American Journal of Model Political Science - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the American Journal of Model Political Science. Answer: Introduction The airlines industry consists of two major types of carriers, namely, Full Service Carriers (FSC) and Low Cost Carrier (LCC). Both of these airlines have loyal customers as well as flying customers. As the level of competition in the airlines industry is increasing on a regular basis, the airline companies are continuously working on improving their services and amenities. Customer loyalty is a huge factor that brings in majority of the revenues for the companies every year and the loyalty depends on the customer experience (Akamavi et al. 2015). The Department of Infrastructure and Transport wants to get a vivid idea about the factors that influence the choice of the customers while selecting an airline and how the factors can be modified or improved to retain the existing market share and influence the future consumers of this industry. To serve this purpose, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport will conduct a survey on the airlines passengers. The survey aims to find out the factors influencing the customer satisfaction and experience and how those affect the selection of the airline. Structure of the questionnaire The survey questionnaire contains total of 12 questions. Among those, 9 questions are close ended and 3 are open ended. The purpose of using both type of questions are different and at the same time, using both types of questions make the questionnaire compact. Close ended questions are helpful for both the surveyor and the participants as the choices for answers are narrowed down and the participants cannot deviate from the desired answer while answering the questions (Bryman 2015). There are other advantages for using the close ended questions, such as, these have limited choices for answer, these are easier to comprehend and quicker to answer. Answers from different participants are easier to compare and statistically analyze, because the closed ended questions can easily be converted into numeric variables. The chance of confusion is less for this type of questions and replication of the answers are easier. However, there are some limitations also. The close ended questions do no t provide the exact or most relevant option in the answer choices in many cases. There is also chance of misinterpretations and sometimes, if the respondents do not get the desired choice, they might not answer or select a wrong answer (Bryman 2015). On the other hand, open ended questions are useful for qualitative analysis. In a survey, open ended questions are used to broaden the range of answers. When the surveyor wants to get the opinion or suggestion from the respondents or wants to get a new perspective to the issue, he will use open ended questions in the survey. There are other advantages also. Open ended questions provide scope for unlimited number of potential or possible answers. The respondents can give justification behind their choices, revealing their logic and thought process, and sometimes it leads to an unexpected outcome, leading to a new perspective on the issue (Roberts et al. 2014). At the same time, as the range of answers is wide, the interpretation sometimes becomes complex and difficult to analyze statistically. The answers can be too general and vague sometimes, may take up more time and respondents might not feel interested to fill up the questionnaire, thus leading to inaccuracy in the survey results (Bryman and Bell 2015). In the survey questionnaire, the replicable scales have been used for the answers to the close ended questions. Dichotomous scale, three point rating scale and five point rating scale, such as, Likert scale have been used in the questions. Replicable scales are those, whose answers can be replicated to numerical values while analyzing (Nardi 2015). Dichotomous answers contain only two choices, such as, Male and Female for the gender profile in this questionnaire. Another type of scale used is the rating scale with 1-5 rating. Other than that, some questions contain choices that focus on customer experience and loyalty factors. All the survey questions focus on getting the information about the customers choices regarding selecting an airline. The choice of airlines depends on many factors, such as, airfare, convenience in terms of flight schedules and ticket flexibility, quality of service, quality of food and beverages, comfort level within the aircraft, hidden cost in the baggage fees, cost of headphones, blankets, alcohol, magazines or books on board, and loyalty awards. The questions also focused on the demographic factors, such as, the gender profile, age group of the customers and their type of travel. This has a significant impact in choosing an airline. A student will always prefer to travel via low cost carrier than a working professional. Sometimes, the customer looks for the deals while traveling for a vacation. For some, ticket flexibility is more important as their schedule is uncertain. Again, some customers become loyal to a particular airline due to the quality of services they provide. Bra nd image is also important for some consumers. The big difference between the FSCs and LCCs lies in the airfare and the services provided by them. Some LCCs form an alliance to capture a bigger market share and mostly cater to those customers who most frequently travel short haul routes. Hence, the major influencing factor is the budget of the customers and their preferences for the convenience and comfort. Through the survey, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport wants to find out the factors that need to be improved by the airlines to stay ahead in the market. Conclusion Thus, it can be said that, the brand image, customer experience and services delivered by the airlines influence the customer choice while selecting an airline. To address this management issue of tough competition in the airlines market, a survey questionnaire has been designed that can focus on multiple influencing factors at one go. By using both the open and close ended questions, the surveyor can access to wide range of answers, which is useful in analyzing the responses qualitatively and quantitatively. There are a lot of areas that the FSCs and LCCs need to focus on to stay ahead in a competitive market and through the survey, they can get an idea about the factors that they need to work upon. References Akamavi, R.K., Mohamed, E., Pellmann, K. and Xu, Y., 2015. Key determinants of passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline business.Tourism management,46, pp.528-545. Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015.Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Bryman, A., 2015.Social research methods. Oxford university press. Nardi, P.M., 2015.Doing survey research. Routledge. Roberts, M.E., Stewart, B.M., Tingley, D., Lucas, C., Leder?Luis, J., Gadarian, S.K., Albertson, B. and Rand, D.G., 2014. Structural Topic Models for Open?Ended Survey Responses.American Journal of Political Science,58(4), pp.1064-1082.