Graduation Semester and Year
Summer 2026
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration
Department
Information Systems and Operations Management
First Advisor
Dr. Edmund Prater
Second Advisor
Dr. Seock Jin Hong
Third Advisor
Dr. Lars Johnson
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Jiaxiu He
Abstract
Commercial aviation is a setting in which value creation depends on more than scale or efficiency alone. Airlines operate under high capital intensity, thin margins, regulatory oversight, sustainability pressure, and recurrent disruption, yet prior research has often examined efficiency, strategic orientation, and firm performance in isolation. This dissertation develops an integrated account of how airlines create and protect value by linking resource configuration, strategic orientation, and capability formation. Across three essays, it draws on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and ambidexterity research to explain how airlines convert strategic intent into operational and financial outcomes. The first essay analyzes nine major U.S. airlines using a two-stage design that combines Free Disposal Hull frontier analysis with dynamic panel regression. It shows that operational efficiency and shareholder value are materially shaped by load factor, seats per departure, stage length, fleet composition, operating model, and the COVID-19 shock, while also suggesting that low-cost carriers are relatively more resilient during downturns.
The second and third essays move beyond efficiency outcomes to identify the organizational mechanisms through which strategy becomes performance. The second essay shows that exploration and exploitation create value primarily through a higher-order dynamic capability that combines resource reconfiguration ability and sustainability orientation. The third essay further specifies this conversion process by demonstrating a will–skill–perform pathway in which disruption orientation channels strategic posture into resource reconfiguration ability and, ultimately, firm performance. Taken together, the essays make a common argument: durable value in airlines is not produced by efficiency gains or strategic intent alone, but by layered capabilities that enable firms to adapt, recover, and perform under turbulence. In doing so, this dissertation offers a multi-method explanation of how strategy becomes value in one of the world’s most operationally demanding industries.
Keywords
Free Disposal Hull, Dynamic Panel Regressions, Dynamic Capability View, Exploration, Exploitation, Reconfigurability, Disruption Orientation, CO2 Emissions
Disciplines
Operations and Supply Chain Management
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Vimal, Abhilash, "LINKING STRATEGY, CAPABILITIES AND VALUE CREATION IN AIRLINES: A MULTI-METHOD ESSAY-BASED DISSERTATION" (2026). Information Systems & Operations Management Dissertations. 1.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/infosystemsopmanage_dissertations2/1