成熟的市場裡的機會：近期演變旅遊業的評估 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程 International MBA Program College of Commerce National Chengchi University. 治. 立. 政碩士論文. 大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Master’s Thesis. sit. y. Nat. 成熟的市場裡的機會：近期演變旅遊業的評估 er. io. Opportunities in a Mature Market : An Assessment of the. al. n. v i n C h in the Travel Recent Evolution e n g c h i U Industry. Student: Yeu-Tyng Tinna Chung Advisor: Professor Foo Nin Ho. 中華民國一〇三年七月 July 2014.

(2) . 成熟的市場裡的機會：近期演變旅遊業的評估 Opportunities in a Mature Market : An Assessment of the Recent Evolution in the Travel Industry. 研究生：鍾羽婷. Student: Yeu-Tyng Tinna Chung. 指導教授：何富年. Advisor: Foo Nin Ho. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學國立政治大學. ‧. 商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程. y. A Thesis. n. a. er. io. sit. Nat. 碩士論文. v. i l to Submitted C International MBAnProgram. i U. h. e n g c hUniversity National Chengchi. in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration. 中華民國一〇三年七月 July 2014.

(3) . Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost my parents for supporting me throughout the way; loving me unconditionally through good times and stressful times. I would also like to thank the following people in no particular order: Professor Foo Nin Ho for being incredibly understanding and supportive as I work through this thesis, Iris Chang for going above and beyond as a friend to. 政治大. help me push this thesis through, and the IMBA staff for all their patience, support and help.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i . i n U. v.

(4) . Abstract Opportunities in a Mature Market : An Assessment of the Recent Evolution in the Travel Industry By Yeu-Tyng Tinna Chung. 治政大many companies are faced with a As the travel industry becomes more and more saturated, 立 highly competitive environment; hypercompetition. This paper analyzes how travel agencies have. ‧ 國. 學. been using certain strategies to survive in a hypercompetitive environment. This paper uses a case. ‧. study method through interviews to observe three different travel agencies on the strategies they use and how well aligned they are with theoretical statements that guide on how to survive in a. y. Nat. n. er. io. al. sit. hypercompetitive environment.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Keywords: Hypercompetition, Travel, Strategies, Sustatinability. . ii .

(5) . TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1. 2.. Literature Review................................................................................................................... 2. 3.. Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 11. 4.. Hypothesis Development ..................................................................................................... 12. 學. ‧ 國. 4.1. 政治大 Focus on Developing 立New Advantages .......................................................................... 12. Make Series of Small Moves Rather Than Big Moves .................................................. 13. 4.3. Avoid Imitation by Being Unpredictable........................................................................ 14. 4.4. Mislead the Competition ................................................................................................. 15. 4.5. Other Critical Success Factors ........................................................................................ 16. ‧. 4.2. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. i n U. v. 5.. Methods ................................................................................................................................. 18. 6.. Results ................................................................................................................................... 21. 7.. Ch. engchi. 6.1. Sinorama Voyages Group ............................................................................................... 21. 6.2. CFA Voyages .................................................................................................................. 26. 6.3. Escape Tour Travels ....................................................................................................... 30. 6.4. Positioning Each Company ............................................................................................. 36. Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 37. iii .

(6) . 8.. 7.1. Sinorama Voyages Group Performance.......................................................................... 37. 7.2. CFA Voyages Performance ............................................................................................ 39. 7.3. Escape Tour Travels Performance .................................................................................. 42. 7.4. Other Conclusions........................................................................................................... 45. Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 46. 政治大. References .................................................................................................................................... 48. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iv . i n U. v.

(7) . List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Disruption and the New 7S’s ........................................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Performance Matrix of over Performance in Four Dimensions against Online Presence ............................................................................................................................................... 36. 政治大 Table 2: CFA Voyages Performances 立 in the Four Dimensions ...................................................... 29 Table 1: Sinorama Performances in the Four Dimensions ............................................................ 24. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Table 3: Escape Tour Travels Performances in the Four Dimensions ........................................... 34. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v . i n U. v.

(8) . 1. Introduction In this age of rapidly changing technology, companies from the travel industry have been forced to globalize their business models and develop strategies to survive in a hypercompetitive environment. As the travel industry is now closely linked with the internet, there has been a boom of innovation and traditional ways of doing business has become a burden for companies in this. 政治大 flexible in multiple aspects to 立be able to respond quickly in the rapidly changing environment.. industry to maintain competitiveness. Rather, companies now find themselves needing to become. ‧ 國. 學. This sort of hypercompetitive environment is defined by Richard D’Aveni as an environment that is in constant disequilibrium (D’Aveni, Richard, 1994). As the internet has allowed suppliers. ‧. such as airlines, hotels and car rentals to reach the consumer directly and shorten the distance of. sit. y. Nat. the supply chain, travel agencies have had to fight to stay within the supply chain and create new. io. er. ways to stay in the market. The internet has also allowed a large flow of information to be. al. v i n C h currently. ThisUalso causes disequilibrium in the market considerably easier access to information engchi n. circulated directly to consumers who are obtaining more and more bargaining power as they have. place. Businesses have had to learn quickly to adapt to new forms of media, new ways to add distribution channels to satisfy customers, and develop innovative ways to boost customer perception of quality. This study will delve into some details on how companies have been able to evolve with the changing business environment and prosper in a hypercompetitive industry.. 1 .

(9) . 2. Literature Review This study will be applying Richard D’Aveni’s concept of hypercompetition to the travel industry; in particularly in the sector of travel agencies. As the travel industry has changed significantly due to the emergence of the internet and later the growth of social media. Entry barriers which once exerted a stabilizing force on competition have fallen in the face of the rapid changes of an. 政治大 D’Aveni argues that in a hypercompetitive environment, companies are competing in four arenas: 立. information age, leaving companies exposed to the full force of hypercompetition. Richard. ‧ 國. 學. 1.. Cost-quality advantages: Companies try to create high quality products or services. ‧. at low costs in efforts to differentiate themselves. D’Aveni believes that companies will gravitate towards an “ultimate value” where they gain advantage by providing. y. Nat. al. n. 2.. Ch. er. io. the cost and avoiding pure price wars.. sit. more quality by focusing on different areas on the price-quality axis thus value for. i n U. v. Timing and know-how advantages: Companies invest in innovation to gain. engchi. advantage over competitors. However, competitors will imitate and the innovators find themselves being pushed to create new products and/services at an accelerating rate to a point where it no longer exceeds the gains. 3.. Strongholds from setting up entry barriers: In hypercompetition merely setting up entry barriers to keep out most competitors is not enough. It would only take one hypercompetitive entrant to disrupt the environment and break down advantage.. 2 .

