Collaborating pivotal suppliers: Complementarities, flexibility, and standard communication between airline companies and travel agencies

Abstract

One of the main aims of travel agencies is to collaborate with airline companies in designing tourism products connectivity and timetable coordination. The objective of this study was to investigate how strategic collaboration between airline companies and travel agencies affects collaborative performance, particularly in terms of delivery quality and complementarities with supplier competencies.Data were obtained via questionnaire surveys that were distributed among employees of travel agencies from Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The model and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The findings of this study indicate that higher delivery quality from airline companies improves a travel agency’s ability to develop and operate more effectively. Complementarities with supplier competencies across the airline companies and travel agencies facilitate the development of knowledge competence particularly in relation to price strategy. In addition, supply chain flexibility significantly influences collaborative performance within travel agency collaborations.