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The case aims to understand and analyse the capital structure decisions made by a profit-making, growing organisation which aimed to be India’s premier airline and the market leader. The company that had pursued a high debt policy, to take advantage of the financial leverage that it would get, was now facing problems in an operating environment that proved to be challenging. A decline in operating profit, coupled with high-interest costs and an uncertain environment with cutthroat competition, had caused the company to plunge into losses. Attempts to deleverage by equity infusion were proving to be difficult. The case can be used in MBA, Executive Education and doctoral programmes. The learning objectives of this case are: to analyse the capital structure of the company, to interpret the relationship between financial leverage and risk, to assess the pecking order theory, to analyse the nuances of the aviation sector and the factors influencing the profitability of the companies in the aviation industry, to estimate the risks and the rewards associated with foreign currency loans, to evaluate the magnifying impact of the financial leverage and to propose deleveraging methods like sale and leaseback, debt conversion to equity and devise a revival strategy for the company.

The case discusses the dilemma faced by Naresh Goyal, promoter and chairman of Jet Airways (India) Limited. At the initial stage, Jet Airways, like many other companies in its growth phase, relied on borrowed funds to meet its investment needs. However, over-reliance on borrowed funds with just one equity infusion resulted in a high leverage ratio and an aggressive capital structure. Moreover, the company operated in a sector that was highly regulated, with competition that was cutthroat and a cost structure that was volatile. A high operating risk, coupled with high financial leverage, pushed the company into incurring losses. Having run out of cash, Jet Airways eventually defaulted on loan repayments to its lenders. Facing the eventuality of losing control of the company to lenders or to a strategic investor, Goyal was trying to figure out a way to save the company from insolvency and liquidation. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Goyal to keep Jet Airways, the company he had nurtured like a baby, airborne.

The case can be taught in both online and offline modes of delivery in a 90-minute session. Post-covid, the delivery mode of classes has changed. In online sessions, it may be a challenging task to ensure student participation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

The aim of this paper is to provide insights on Albert J. Mills' and Jean Helms Mills' lifelong methodological journey in the airline culture. The interview offers a retrospective and reflective insight of their research into organizational culture and the airline industry, reasons for this research, their methodological journey, challenges they faced and ways forward.

This article is based on an interview with Albert J. Mills and Jean Helms Mills, which was virtually conducted for a professional development workshop (PDW) at the 2020 Academy of Management Meeting.

Albert J. Mills and Jean Helms Mills provide insights and reflections on their lifelong methodological journey, focusing organizational culture, discriminatory practices, and the impact of this on what constitutes men and women's work.

This paper draws from Albert J. Mills' and Jean Helms Mills' lifelong experience in studying gender, intersectionality and historiography in airline cultures. Scholars will be encouraged by their insights on how to start a long-term study, potential challenges, impacts of current trends and how to deal with them.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) establish a wide range of alliances to access the critical resources that they may need at any one time. Although inter-organizational relationships (IORs) constitute the channels through which social capital flows, MNEs should consider which mechanisms or characteristics of the relations facilitate their actual mobilization.

A definition of alliance types yielded the parameters for an ordinary least squares regression of a sample from top global-reach MNEs from the airline industry.

The results showed that certain kind of alliances favored the actual mobilization of social capital.

Managers of MNEs must select the type of IOR taking into account the objective they pursue and the type of activity they will include.

Analyzing the factors that influence the degree of mobilization of social capital and how MNEs actually use the resources of the partners require the establishment of a theoretical framework and the development of empirical evidence.

las Empresas Multinacionales (MNEs) establecen una amplia gama de alianzas para acceder a los recursos críticos externos que puedan necesitar en cualquier memento. Las MNEs deben considerar qué mecanismos o características de las relaciones facilitan su movilización real.

una definición de los tipos de alianza produjo los parámetros para una regresión de mínimos cuadrados ordinarios de una muestra de las principales MNEs de alcance global de la industria de las aerolíneas.

Los resultados mostraron que ciertos tipos de alianzas favorecieron la movilización real del capital social.

Analizar los factores que influyen en el grado de movilización del capital social y cómo las MNEs utilizan en la práctica los recursos de sus socios, requiere del establecimiento de un marco teórico y el desarrollo de evidencia empírica.

Business success and pricing are very closely intertwined. This study aims to explain how businesses can improve their profitability by relying on creative pricing strategies that managers across industries can adopt.

This study uses research from related fields and a detailed analysis of the airline industry to deconstruct its success and identify innovative pricing practices that have helped salvage it.

Based on our analysis, the authors propose several strategies that can help companies control their pricing and leverage it to increase profitability. These include decommoditizing, segmenting the market (up and down), scrutinizing customer behavior, offering versioning and ancillary services, actively promoting these add-ons and using dynamic pricing.