(10) . Therefore companies must be vigilant in setting up entry barriers that would keep out all potential competitors. 4.. Deep pockets: In hypercompetition, competitors will be constantly undermining each other. Therefore, having extra margin to sustain losses would help companies in survival within the environment when they meet formidable competitors that attack. Smaller companies could create alliances to build deep pockets to protect themselves.. 治政大 on only one of these arenas is not He continues to say that focusing on keeping an advantage 立. going to help the company in the long term. Rather, companies must move quickly and smoothly. ‧ 國. 學. between each arena in order to stay ahead of competitors and survive in the hypercompetitive. ‧. environment (D’Aveni, Richard, 1994). Travel agencies today are competing in all four arenas as the travel industry has shaped itself to become populated with multiple competitors who will. y. Nat. er. io. sit. undercut each other given the opportunity. There has been a lot of movements seen in this sector where companies must adapt to new tactics and quickly attain resources and knowledge to use as. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. tools for competition in these four arenas. As travel agencies are now competing in an. engchi. environment that looks more and more like hypercompetition, their reactions are starting to look similar to those in the four arenas. Currently travel agencies have been clustering around the first arena mainly and spreading towards the other three arenas as they realize that dominance in only one of the arenas is not enough to survive.. D’Aveni goes deeper in to details and mentions how companies are able to sustain the momentum of competitiveness by using the new 7S framework. Deriving from the original. 3 .

(11) . McKinsey set of 7S framework, D’Aveni creates a new set of approaches that companies can refer to help maintain their advantages which are constantly short lived in a hypercompetitive environment. The new 7S’s the D’Aveni proposes are:. 1.. Superior stakeholder satisfaction: The company focuses on stakeholder satisfaction (mainly customers) therefore look for new ways to improve the quality. 治政 Strategic soothsaying: The company focuses大 on boosting their internal organization 立 of their product or service to cater to existing customers or new untapped markets.. 2.. procedures and culture to unify employees to think of putting customer needs ahead. ‧ 國. 學. of individual needs. The company also considers the customers as priority before the. 3.. ‧. other stakeholders (i.e. employees, shareholders, etc.) here.. Positioning for Speed: The company structures itself to be able to respond to. y. Nat. er. io. sit. changes in the market quickly and also dictate change in the market quickly to disarm competitors with disruption.. al. n. 4.. Ch. i n U. v. Positioning for Surprise: The company structures itself to be flexible and creates a. engchi. series of moves that is purposed to confuse or stun the competitors so the company itself can find new opportunities for advantages when competitor advantages are destroyed. 5.. Shifting the rules of competition: Here the company takes action and disrupts the environment by taking advantages away from their competitor. The company distributes an innovation into the market that drives demand differently or reshapes the supply chain.. 4 .

(12) . 6.. Signaling strategic intent: The company communicates intent to their competitors to either throw off or de-motivate the competitors. These actions include early promotion of new products that seem very powerful and unable to be copied even if the products are still at immature stage.. 7.. Simultaneous and sequential strategic thrusts: Here the company sets up multiple moves simultaneously or very quickly so to confuse competitors. It may fake a move. 政治大. in one direction and move forcefully in the opposite direction. The company can also. 立. adopt the tactic of using the same moves repeatedly until seemingly predictable to. ‧ 國. 學. competitors and then change directions suddenly to attain advantage.. ‧. Figure 1 below illustrates how the seven approaches are grouped together and how they can be useful for the company to adopt as a strategic approach. They are grouped by how they function. y. Nat. er. io. sit. to create disruption in the market place. These new approaches are some approaches that companies may take to bring about disruption to the environment so they can destroy entry. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. barriers and try to create new opportunities for them to gain advantage. These approaches are to. engchi. be used continuously to constantly tear down strategies and create new ones so the competitors cannot keep up (D’Aveni, Richard, 1995).. It will actually be difficult for a company to perform highly in all seven approaches as each have their own tradeoffs. To excel at superior stakeholder satisfaction, an organization would lose speed since they would need time to test new products or services to ensure quality before distributing to consumers. As for strategic soothsaying, the tradeoff there is giving up speed also.. 5 .

(13) . Generally when a company uses soothsaying to regroup and unify the organization internally to boost the quality of products and/or services, there is a period of time needed for the change to sink in with all of the employees thus staying quick and flexible becomes a difficult issue to excel in. The tradeoff for the position for surprise is often signaling. Positioning the company for surprise requires keeping some aspects hidden from competitors so they do not become aware of the company’s advantage; however, this effect is lessened when signaling is executed which. 政治大. requires revealing the strategic intent of the company. Lastly, shifting the rules and use of. 立. strategic thrust have tradeoffs in that they usually lessen the quality of products/services as. ‧. ‧ 國. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. Richard, 1995).. 學. employees, and stakeholders can become confused along with the competitors. Ch. engchi. 6 . i n U. v. (D’Aveni,.

(14) . 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 1: Disruption and the New 7S’s (D'aveni, Richard A., Jonathan M. Canger, and Joseph J. Doyle. "Coping with Hypercompetition: Utilizing the New 7S's Framework [and Executive Commentary]." The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005)9.3 (1995): 4560. JSTOR. Web.). 7 .

(15) . These concepts are currently in use within the travel industry. How companies are using these key approaches and highly perform in one or few of these approaches can determine their success in surviving in today’s hypercompetitive environment. Observing how companies choose their strategies and if they adhere to these seven concepts would be insightful to understand how the hypercompetitive environment is shaped in the travel industry.. 治政大 for by competitors increasingly been revolutionized; competitive advantages are compensated 立. With technological advances happening so quickly the rules and standards of the industry have. quickly and thus cannot be sustained (Matzler, Kurt et al., 2009). In particular to travel agencies,. ‧ 國. 學. businesses no longer can look at their internet component merely as a supplement to their. ‧. business but focus on the development of new strategies to meet the demands of the future. They should detach from traditional ways of relying on long term relationships with suppliers and. y. Nat. er. io. sit. direct efforts to product specialization and information specialization (Barnett, Martin et al., 2000). The Internet has become a major source of information for travelers and a platform for. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. tourism business transactions; the tourism industry specifically is one of the leading applications. engchi. of the internet in a business to consumer context (Pan, Bing et al., 2007). Studies have shown that the travel industry has gravitated towards fulfilling customer demands for good experiences. They rely on consumer word of mouth to gain presence within their target audiences. Though the internet is an important medium for travel information, the confidence the consumers place in Internet advertisement is low (Pan, Bing et al., 2007). However, at the same time technological advancement and increased international competition affect significantly how consumers perceive and consume travel destinations (Frias, Dolores et al., 2012). This race into tapping into. 8 .

(16) . the customer needs has become more and more difficult for travel agencies to sustain. Past research has derived that companies in hypercompetitive environments need to maintain an ongoing process of variation and flexibility in order to overcome routinization and chaos (Volberda, Henk W., 1996).. Flexibility is an important trait for travel agencies to have in the current hypercompetitive market.. 治政大regulations as well as the agility to customer demands, social expectation, or new government 立 They must be able to exert speed in response for short-term changes that may arise through. evolve and grow through adaptation of new technologies for long term sustainability (Carlopio,. ‧ 國. 學. James, et al., 2012). Factors that they may need to consider in developing their online interface. ‧. are:. Flexibility in sourcing new travel products or packages. . Minimizing the costs of development and maintenance of the website. . Access to expertise in web strategy, development and implementation. . Capitalizing on a high profile offline image. . Accessing new customers. . The potential for channel conflict. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. . Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Travel agencies may need to perform highly on a few of these characteristics in order to be able to stay competitive within the dynamic market place (Carlopio, James, et al., 2012).. 9 .

