The aim of this PhD research project was to critically examine the self-reported socially-responsible activities of European full-service and low-fares airlines. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has been described using many terms and with varying definitions. Broadly, it is the recognition that businesses should voluntarily mitigate and manage their externalities. CSR has been touted by businesses and governments alike as a preferred alternative to regulation. This research looked at the self-reported CSR approaches of the European airline sector, which has historically been heavily regulated and is currently facing increasing pressures regarding its impacts on CSR- and sustainability-related concerns. Low cost carriers have been under particular scrutiny for their impacts, and therefore, this research compared the CSR approaches of the two dominant airline business models in Europe: low cost and full service models. The sample consisted of 21 full service and 13 low cost carriers with headquarters in Europe. Mixed qualitative methods were applied to 566 secondary documents (websites, press releases, annual reports, and standalone CSR reports) and 15 elite interviews with airline managers. A range of established CSR indicators were assessed, including: definitions, reported practices, motivations and justifications for CSR activities, and CSR management and monitoring. Much of what the airlines reported as their CSR was at odds with academic and governmental definitions; as a whole, they placed considerable emphasis on environmental issues and adhering to regulations. This study also found that the CSR practices were closely correlated with business practices and key sector issues – an understanding of CSR that is most compatible with stakeholder theory-based conceptualisations. Business models on their own were found to be an overly-simplistic explanation for the wide variances of practice that were found in the sample. Instead, four ‘profiles of responsibility’ were identified, which better captured the differences in practices.

Unaccountable corporate polluters profit short term at the expense of global economic sustainability. The purpose of the study was to determine if carbon dioxide (CO2) penalties on the airline emissions would result in financial statement disclosure and emission mitigation. Contributing to environmental accounting, the study was based in corporate social responsibility with a conceptual framework based on economically-centered CO2 studies. A random sample of 69 global airlines, taken from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) memberships, was stratified between EU bound and non-EU bound airlines. The research questions explored (a) the frequency mean differences in disclosed CO2 costs between the strata based upon the European Union's environmental trading scheme (EU-ETS) and (b) whether international financial reporting standards (IFRS) influenced the financial statement reporting of CO2 emissions costs. Financial statement data were analyzed in a 3-year longitudinal, ex-post, quasi-experimental, repeated measures factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA, pretest-posttest control group design. The results showed significant CO2 disclosure differences between the experimental (EU bound) airlines and control group (non-EU) airlines and for those airlines with IFRS prepared statements. These results should convince accounting practitioners that the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas pollution can become the catalyst for improved operations and commercial sustainability. Positive social change to mitigate anthropogenic pollution should result and should promote normative accounting practice to hold those responsible to a higher global accountability.

<p>A variety of factors are the reasons for adjusting or changing company’s strategy, such as the change of customer demand, company’s internal financial factors, the influence of external environment and so on. This research is to find out the link between the change of external environment and the adjustment of internal strategy. Choose the suspension of one flight in SAS as the case to state this point. Show the strategy change of SAS when they were facing the serious impact of financial crisis.</p><p>SAS as the biggest airline in North Europe it could be a typical firm to investigate this kind of situation. A deep-interview and reading the published reports of SAS are the main data collection approached. Some resources were from the internet because it is real-time news and the reports from the company are published on their website. The interviewee is from the top of the company who is familiar this area and has full experience in international business. The study used lots of theories from different books and journals to integrate the information that we collected to analysis and achieve our final conclusion.</p><p>After analyzed the study it found the SAS used the retrenchment strategy as their new international strategy to reverse the negative situation. The financial crisis affected the customer demand badly not just in China also around the world and forced them to change the strategy. The report ultimate believed there were still a lot of other factors, beside the financial crisis, caused the adjustment of strategy in SAS.</p>

