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Final Exam requirement

Plan your responses before starting to write. Write clearly and in full sentences. Feel free to use illustrations in your answer where these are appropriate. The answer to each question should be based on materials from this course. A good answer is well organised and outlines the salient points from the class materials.

Answer should be no more than 1000 words in length. You must not exceed the specified word limit. This is a maximum word limit (+10% does not apply). Markers will be instructed that they do not have to mark anything beyond the 1000 words limit.

You will not be penalised for answers that are shorter than the limit; answers will be given credit for being comprehensive, rather than for being a certain length.

Question1:

An airline can be defined as a company that offers regular services for transporting passengers or goods via the air. These companies are said to make up the airline industry. In 1997 there was a deregulation of the airline industry and specific companies decided to apply their own innovation strategy to keep the competitiveness and/or improve the market share. Although the specific innovation strategy is very confidential information that firms keep usually secret, Dodgson et al. (2008) have identified different innovation strategies in particular airlines. According to these authors, Singapore airlines developed a proactive innovation strategy, British Airways an active innovation strategy and Ryanair a reactive innovation strategy.

Based on this specific sector, why should airlines formulate an Innovation Strategy?

In answering this question, you need to describe the key differences between a proactive, active and reactive type of innovation strategy using the framework provided by each particular airline.