(17) . An example of a market place that became hypercompetitive where businesses needed to change their strategies in order to stay competitive is the case study of the Japanese Beer Wars. The Japanese beer industry had evolved into a hypercompetitive environment during the 1980s when the demand for new beers became a trend and a burst of various beers became available to consumers on the market place. Consumers had gained a large share of bargaining power as their tastes changed quickly and many types of beers were available to choose from on the market. 政治大. place. Beer companies, especially those who were dominant players had to restructure. 立. organizationally and become flexible in order to stay competitive. They had to be faster and. ‧ 國. 學. faster in judging the changing taste of the customers, create new ways to distribute their product and also produce new products. The speed ability in creating changes weakens and becomes. ‧. status quo. Companies had to develop difficult to imitate specialized capabilities continuously to. Nat. sit. y. keep their advantage in the market. The rare and specialized capabilities remained the most. n. al. er. io. valuable as long as the broader hypercompetitive conditions persisted in the industry (Craig, Tim.. i n U. v. 1996). The travel industry has also become a hypercompetitive environment similarly with a. Ch. engchi. burst in free or very low cost information available and new distribution channels that allow consumers to have direct contact with suppliers giving the consumer a disproportionately large bargaining power and thus consumer demand dictates the dynamics of the market place.. 10 .

(18) . 3. Research Questions This thesis will investigate how technological evolutionary pathways have shaped the economic performance of the economic players in the travel industry. It analyzes in particular whether how the emergence of new web based technology might alter the interaction between travel agencies and their customer base. Also, it will analyze what kind of players are able to use technological. 政治大. advancements to their advantage and which companies come to see the technological. 立. advancements as a threat.. ‧ 國. 學. As travel agencies are facing hypercompetitive environments, it is still unclear how they are. ‧. reacting to this setting of constant disruption and which approaches they are choosing to utilize to survive against their competitors.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 11 . i n U. v.

(19) . 4. Hypothesis Development When faced with a hypercompetitive environment, companies are forced to make a series of moves to stay competitive and keep their advantage amongst their competitors. They will either excel at one or all of the four dimensions that follow to be deemed as successfully maintaining an advantage within their hypercompetitive environment.. 學. ‧ 國. 4.1. 治政 Focus on Developing New Advantages 大立. This sort of action refers to when a company makes a decision to drop or turn focus away from their traditional ways of sustaining an advantage and focuses on developing new advantages.. ‧. (Johnson, Gerry, et al., 2014) This dimension is in line with positioning for speed, stakeholder. Nat. sit. y. satisfaction, and soothsaying. Travel agencies must constantly find new ways to satisfy the. n. al. er. io. customers and new ways to gain new customers in order to stay sustainable within the. i n U. v. competitive environment. With the fast pace of changes in the market due to rapid development. Ch. engchi. of technology, they may need to drop traditional ways of conducting business and adapt new ways to maintain advantage. Success in this dimension will be determined by the company’s actions that pertain to the following questions: . Does the company constantly search for new ways to promote their product?. . Does the company create new services in response to customer demand?. . Does the company look for new opportunities with new suppliers?. 12 .

(20) . . Has the company undergone any procedural changes internally that involves training employees to improve quality of service?. . Did the company ever need to cannibalize any traditional ways of conducting business because it was not creating enough returns?. . Does the company try to differentiate themselves through increasing consumer perception of value rather than use pricing strategies?. 學. ‧ 國. 4.2. 政治大 Make Series of Small Moves Rather Than Big Moves 立. As companies in a hypercompetitive environment will need to make changes and moves often to keep ahead of their competition, they will need to create smaller changes for temporary. ‧. advantages as opposed to big moves that cannot be sustained very long with hypercompetitive. y. Nat. sit. opponents looking to disrupt the playing field constantly. Another benefit of small moves in a. n. al. er. io. hypercompetitive environment is that small moves tend to go undetected by competitors therefore. i n U. v. harder to counter (Johnson, Gerry, et al., 2014). This dimension is in line with simultaneous or. Ch. engchi. sequential strategic thrusts and position for speed and surprise from D’Aveni’s framework. Travel agencies will most likely create small changes within their package tours which may go undetected by competitors and still attract new consumers. Small moves can also be done within the organization for travel agencies to try to differentiate themselves through quality of service. Success in this dimension will be determined by the company’s actions that pertain to the following questions:. 13 .

(21) . . Has the company undergone any internal changes to boost quality of service. . Does the company make changes to their product or services within a short time span (3 months being a benchmark)?. . Does the company try to make moves to assume different segments of the market simultaneously?. . Has the company redefined their target audience before?. . Has the company redefined their products to target new audiences before?. . Does the company invest in multiple new projects to be prepared for what future. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. market demands are?. ‧. 4.3 Avoid Imitation by Being Unpredictable. y. Nat. sit. In a hypercompetitive environment, competitors will seek to imitate companies who are. n. al. er. io. successful in their promotions or processes. It would be easier for competitors to imitate a. i n U. v. company if its action were predictable which happens a lot in the traditional setting of business. Ch. engchi. (Johnson, Gerry, et al., 2014). This dimension is in line with the positioning for surprise and shifting the rules of the game approaches from D’Aveni’s framework. Travel agencies today have a harder time not being transparent to competitors with a lot of promotions and distribution channels conducted on the World Wide Web. They must find ways to be unpredictable and keep their competitors guessing on their next move to keep their advantage in the market. Success in this dimension can be observed through how a company performs pertaining to the following questions:. 14 .

(22) . . Are there any known entry barriers that have been set up by the company to block out competitors?. . Are there any ways the company is fronting an appearance of unpredictability?. . Does the company consciously create surprise actions to throw off their competitors?. . Has the company done anything seemingly irrational that competitors have a hard time imitating?. . 政治大. Does the company keep track of what their competitors are doing so they can. 立. strategize on how to out maneuver them? Does the company create alliances with other companies in different market sectors. ‧ 國. 學. . to gain new market sectors and avoid imitation?. ‧ sit. y. Nat. 4.4 Mislead the Competition. n. al. er. io. This is defined by any action that the company would take to communicate to competitors to take. i n U. v. a different directions as they would. This dimension would be needed to survive in a. Ch. engchi. hypercompetitive environment to again throw off and confuse competition so the company has time to seek new opportunities to gain advantages. A company may pretend to be successful in a market sector while they prepare themselves to respond to an attack from a competitor elsewhere (Johnson, Gerry, et al., 2014). This dimension correlates with the signaling, positioning for surprise and shifting the rules of the game approaches from D’Aveni’s framework. Travel agencies will need to find ways to mislead their competition to gain entry to new markets or gain. 15 .