<p>For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.</p><p>Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; <em>service and support</em>, <em>IT</em> and <em>marketing</em>. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases. Other findings were that SAS Eurobonus' customer relations were vital and well functioning, except for the fact that SAS homepage lacks sufficient opportunities to create a dialogue and proper communication between Eurobonus and its customers.</p> / <p>För många organisationer har Internet revolutionerat förhållandet för kundservice. Med hjälp av informationsteknologi med Internet som medium kan organisationer skapa kunddatabaser som ger dem möjlighet att behandla kunder som enskilda individer. Flygbranschen var en av de första att inse de många möjligheterna med Internet för att förbättra kundrelationerna och att göra dessa lönsammare, och detta ämnar vi undersöka i denna uppsats.</p><p>Uppsatsen behandlar hur flygbolaget, Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, Eurobonusavdelning arbetar med direktmarknadsföring via sin hemsida för att skapa bättre och lönsammare relationer med sina medlemmar i Eurobonusprogrammet. För uppsatsens räkning har tre av SAS medarbetare, som var och en representerar olika Eurobonusavdelningar, intervjuats: <em>service och support, IT </em>och<em> marknadsföringsavdelningen</em>. Vi har kommit fram till att Eurobonusavdelningen använder sig av direktmarknadsföring främst via e-post till sina kunder och att informationen i e-postmeddelandet är individualiserat till kunden - vilket är möjligt genom Eurobonus kunddatabaser. Vi kom även fram till att Eurobonus idag har fungerande kundrelationer, det saknas dock en fungerande dialog mellan kunden och företaget på hemsidan.</p>

Historians have traditionally emphasized the sharp differences between Herbert Hoover’s vision of an associational state and the activism of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. This dissertation highlights an important area of continuity between the economic policies espoused by Hoover—during his tenures as Secretary of Commerce and President—and Roosevelt, focusing on federal efforts to promote the nascent aviation industry from the end of World War I until the passage of the Civil Aeronautics Act in 1938. These efforts were successful, and offer a unique arena in which to document the concrete gains wrought by Hoover’s associationalist ideology and Roosevelt’s New Deal. Moreover, both Hoover’s corporatist policies and New Deal efforts to create aviation infrastructure—largely through the auspices of public works agencies like the Public Works Administration and Works Progress Administration—form a striking example of the government’s ability to successfully foster the development of a new industry, even in the midst of the Great Depression. Significantly, both men’s efforts represented an alternative to nationalization, the path taken by virtually every European nation during the era. This period thus offers the opportunity to examine how both presidents’ aviation policies cohere with their larger visions of government’s proper relationship to the economy, to compare and contrast associationalism and New Deal, and to elucidate aviation’s role in promoting American economic development. During these years government actions expanded from having literally no engagement with commercial aviation to subsidizing airmail routes, creating a regulatory infrastructure to promote safe operations by licensing pilots, inspecting aircraft, approving manufacturing operations, and aggressively promoting flying to the American people. Contextualized by the American public’s well-documented enthusiasm for flying—particularly after Charles Lindbergh’s famous New York-to-Paris flight in 1927—these federal actions created America’s modern air transport network, culminating in the passage of the seminal Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, the construction and improvement of almost a thousand airports around the country, and the growth of a core group of airlines, including United, Delta, and American, that still dominate commercial flying today.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis. Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases. Other findings were that SAS Eurobonus' customer relations were vital and well functioning, except for the fact that SAS homepage lacks sufficient opportunities to create a dialogue and proper communication between Eurobonus and its customers. / För många organisationer har Internet revolutionerat förhållandet för kundservice. Med hjälp av informationsteknologi med Internet som medium kan organisationer skapa kunddatabaser som ger dem möjlighet att behandla kunder som enskilda individer. Flygbranschen var en av de första att inse de många möjligheterna med Internet för att förbättra kundrelationerna och att göra dessa lönsammare, och detta ämnar vi undersöka i denna uppsats. Uppsatsen behandlar hur flygbolaget, Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, Eurobonusavdelning arbetar med direktmarknadsföring via sin hemsida för att skapa bättre och lönsammare relationer med sina medlemmar i Eurobonusprogrammet. För uppsatsens räkning har tre av SAS medarbetare, som var och en representerar olika Eurobonusavdelningar, intervjuats: service och support, IT och marknadsföringsavdelningen. Vi har kommit fram till att Eurobonusavdelningen använder sig av direktmarknadsföring främst via e-post till sina kunder och att informationen i e-postmeddelandet är individualiserat till kunden - vilket är möjligt genom Eurobonus kunddatabaser. Vi kom även fram till att Eurobonus idag har fungerande kundrelationer, det saknas dock en fungerande dialog mellan kunden och företaget på hemsidan.

