Determinants of Relationship Marketing: The Case of Ethiopian Airlines

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Date

2011-04

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Ethiopian Airlines is one of the most successful organizations in Ethiopia; however, there is virtually no formidable data on determinants of relationship marketing The objective of the paper is to assess the determinants of relationship marketing on overall relationship quality of Ethiopian airlines. To achieve this objective the researcher employed both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Study population for the survey was both domestic and international flight clients who fly Ethiopian during the study period. Besides, for the qualitative part, key informant interviews were conducted with employees of the organization. A questionnaire with five Likert scale for the survey, and semi structured interview guide for the key informants were used as data collection tools. The major findings of the regression results show that the hypothesized relationship quality antecedents were found to have a significant contribution on relationship quality of Ethiopian airlines. This is generally similar to previous researches in other companies with some differences. Specifically, the effects of commitment, satisft/ction, and communication on relationship quality were quite different /i'om the case in previous researches; however, the effects of conflict handling and trust show similarity with the previous f indings. In this paper, conflict handling is the first strong contributor followed by satisfaction, commitment, communication, and trust. In addition, the descriptive and interview resulls show that the airline relationship quality is good; employees are welcoming, /i'iendly, and sociable; and show good hospitality. While, the airline is generally successfitl in maintaining quality relationship with its clients, certain problems such as poor conflict handling, unequal customer treatment, informing customers at the event of flight delay and cancellations require attention

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