(23) . new advantages as first movers. Performance in this dimension can be determined through observing the actions of the company pertaining to the following questions: . Does the company keep track of what competitors are doing in the market place and observing how competitors respond to their actions?. . Does the company signal moves to throw off competitors but go in a different. 治政 Does the company signal any big changes 大 to competitors to either intimidate or 立 direction?. . confuse competitors?. ‧ 國. 學. . Has the company disguised initial successes to help buy time to prepare themselves. ‧. to respond to the market?. Nat. al. er. io. sit. y. 4.5 Other Critical Success Factors. n. Other critical success factors that will be considered to help determine how successful a travel. Ch. agency is in terms of surviving and keeping their. engchi. iv n advantage U. within the hypercompetitive. environment of the travel industry. Through research, it was also found that technology plays a very important role in shaping today’s travel industry. Therefore, one of the more important critical success factors that will be closely observed that may contribute to the company’s success in today’s hypercompetitive environment is how quickly and how well the company adapts to creating a strong online presence. They should perform well in one or more of the following:. 16 .

(24) . . Flexibility in sourcing new travel products or packages. . Minimizing the costs of development and maintenance of the website. . Access to expertise in web strategy, development and implementation. . Capitalizing on a high profile offline image. . Accessing new customers. . The potential for channel conflict. 治政 These characteristics, proposed by Carlopio should also 大 be considered as another factor in the 立 analysis of determining success of the companies’ survival in hypercompetition (Carlopio, James,. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. et al., 2012).. In order for a company in the travel industry to stay competitive they must exhibit strong. Nat. sit. y. performances in at least more than one of these four dimensions to be able to stay ahead of their. n. al. er. io. competitors in the industry and be able to survive without being overpowered by other. i n U. v. competitors. Their strong performances in these dimension can show how they are able to sustain. Ch. engchi. a continuous cycle of disruption and rebuilding advantages which are key to endure in a hypercompetitive environment. The overall performance in the four dimensions can be compared against the companies’ performances in adapting to their online presence to create a clearer view of where each company is positioned.. 17 .

(25) . 5. Methods This study is designed to help gain new insights to how travel agencies are behaving in the hypercompetitive environment that the travel industry has evolved into today.. Data collection will be conducted through three interviews of three different travel agencies to analyze each company’s performances any determine their success in today’s hypercompetitive. 政治大. environment in the travel industry. How these companies have reacted throughout their time in. 立. the industry will help gain insight on how the current markets are shaped.. ‧ 國. 學. This study will take into account of different aspects of three different companies to gain insight. ‧. on how to determine travel agency success factors and which aspects contribute toward. sit. y. Nat. sustainability. Each of these businesses should have similarities in how they conduct business and. io. al. er. stay sustainable within a hypercompetitive environment. These case studies will illustrate a. v. n. pattern of which characteristics businesses in the travel industry must have in order to stay competitive.. Ch. engchi. i n U. In this research, a case study method will be adopted to help explore different aspects of the travel business within slightly different environments facing globalization. It will also help explore how these businesses react to technological advancements in helping their business or hindering their business. Through semi-structured interviews, data is gathered by conversation with a series of questions answered by each company representative. Many of the questions asked during the interviews are a mix of interpretive and leading questions that are focused on the. 18 .

(26) . experiences of the company representative about the company and knowledge of the company’s history. The results of the interview will be expressed in this study by a narrative analysis and use of tables to summarize the company actions and reflect similarities and differences in relation to the dimensions established.. Analysis of the data will be mainly an inductive approach. Having found multiple generic. 治政 environment, this study has grouped the approaches 大 found in the frameworks into four 立 frameworks and theories on how a company should function to survive in a hypercompetitive. dimensions to help look for a relationship that correlated with the data gathered.. ‧ 國. 學. Although the internet has allowed the travel sector to grow exponentially and become a very. ‧. mature market, there are still ways for businesses in this sector to stay sustainable and. Nat. sit. y. competitive. This phenomenon must be analyzed to see what allows continued growth in such a. n. al. er. io. mature industry (perhaps differentiation).. Ch. i n U. v. Each company interviewed is given a score of low, medium, or high by how well they perform in. engchi. each of the four dimensions mentioned above. The individual scoring for each dimension will show how strong they are in performance in that dimension.. The other critical success factors mentioned in the hypothesis section will also be take into consideration during the analysis of the data. Similarities and difference can also be determined to show patterns that travel agencies exert in a hypercompetitive environment. Determining whether the company performs highly in adapting to the necessary strong online presence and. 19 .

(27) . utilizing effective online strategy will be conducted through observation of each company’s website and social media accounts.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 20 . i n U. v.

(28) . 6. Results Each interview was conducted either through in person interviews or conference call interviews. All of the representatives were asked a similar series of leading and interpretive questions to attain data. They will be separated reported and summarized below to show similarities and patterns.. 學. ‧ 國. 6.1. 治政 Sinorama Voyages Group 大立. The first company interviewed is Sinorama Voyages. This is a company has been in the travel industry for a considerable length of time having been established nine years ago in Montreal.. ‧. Their main product is packaged tours to different regions of China and their main target audience. Nat. sit. y. is customers in North America and Europe. However they have had to undergo multiple changes. n. al. er. io. in order to stay ahead of their competitors. The company expanded fairly quickly within a few. i n U. v. years to multiple store fronts in Canada and multiples store fronts in Europe (France and. Ch. engchi. Germany; established in 2012 and 2013 respectively). They create new promotions and new services seasonally to help stay differentiated from their competitors. They have been expanding their package tours to outside of China into other areas of Asia and recently, different parts of Europe as well. They do however instill the values of extending services to customers who have special demands. All of the employees are trained to speak with customers on the phone with courtesy and trained to put the customers as first priority. They have an extensive network of suppliers whom they work with to create packaged tours for customers. These alliances have a. 21 .

(29) . long term relationship with the company and have been one of the defining aspects of the company; the company has been able to negotiate lower costs for services and has already screened the quality of these services.. During the beginning of establishing the business, Sinorama had used traditional media and traditional promotional tools to attract attention of customers. These included newspaper ads,. 治政大 of 2012, the company expanded its audience is the older, retired generation. However in October 立 magazine ads, and television commercials. This strategy was through to be best as their target. services and established a website online. A few months later, they added a new service of being. ‧ 國. 學. able to order and pay for package tours through their website. This helped boost their sales. ‧. growth significantly and they soon realized that they may be able to solely rely on their website for promotions. The same year the company found the traditional media promotions to be costly. y. Nat. er. io. sit. and dropped all traditional media ads and focused on their online presence. In order to extend their online presence, they have established twitter accounts, facebook accounts, and google+. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. accounts to post promotions and keep their customers informed. Since, they have found that even. engchi. though the target audience is older; they are still mostly attracting customers through the internet. Other improvements that have proved significant are the addition of different languages onto their website.. Their main focus is customer service and is focused on keeping their quality rather than driving down prices. Their main advantages are their close relationships with high end hotels and tourist companies in China that are featured in their packages. This has been a strategic move that they. 22 .

