مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

This paper reports research undertaken with a sample of Taiwanese respondents as to how their understanding of an airline’s mission statement might influence passenger perceptions of a carrier’s brand. It seeks to contextualize the research and its findings within a literature that pertains to brand image, purchase behaviors and subsequent satisfaction, arguing that mission statements possess the potential to be an ancillary means of image and brand creation. The paper is written in a sequence of literature review, hypothesis formation, research design and mode of data collection, findings and discussion.

Mission statements have been variously defined as being statements of “Vision”, “Values, Beliefs”, “Principles”, “Strategic Intent”, or “Philosophy” (Ireland and Hitt, 1992; Pearce and David, 1987) and even given the generic name of “guiding statements” as suggested by Khalifa (2011). As such they convey an organization’s messages or even promises to relevant stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, investors and public (Bartkus et al., 2004). A mission statement is also perceived as an important medium for conveying corporate philosophies and values, and emphasizing an organization’s uniqueness and difference (Leuthesser and Kohli, 1997; Yamauchi, 2001). Chun and Davies (2001) and Ingenhoff and Fuhrer (2010) have listed the brand personality attributes that, when implemented in a mission statement, help firms to position themselves. The importance of the mission statement can be seen through the increasing number of companies that use mission statements (King et al., 2010) and some studies have provided evidence that mission statements enhance a firm’s performance (Bart and Baetz, 1998; Desmidt et al., 2011; Hirota et al., 2010; Williams et al., 2014). The study reported in this paper discusses these issues in the context of two airlines operating in Taiwan.

A brand image is used by an organization to attract consumers by indicating the benefits provided that can satisfy consumer needs and wants (Merz et al., 2009; Vargo and Lusch, 2004). A visible, impressive and solid brand is built through a branding process: existing therefore as a strategy that allows a company to differentiate itself from its competitors (Colucci et al., 2008; Madden et al., 2006). According to Chen and Chang (2008), strong brands can increase customer trust in the product, service or, as in this study, airline. In addition to the safety and security aspects (Gilbert and Wong, 2003), factors such as price, punctuality of flight, baggage handling and in cabin service and facilities are all taken into consideration by a passenger when booking a flight (Campbell andVigar-Ellis, 2012) and so may contribute to brand image. Lindstrom (2005) goes further to suggest a brand image is equivalent to trust, and trust in an airline could be reinforced by highlighting safety and security procedures. It is suggested that the trust between passengers and airline needs to be very strong, so that passengers feel secure when selecting a particular airline on which to travel. More widely it has been proposed that this trust could help consumers overcome concerns when involved in risky activities (Gefen, 2000), and surmount a sense of insecurity and perception of risk including a failure to obtain value for money (McKnight et al., 2002; Hong and Cho, 2011). Hence, by encouraging passengers to trust in a brand, airline companies can further boost passenger confidence and persuade them more easily to travel with a specific airline (Chiu et al., 2010; Pavlou et al., 2007).