impact such alliances have on the customer, so we do not know if these alliances result in tangible benefits for customers that can be used to improve the outcomes of the alliance. The present study examined whether such an alliance added value to customers or improved their relationship with a service provider. The study found customers differentiated between