(30) . have been able to sustain for a long period of time. As their main focus has been the quality of customer services, they are implementing procedural improvements consistently through constant feedback from customers. They make sure that they keep a close watch on reduction of customer complaints and how customers rank their services.. Sinorama Voyages has plans in the future to expand even further to try to gain market share and. 治政 for another viable region to promote their services. They大 have seen an easier access to test new 立 new customers in more countries in Europe. They have been conducting market research to look. markets with the access of the internet and feel that they may even cannibalize one of their store. ‧ 國. 學. fronts to expand into a new market region and focus more on their web presence and network of. ‧. suppliers to bring new and high quality products to their customers.. Nat. sit. y. This company has experienced growth in different sectors: they have expanded to four other. n. al. er. io. offices and are located in different parts of the world. They have experienced growth in. i n U. v. customers year after year also. The interviewee attributed a rapid growth in customers after. Ch. engchi. establishing a website and a toll free call line after their second year in business. Their growth is also reflected in their additions of different services over a short period of time. They have included cruises and bus tours into their product mix as well as included insurance services for the convenience of their customers. The company has also been quick to adapt to social media; opening accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.. 23 .

(31) . Table 1: Sinorama Performances in the Four Dimensions Dimensions. Evaluation. Score. -This company has been consistently developing new services to find new Focus on Developing opportunities to gain temporary advantages. New Advantages. Medium. 治政大 although traditional strategies in promotion 立 still keeping their store fronts intact. -They have also dropped some of their. ‧ 國. 學. -They make small changes every month to. ‧. their promotional packages to help. y. sit. They also come with new ways to dress their. io. al. er. Nat. differentiate themselves from competitors. -. n. promotions to boost their customer perceived. Making Small Moves. value.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. -They are also consistently gaining a wider online presence through a series of small moves (i.e. updating facebook, google+ account, website maintenance). 24 . High.

(32) . -They have been unpredictable in targeting the older generation in France rather than targeting younger generation for their package tours. -They have also expanded to European Being Unpredictable. markets to gain new market share while still. 政治大. Medium. focusing on the same target audience.. 立. -They also have an extensive network of more. ‧ 國. 學. than 500 collaborations which allows the. company to be surprising in movement in the. ‧. io. sit. -The company shows some signs of signaling. er. Nat. y. market.. to competitors with their promotions and. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. descriptions of themselves on their website.. engchi. -They have aligned themselves with Misleading the associations to signal strong establishment to Competition competitors. -They have also reported an inflated number of customers to further solidify the appearance of firm competence.. 25 . Medium.

(33) . 6.2 CFA Voyages The second company interviewed is called CFA Voyages. Established in 1986, with only 3 staff members to begin with, this travel agency has gone through many changes and experienced a lot of growth in staff and services. CFA Voyages has three store fronts established only in Paris, France. Their main products are packaged tours to different regions in Europe and selected. 政治大 able to attain with their selected suppliers. Although this company does not usually have any 立. regions in Asia. The product mix and promotions are determined by the best contracts they are. ‧ 國. 學. exclusive relationships with suppliers, they have a selected few whom they work with often. Many of their supplier relationships are contractual where they promise to meet quotas for the. ‧. year to gain “super commissions” which bring in the bulk of the company revenue. Their longest. sit. y. Nat. and closest relationship is with Thai Airways. Thus their margins for packages to Asian regions. io. n. al. er. are the largest as Thai Airways would often give them exclusive deals.. i n U. v. The company’s target market is Asian residents living in France and countries around France.. Ch. engchi. This is considered a very niche market that they tailor to. They have been targeting this market strategically as they have only opened store fronts in areas of Paris where there are large groups of Asian residents. They have not expanded much outside of this market which is already highly saturated with competitors.. The company promotes new packages and promotions seasonally but rarely creates changes to their packages. They established a website in 1996, one of the first travel agencies to use a website in France. Although they ran into a lot of problems in the beginning with their website. 26 .

(34) . since the infrastructure for travel agencies to have an online presence was not yet in place, they are now one of the few travel agencies in France with a well established website with a well established customer base. They do however provide a plethora of services including insurance, flight ticket booking, train ticket booking, cruise tour bookings, and call centers for customer service. Later, they had also included online booking services directly through their website. This new service boosted sales significantly so much so that they found that their sales have grown to. 政治大. a point where call center was needed which was installed when they opened their third storefront.. 立. The company’s main focus on creating growth and staying sustainable within the. ‧ 國. 學. hypercompetitive market is to improve quality of service rather than lower prices to compete with. ‧. their competitors. They have training periods where they train all of their staff to take phone calls from customers to present a professional face for the customers. This helps them boost the value. y. Nat. er. io. sit. in their customers’ perspectives. The company also has internal frameworks set up to have sales representatives compete against each other for bringing in the most sales. This fodders an. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. incentive to work harder to gain customer trust and attract new customers to choose the company. engchi. for travel needs. Management in the company also found another way to improve procedurally and streamline the speed of conducting sales within the company. They had set up an intranet where they were able to quickly get updates about airline tickets in order to provide faster service for customers.. The company however, does not have any plans for future development in other areas of the world. The management has been characterized as conservative and not willing to try out new. 27 .

(35) . channels of distribution until it has been thoroughly tested and proven to have valid returns on investment. They are experiencing a high saturation of competitors that are attacking their advantage with extremely low pricing. This company is considerably an older company with many years of growth; however, they have been reaching stagnation in the more recent years. They are also experiencing the pressures of disruption in the travel industry as part of their main customers (younger generation) are now able to access and purchase directly from their suppliers.. 政治大. This shortening of the supply chain puts at risk of becoming obsolete if they stay with their. 立. traditional way of conducting business. Also, as the company showed rapid growth rates in the. ‧ 國. 學. first 15 years of conducting business in the travel industry, the company had been experiencing higher and higher difficulty in being flexible and reacting to changes in the environment within. ‧. the last decade after the boom in technology and its effects on the travel industry. An example. Nat. sit. y. that the representative gave was during the year of 2004, when the outbreak of SARS had scared. n. al. er. io. travelers outside of Asia and sales were remarkably low; the company was not able to react well. i n U. v. to this turn of events. Rather than searching for new opportunities as the monumental event. Ch. engchi. leveled the playing field for all travel agencies who focus on package tours to Asia, the company was paralyzed and had to suffer some losses.. This company has also exhibited using the signaling approach to mislead their competitors. The interviewee had mentioned an incident when they were looking for a new location to open a new store; their competitors were threatened by this event. Their communicating to their competitors on the prospect of opening a new store indicated their strength in growth and although they were. 28 .

