Knowledge sharing and customer relationship management in the travel service alliances

Airline companies are employing strategic alliances to increase their competitiveness in service quality, innovation and cost due to the changed business environment resulting from increased competition in the airlines market. In the e-commerce era, the relationship change between airlines and travel agents makes it important for both parties to provide integrated solutions to customer needs. The goal of this study is to determine how knowledge sharing among members of travel agencies and airlines affects the customer relationship management (CRM) profitability of travel agencies. We formulated a CRM profitability model and used a mailed questionnaire survey to investigate travel agency staff in Taiwan, of which 337 returned completed questionnaires. The findings reveal the nature and practical complexities associated with knowledge sharing in travel industry alliances, and suggest how a travel agent can create an appropriate knowledge sharing strategy and increase CRM profitability by information technology.

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