Sustainable Business Model Innovation in Incumbent Airline Companies

Abstract

There is a growing need for airline companies to address the impact they have on the environment. Airline companies play an essential role as enabler of global trade, and drive growth in the transportation industry. There is however public and political pressure on airline companies to reduce their overall carbon emissions, while at the same time continuing to meet the demands and expectations of international travel. This creates the theoretical relevance for this research, where an exploratory approach is taken in order to gain a better understanding of how incumbent airline companies can implement a sustainable business model innovation process. The study aims to understand the challenges airline companies would face, tools that could help them achieve SBMI, the outcomes that would result from SBMI, and finally the potential implementation tools to utilise in the process. This research was qualitative and followed an exploratory method to address the research questions proposed. The research design was in the form of a case study, and data was gathered from eight participants as primary data in combination with four industry reports as secondary data. The data was then analysed thematically. The research concludes with a conceptual framework that aims to provide airline companies with a better understanding of how to implement the SBMI process. The outcomes of the research also added new insights as a potential refinement to literature.