(36) . only in the beginning stages of looking for a new location, their competitors already felt threatened.. Table 2: CFA Voyages Performances in the Four Dimensions Dimensions. Evaluation. Score. -This company seems to not be willing to. 政治大. change from their traditional ways of. 立. conducting business.. ‧ 國. 學. -They have been adding new services and. Focus on Developing utilizing technology to improve on their. ‧. quality of service and product.. Low. y. sit. Nat. -Their conservative attitude in investing in. io. new channels to boost their company growth. n. al. er. New Advantages. i n U. v. has hurt them and become slow in adapting to. Ch. engchi. new opportunities in the market.. -The company pushes out new promotions and package tours seasonally. Making Small Moves -Internal moves that help improve customer service efficiency.. 29 . Medium.

(37) . -This company has garnered many different types of products for customers to choose from. This allows them to have a better spread on sales and attract more customers.. Medium. Being Unpredictable -They have different goals each year to attain that. management. determines. through. 政治大. collaboration with their suppliers. This action. 立. can be hard to predict by competitors.. ‧ 國. -This company does induce some signaling actions. to. mislead. or. intimidate. competitors.. their. Low. Nat. er. io. sit. y. ‧. Competition. 學. Misleading the. 6.3 Escape Tour Travels. n. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The third company interviewed, called Escape Tour Travels, is a very new company that has just entered the travel industry and has been able to create growth year over year. This company was established in May of 2011, beginning with a staff of two. The owner after a few months of working together with her partner quickly decided that changing to a sole proprietorship company was better for the company and the partner parted ways; the company was re-registered as a sole proprietorship in September of 2011. This company is based in San Francisco, California and. 30 .

(38) . offers packaged tours to different regions of Ukraine. This company, although only in business for three years has had to be proactive in adapting to the hypercompetitive market.. This company does not have a physical store front; the owner does not feel there is a need for a physical store front as customers are satisfied with the virtual interface and generally conduct sales transactions through telephone or over the internet. The business began with a simple. 治政大 her business and gain an online originally used paid public advertisements online to promote 立 website set up with a toll free number listed to promote packaged tours to Ukraine. This company. presence. However, one year after establishing her first website, the owner restructured the. ‧ 國. 學. website and added new features to allow customers to make purchases directly online. She had. ‧. mentioned that after creating this new service, her customer base increased significantly.. Nat. sit. y. This company being a new entrant, built alliances with more established companies in the. n. al. er. io. beginning to help sustain itself against competitors who may attack any advantages the company. i n U. v. has. They created alliances with tour companies in Ukraine and banks in Ukraine to set up a. Ch. engchi. framework of stability for customers traveling in that country. As the company mainly sells packaged tours to Ukraine, it has become highly specialized in gaining access to different types of tours and specializes in information on traveling in Ukraine as well. This has been the main differentiator for the company in comparison to its competitors.. The owner had also mentioned multiple occasions where the company had to be flexible and also quick to adapt to changes in the customer demand. Right after her first customer experience, the owner realized that she needed to find a resource for booking airline tickets quickly. Within two. 31 .

(39) . months, she was able to find a collaborator in this sector and quickly provide this service to her customers. She partnered with an agent who are wholesalers of airline tickets and quickly resolved the issue. Although registering for a license to sell airline tickets online was costly for a new business, the company was pressured to meet this customer demand to reach status quo in comparison to her competitors. Then in 2013, the owner of the company saw that the use of paid public advertisements online was proving to be costly and needed to adapt a new way of. 政治大. promotion to stay competitive and gain an advantage in the market. She stopped working with. 立. paid publish advertisements online and started to promote her business herself through free. ‧ 國. 學. channels. The company quickly established a Facebook account, Google Plus account, and Twitter account to promote the products and services. The company also created a YouTube. ‧. account to create short videos to serve as commercials online to attract new customers. These. Nat. sit. y. social media outlets also showcase the company’s competency in specialized information on the. n. al. er. io. region they are promoting travel.. Ch. i n U. v. This company was also able to find new ways to gain advantages quickly in this line of business.. engchi. In 2013, the company partnered with a dating service and marriage agency called Dreams connections to gain access to a new market. The company’s customer base grew rapidly as Dream connections referred single males interested in touring Ukraine while going on dates to find a Ukrainian wife to this company. This move created an even more specialized segment for the company to capitalize on. The company found a way to differentiate themselves even further to maintain their advantage against competitors. This move also helped the company bouy against sudden environmental changes in the market. During the recent events with the instability. 32 .

(40) . in Ukraine, customers have been turning away from traveling to Ukraine which hurts sales greatly for this company. However, having established a new customer channel through the dating service, the company gained a cache of return customers; males who have Ukrainian girlfriends in Ukraine. These customers still use the company services to book visiting trips to Ukraine to visit girlfriends or continue to find a match. As the customer base is mostly males looking for females, they are less likely to be deterred by the political instability in the country currently.. 立. 政治大. Recently, the company saw opportunities in helping customers find hotels in less well known. ‧ 國. 學. areas in Ukraine. Customer demand to explore smaller cities in Ukraine became more and more. ‧. evident. The company partnered with a large well known firm, booking.com, to establish a new service on the website. Now customers who are interested in exploring smaller cities in Ukraine. y. Nat. er. io. sit. can directly access the booking.com database through Escape Tour Travels’ website. By creating a link with a well known site with a vast database, the company furthers the appearance of. n. al. Ch. i n U. specialized knowledge and ensures trustworthy qualities.. engchi. v. As the company is still fairly young, there is still only one staff member, the owner making all the decisions for the company. This however, has been the main advantage in keeping the company flexible to changes in the market. The owner also maintains search engine optimization for her website which shows high ability for the company to adapt to technological opportunities. This company has maintained its focus on its advantage in specialized information and expertise. 33 .

(41) . on traveling in Ukraine while still being able to expand its scope in business and gain new market sectors to stay competitive in the hypercompetitive setting of the travel industry.. Table 3: Escape Tour Travels Performances in the Four Dimensions Dimensions. Evaluation. Score. -The company seeks new opportunities to. 政治大. gain new advantages.. 立. -Escape Tour Travels also adds new services. ‧ 國. 學. and utilizes social media to promote the company online presence.. ‧. -Escape Tour Travels quickly dropped their using. paid. public. y. of. sit. strategy. n. al. i n U. significant returns on investment.. Ch. engchi. er. advertisement when it no longer gave. io. New Advantages. Nat. Focus on Developing original. v. -This company also assumed partnerships with established companies in different sectors to attain new services to provide convenience to customers and differentiate their services. . 34 . High.

(42) . -The company updates its social media accounts weekly to keep customers well informed and interested. -The company creates new promotions every Making Small Moves. High. month to attract new customers and maintain return customer interests. -The. 立. 治政 continuously 大 adds. company. new. services to cater to customer demand.. ‧ 國. 學. -The speed in which this company has been. ‧. able to move has helped it gain several. io. sit. -The flexibility of the company to quickly. Medium. er. Nat. Being Unpredictable. y. temporary advantages against its competitors.. attain necessary new channels of distribution. n. al. can. Ch be. seemingly. engchi. i n U. v. unpredictable. to. competitors. Misleading the Competition. -There does not seem to be any apparent strategy where this company uses this tactic.. 35 . Low.

(43) . 6.4 Positioning Each Company. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. i n U. v. Figure 2: Performance Matrix of over Performance in Four Dimensions against Online Presence. engchi. To create a clearer picture of how where each company falls in terms of position in the market, two variables were selected: the overall performance score of the four dimensions and the performance score of how well the company adapts to using effective online strategies and/or adapts to strengthening their presence online though use of online tools. (Refer to figure 2 above) Escape Tour Travels and Sinorama are positioned highly as they have higher performance scores while CFA Voyages is positioned closer to where the two variables converge indicating underperformance. 36 .

(44) . 7. Discussion The results of the interviews are not reliable enough to be able to form a concrete correspondence with which approaches determine success in a hypercompetitive environment as the data was gathered through case studies thus sample size is too small to confirm any sort of strong correlation. However, there have been some interesting insights that point to certain approaches. 政治大. that travel agencies are gravitating towards to gain advantages in the market.. 立. 7.1 Sinorama Voyages Group Performance. ‧ 國. 學. Sinorama Voyages Group showed medium to high performances for each of the four dimensions.. ‧. This company received a score of medium with the first dimension, focusing on developing new. Nat. sit. y. advantages and dropping old advantages. Sinorama showed some activities of focus on. n. al. er. io. developing new advantages to survive in the hypercompetitive environment they are facing today.. i n U. v. However, this company has been slow to drop their more traditional ways of conducting business.. Ch. engchi. For example, they are still operating with multiple store fronts while they are also expanding their online presence to attract new customers. They have already learned that a strong online presence actually works as an advantage even with their target audience being the older, retired generation thus keeping five store fronts (three in Canada) seems a little excessive and costly. This may slow the company down and cause the company to be less flexible than desired in order to react quickly enough to the constant changes in their industry.. 37 .

(45) . SInorama scored a high in the second dimension; they have been diligent about making a series of small moves rather than focus on only big moves that may not be sustainable long term. Although big moves were a part of the history of this company, but these decisions seemed to help the growth of the company and for the most part created a good return on investment. The company showed good judgment in dropping some traditional strategic approaches when learning they were too costly; an example being stopping traditional media advertisements and switching. 政治大. to mainly online advertisements when traditional media advertisement became costly and less. 立. effective. Sinorama has implemented regular small movements with changing up their. ‧ 國. 學. promotional mix every few months and keeping flexible enough to change features of their package tours along with the seasons to optimize attractiveness to customers.. ‧. The third dimension of being unpredictable was less evident in Sinorama Voyages. They scored a. y. Nat. er. io. sit. medium in this dimension; there were some incidences that can be interpreted as actions that could be viewed as unpredictable actions from the competitors’ point of view. Their extensive. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. network of 500 alliances with different companies within different sectors of the travel industry. engchi. (i.e. tourist companies, hotels, airlines, bus companies, etc.) gives the company the advantage of several options in putting together package tours that is cost efficient and desirable to customers. Their movements within such a vast network can be unpredictable in the view of their competitors.. Sinorama also scored a medium performance in the fourth dimension with using the approach of misleading the competition. There did not seem to be any obvious ways where the company took. 38 .

(46) . actions to consciously mislead their competition or confuse their competition. However, some actions by the company that were observed could be viewed as misleading the competition by signaling extra competency in a particular area so to create a strong front to their competitors. An example of this is their proclamation on their website to be one of the top leaders in the tourism industry and have become part of the Chinese Outboard Tourism as well as a member of the International Air Transport Association. This does not go as far as misleading the competition by. 政治大. signaling one direction and moving in a different direction, however it does signal to the. 立. competitors that Sinorama is a formidable company who would not be easy to contend with.. ‧ 國. 學. Therefore Sinorama has a total overall score of a medium-high performance for all four. ‧. dimensions. This is a strong score in determining their potential to be successful to survive in hypercompetition. Also, through observation of their website and social media accounts, they. y. Nat. er. io. sit. show a strong presence online. They have been able to adapt fairly quickly to utilizing tools available online to promote themselves. They have also been able to show flexibility in sourcing. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. new travel products through the internet as well as shown success in accessing new customers. engchi. through online distribution channels. Therefore they are considered to have high performance in adapting to online presence and using effective online strategies.. 7.2 CFA Voyages Performance CFA Voyages showed low to medium performances for each of the four dimensions. In the first dimension, they showed low performance in seeking out new advantages and shedding old advantages that have become too costly. The problem seems to reside in the recent years when. 39 .

(47) . they have had attempted to focus both on strengthening their online presence and maintaining a strong foothold in their store fronts and traditional ways of conducting business. This company has been moving conservatively in many aspects pertaining to the internet. They have had held advantages before the 2000s through traditional business models and business channels. They had experienced steady growth until around the 2000s when they started to falter and seemingly not able to gain momentum in adapting to creating a strong internet presence. Thus, while the. 政治大. company clings to the advantage they had built over a decade’s time since establishment,. 立. competitors are indirectly chipping away at their advantage by being faster at finding new. ‧ 國. 學. opportunities for advantages online and grabbing customer attention as well as fulfilling new customer demands.. ‧. CFA Voyages showed medium performance levels in the second dimension: making small moves. y. Nat. er. io. sit. rather than big moves to gain temporary advantages. The small moves that appear to be in action by CFA are the updating of their packaged tours regularly and diversifying their product mix to. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. attract new customers. They have also kept up with promoting with social media periodically.. engchi. They have also conducted internal changes that accumulate to help improve customer service efficiency. The small changes help the company quickly re-train their employees and gain temporary advantages faster with well trained employees in customer service. Examples of small movements within the organization are the introduction of re-training the existing employees and training of new employees about telephone etiquette when speaking with clients and the implementation of transparent ranking system of the sales team to foster motivation for employees to perform better. The telephone etiquette helped the company quickly boost their. 40 .

(48) . professional impression and trust among their customers. The ranking system of the sales team motivated their employees to work harder to and to perform procedures more smoothly and quickly.. The third dimension, being unpredictable, was also somewhat of a challenge for CFA Voyages. They scored a medium performance level in this dimension. Their management dictates their. 治政 This adds an element of unpredictability with their goals 大 and how they are to obtain their goals. 立 goals every year which is also determined by what type of contracts they can gain from suppliers.. Their management seems to have a semi-unstructured way of setting goals and choosing which. ‧ 國. 學. products to promote. This lack of structure can be viewed as unpredictability or irrationality to. ‧. their competitors and at times could confuse competitors. For example, as CFA Voyages have a multitude of products from bus tours within France or parts of Europe to packaged tours in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. different parts of Thailand as well as other regions of Asia. Their focus on which package to push would determine which package they were able to gain most margin on due to deals that certain. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. suppliers would provide them. If Thai Airways wins out with the lower costing package, CFA. engchi. Voyages would push this promotion and set goals to sell more of this product. Competitors would not be able to tell which direction the company will take. However, the term that CFA generally accepts with suppliers lasts a year; this could be too long of a time period giving competitors time to observe company strategy and find ways to disrupt the advantage before the year is up.. CFA Voyages seemed to also falter with the fourth dimension, taking action to mislead their competition. There was one clear incident where they did signal to competitors a location of. 41 .