A variety of factors are the reasons for adjusting or changing company’s strategy, such as the change of customer demand, company’s internal financial factors, the influence of external environment and so on. This research is to find out the link between the change of external environment and the adjustment of internal strategy. Choose the suspension of one flight in SAS as the case to state this point. Show the strategy change of SAS when they were facing the serious impact of financial crisis. SAS as the biggest airline in North Europe it could be a typical firm to investigate this kind of situation. A deep-interview and reading the published reports of SAS are the main data collection approached. Some resources were from the internet because it is real-time news and the reports from the company are published on their website. The interviewee is from the top of the company who is familiar this area and has full experience in international business. The study used lots of theories from different books and journals to integrate the information that we collected to analysis and achieve our final conclusion. After analyzed the study it found the SAS used the retrenchment strategy as their new international strategy to reverse the negative situation. The financial crisis affected the customer demand badly not just in China also around the world and forced them to change the strategy. The report ultimate believed there were still a lot of other factors, beside the financial crisis, caused the adjustment of strategy in SAS.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund Råoljor utgör den råvarumässiga grunden för cirka 40 % av den kommersiella energi- marknaden i världen. Därför oljemarknaden har en betydande ekonomisk och politisk roll i världen och betraktas priset på råolja idag som en viktig faktor för utveckling av världsekonomin. På senare tid har alla oroligheter i Mellanöstern, bland annat kriget i Irak och problematiken kring Irans kärnkraftverksamheter samt en ovanligt aktiv inledning på orkansäsongen i sydöstra Förenta staterna under 2005 drivit upp ett redan högt råoljepris. Enligt insatta aktörer på marknaden är flygbranschen en av de beroende branscherna till oljesektorn. Den är beroende av oljeproduktion, oljepris och oljetillgänglighet. Det påstås att oljeprishöjningen kan leda till högre kostnadsposter och följaktligen negativ inverkan på flygbolagens resultat. En ansenlig del av flygbranschens kostnader utgörs av bränslekostnader och dessa uppgår för närvarande till mellan 10 och 25% för de flesta flygbolag. Det gör att varje prisförändring i oljebranschen kan påverka flygbranschens lönsamhet. Att se till vilken grad dessa påståenden motsvarar det verkliga förhållandet när det gäller oljepriset och dess påverkan på flygbolagen, kommer att undersökas i denna uppsats. Syfte Syftet är att undersöka och analysera hur prisförändringar i oljebranschen påverkar Scandinavian Airlines SAS och Ryanairs resultat. Metod Undersökningen kommer att göras i form av en fallstudie och omfattar ovannämnda två flygbolag å ena sidan och oljepriset å den andra. Undersökningen genomförs med olika metoder såsom analys av texter och intervjuer. Resultat Enligt undersökningen är korrelationen mellan oljesektorn och flygbranschen negativ när det gäller bolagens bränslekostnader, men inte beträffande bolagens resultat. Det vill säga: när oljepriset stiger, påverkas flygbolagen SAS och Ryanair i form av ökade bränslekostnads- poster. Men genom effektivisering, det slutliga resultatet för både bolagen är positivt. / Background Crude oil constitutes 40% of basic raw material of commercial energy market in the world. Therefore the oil market has a meaningful economical and political role in the world. This makes the price on the oil market to become an important factor for the development of the world's economy. Lately the political instability in the Middle East, especially the war in Iraq, the complexes of the problems in Iran's nuclear weapon program and the unusual active beginning of the hurricane season in the south-eastern areas of the United States of America in 2005 has driven up already high prices of the raw oil to even higher levels. According to market analysers the flight industry is one of those industries that depend on the oil section. It is addicted to the oil production, prices of oil and oil availability. According to some people the increase of oil prices can bring up high expense and therefore a negative influences on the results of the flight companies. One considerable expense of the flight industries is fuel expenditure. At the moment the cost for fuel expenditure for many flight companies is between 10 and 25%. These create any price exchange of oil industry to affect the profitability of the flight industry. The statement that have been mentioned above and how those are connected to the reality when it comes to oil prices and its effectiveness on the flight companies will be the basic of this study. Purpose The purpose of this study is to study and analyse price exchanges in the raw oil industry affects Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Ryanair's results. Method This study will conduct with a case study and will include the two above named flight companies. The study will be carrying out with different methods as analyse of text and interviews. Results The result of these study saws that the relation between the oil section and flight industry is negative when it comes to flight companies fuel cost, but the result does not saw any negative result on flight companies results. This means that any increase of oil prices will affect SAS and Ryanair fuel expenditures but the final result for these two flight companies through efficiency is positive.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Co-Chair: George L. Nemhauser; Committee Co-Chair: Martin W. P. Savelsbergh; Committee Member: Bruce K. Sawhill; Committee Member: Joel Sokol; Committee Member: Ozlem Ergun. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning