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The research argues for the need to correctly identify and strengthen the core competencies of a firm, especially relevant in the service-oriented firm context where value creation requires resourceful and efficient provision of service. This study of 17 airlines from Asia, Europe, and Oceania reveals a picture of inconsistencies in the core competence strategy of airlines. It brings out the situation in which firms believe and project that they are service oriented, but fail to have the core competence strategies of a service firm or the business model innovations that lead to service orientation, thus leading to performance heterogeneity among intraindustry firms having similar business models. This paper proposes that seemingly similar business models differ in performance due to their service orientation and identification of the core competence serves as both the primary requirement for business model innovation and a measuring indicator of service orientation. The research on the airline industry advances the understanding of how core competence strategy and business model innovation constructs behave in the service firms' effort to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

For decades, distribution has been a key ICT (Information and CommunicationTechnology) area for airlines and this sector has been dominated by four (now three) Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) whose primacy has been threatened over the last four years by a set of new players, the so called GDS New Entrants (GNEs). GNEs emerged with the advent of the Internet and open source technology as 'disintermediation' facilitators and generated vast interest from airlines because they promised to reduce the cost of distribution. This paper explores the impact of ICTs on airlines with a focus on GDSs. It provides an overview of the changing market dynamics, analyses the environment that led to the appearance of GNEs and pinpoints the issues behind their until now failure to provide a true alternative to the GDSs. This analysis complements existing academic research in that it clarifies critical issues in the air travel distribution field and provides an overview of current industry developments

Abstract. This paper focuses on identifying and analysing the elements of Strategic

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