(49) . where they would open a new store front for intimidation purposes. However, this seems to be a one off incident and the company does not consciously use this approach to gain advantages among their competitors. Therefore they have low performance in this dimension.. With low and medium performances in each of the four dimensions, CFA Voyages receives a low-medium overall score reflecting their struggles in survival in the hypercompetitive. 治政大 their progress as the technological seeking innovation for new opportunities would only hinder 立 environment they are facing currently. They have already shown signs of stagnation and lack of. age creates a fast paced changing environment. Observing their website and social media. ‧ 國. 學. accounts, they do keep information up to date with these accounts to properly inform customers.. ‧. However, they have adapted to these online tools of promotion later in the game. This caused them to lose time and advantage within the playing field. Thus, they have a low performance in. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. strategies.. sit. adapting to an online presence and adapting to using online tools to implement effective. C. hengchi 7.3 Escape Tour Travels Performance. i n U. v. Escape Tour Travels showed different levels of performances for each of the four dimensions. For the first dimension, Escape Tour Travels performs highly in focusing its efforts on developing new advantages and shedding old advantages when realizing it has become costly. This company is constantly in search of new opportunities to gain temporary advantages and does not hesitate to implement new advantages when found and drops its old advantages that are no longer sustainable. This quick movement and flexibility has been seen clearly in the company’s. 42 .

(50) . history of decisions to add new services. An example of its quick movement in this dimension is when the company realized that using paid public advertisement was no longer creating the advantages it once did therefore became costly to keep up without reaping the returns. Escape Tour Travels moved fast in stopping payments on this type of advertisement and turned to using social media alliances with other established companies in different travel sectors to attain new advantages and reduce the cost of promotions.. 治政 In the second dimension, the company also scored high 大 in making small moves rather than big 立. moves to maintain its advantages in a hypercompetitive environment. Escape Tour Travels. ‧ 國. 學. demonstrates clearly sequential strategic thrusts in successive additions of new services and. ‧. creating alliances with companies in different sectors of the travel industry in a quick manner which boosted the company’s specialized knowledge and expertise further and positioned the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. company for speed and surprise when faced with changes in the environment. The company was able to sustain their strong advantage in being experts on traveling to Ukraine by maintaining and. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. offering services that the competitors were able to offer outside of specializing in Ukraine travel.. engchi. Escape Tour Travels was also able to further differentiate its services by partnering with a dating service company; continuing its advantage position with its competitors.. Escape Tour Travels however did not show as strong of a performance in the third dimension; it was less clear how the company was able to be unpredictable to its competitors nor was it clear whether its competitors looked to imitate the company’s approaches and business models. Although some actions did seem to be unpredictable and would potentially confuse competitors. 43 .

(51) . and be hard to imitate. For example, the decision to partner with a dating service company seems like an unlikely route a travel agency would take to gain an advantage. As the company partnered with a dating service (Dream Connections) that also happened to specialize in making connections between men and women from Ukraine, it would be hard for competitors to imitate this symbiotic relationship that two companies have.. 治政大 in this area. The owner of the competition. Therefore, the company has a low performance 立. The company falters in the last dimension as there as lack of using the approach to mislead the. company mentioned that save for looking online through forums and reading customer feedback,. ‧ 國. 學. she has little knowledge of what her competitors are using as strategic tools to gain advantages in. ‧. the industry. Therefore, it is assumed that the company does not have any pressures of competition following closely so the need to mislead or confuse competitors is lacking.. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. With high performances in two of the dimensions, but one low performance in one of the. i n U. v. dimensions, the overall score for Escape Tour Travels is a medium-high performance score. This. Ch. engchi. reflects the strength and potential that the company currently has in surviving the hypercompetitive environment it faces today.. This company also shows high performance in its ability to adapt to creating a strong online presence and its ability to utilize online tools for effective strategic approaches that can maintain advantages against competitors in the market. Escape Tour Travels has been able to position itself highly in the hypercompetitive settings of the travel industry that it seems to have high potential to be able to respond quickly for any changes in the environment. In fact, currently with the. 44 .

(52) . instability of Ukraine the company has been faced with the issue of customers canceling tours and flights to Ukraine. As the company has set up multiple alliances with companies in different sectors of the travel industry, this disruption has not completely deterred the growth of the company. The company still has a base foundation of return customers from its alliance with the dating service company and has been able to maintain sustainability to survive.. 7.4 Other Conclusions. 立. 政治大. Referring the figure 2 above, when the overall performances of the four dimensions is compared. ‧ 國. 學. against the performances of adaptability of effective online strategy, it is possible to position each company in relation to each other and see clearly that the younger companies (Escape Tour. ‧. Travels and Sinorama) have been able to outperform the older company (CFA Voyages) in the. y. Nat. sit. data samples. This could possibly explained by the hesitation of CFA Voyages to let go of their. n. al. er. io. traditional strategies in competing with other travel agencies. CFA Voyages may be struggling. i n U. v. because it is trying to maintain its old strategies and still look for new strategies; a burden that is. Ch. engchi. hindering the company growth and its chances for surviving in a hypercompetitive environment.. 45 .

(53) . 8. Recommendations This study may have too small of a sample group to be able to derive a concrete correlation or theory of success drivers that travel agencies must adhere to in order to stay competitive in today’s hypercompetitive settings in the travel industry. However, the data has been useful in gaining insight on what travel agencies are facing with their competitors and how they react in a. 政治大 established company versus a立 new entrant to the industry. The more established company despite hypercompetitive environment. It is interesting to see the differences in reactions of a more. ‧ 國. 學. its longer experience in the industry was less prepared to survive in the hypercompetitive environment it is facing today. Perhaps more case studies can be conducted to see if there is a. ‧. pattern of travel agencies with a longer history of experience has a harder time maneuvering in. io. sit. y. Nat. the hypercompetition faced today.. n. al. er. As shown in this study, CFA Voyages seem to struggle the most out of the three companies. Ch. i n U. v. interviewed with staying competitive in today’s hypercompetitive settings. Since the company is. engchi. experiencing a plateau in growth and sales, the company should consider analyze all of the strategy approaches it is using currently and try to spot the ones that are not generating returns adequately on investment. Once they can pinpoint these problem areas, they can shed the costly approaches and focus on finding new opportunities for gaining advantages. CFA Voyages should also take more risks in investing in different approaches for business models. They may need to restructure some of their business segments and undergo some internal changes to streamline the company and allow the company to become more flexible so it can quickly react to found. 46 .