This study takes an unusual approach and look at the airline industry – literally a textbook example of an oligopoly. The authors argue that if companies in an oligopoly – with undifferentiated services – can dig themselves out of the depths of nonexistent profits by using innovative pricing, it should be much simpler for companies in other industries that offer easier differentiation.

The purpose of this qualitative research study is to explore health-care providers’ perspectives and experiences with a specific focus on supports reported to be effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching goal of this study is to inform leaders and leadership regarding provision of supports that could be implemented during times of crisis and in the future beyond the pandemic.

Data were collected by semi-structured, conversational interviews with a sample of 33 health-care professionals, including Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Registered Psychologists, Registered Dieticians and an Occupational Therapist.

Three major themes emerged from the interview data: (1) professional and personal challenges for health-care providers, (2) physical and mental health impacts on health-care providers and (3) providing supports for health-care providers. The third theme was further delineated into three sub-theses: formal resources and supports, informal resources and supports and leadership strategies.

Health-care leaders are advised to pay attention to the voices of the people they are leading. It is important to know what supports health-care providers need in times of crisis. Situating the needs of health-care providers in the Carter and Bogue Model of Leadership Influence for Health Professional Wellbeing (2022) can assist leaders to deliberately focus on aspects of providers’ wellbeing and remain cognizant of the supports needed both during a crisis and when circumstances are unremarkable.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivations, attitudes and intentions towards luxury dining in airplane themed restaurants (ATRs). The moderating roles of desire to fly, desire for luxury and fear of missing out (FOMO) towards attitude and intention to embark on this ATR experience are also investigated.

Data are collected through a consumer panel. A total of 315 valid responses were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group moderation. To enhance ecological validity, a stimulus for the Singapore Airlines A380 Restaurant @Changi was created to ensure complete understanding of the product offering by the participants.

Three motivation factors were discovered – novelty, escape and supporting reliving. Interestingly, it was also found that the attitude towards ATR partially mediated the relationship between supportive reliving and intention towards ATRs. Disposition towards FOMO was found to moderate the effect of attitude towards ATR on intention towards ATR. Negative effect between escape motivation and attitude towards the ATR from the moderation analysis for desire for luxury and desire to fly shows that people are still hesitant to accept the ATR as a replacement to satisfy their salient needs for luxury travel.

Insights of this study demonstrate that local airlines could pivot their business through innovative offerings during the pandemic. The ATR concept can be effectively marketed by appealing to hedonistic and nationalistic needs and to avoid positioning it as an alternative for flying.

This is a novel concept introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedentedly, it uncovers the motivations, attitudes and intentions towards luxury dining in ATRs as a means to compensate for the pent-up desire to relive the experience of air travel.

The aim of this research, which uses the theories of social identity and social exchange, is to investigate the relationship between responsible leadership, prosocial behavior and the mediating role of psychological ownership in this relationship. In addition, the moderating role of ethical and social responsibility in the relationship between responsible leadership and psychological ownership is tested in the study.

The sample of the research consists of 246 participants who work full-time at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport in ground handling services (GHS). The convenience sampling method was used in the research, and the research data were collected by the face-to-face survey method. The hypotheses of the research were tested with the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and SPSS Process Macro.

According to the results, it was determined that responsible leadership affects prosocial behavior positively and significantly, and psychological ownership plays a mediating role in this relationship. In addition, the moderating effect of ethical and social responsibility on the relationship between responsible leadership and psychological ownership was determined. When ethical and social responsibility is perceived as high by the employees, it was revealed that the conditional indirect effect of responsible leadership on prosocial behavior through psychological ownership was strong.

When responsible leadership encourages employees to take psychological ownership, they are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. This study contributes to the field by evaluating the structures discussed with social identity and social exchange theory. In the management practice of organizations, responsible leadership should be strengthened and training should be given to develop responsible leadership.

In the literature review, it was observed that although there are studies conducted with responsible leadership, the concept was not examined with prosocial behavior, and it was not studied in the aviation sector, which has become indispensable for the world economy. With these features, the study distinguishes itself from others and constitutes a source of motivation for researchers.

Alliances between companies are an example of a collaborative strategy adopted in anticipation of highly uncertain markets. Since 1980, the commercial airline industry has been affected by a progressive liberalization worldwide. In this historical context, most airlines reacted with defensive movements in the face of high competition. In the case of airlines in the Spanish market, one of the largest in the world due to the weight of the tourism sector in its economy, airlines responded in various ways to the intensification of competition. Iberia, the main Spanish airline, established different defensive alliance policies. In the 1980s, alliances were mainly collaborative. Since 1998, airline alliances have become coopetitive in nature, as was the case with the creation of One World group (American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Iberia). The partners began to interact in a more horizontal way, maintaining various agreements (code-sharing, handling, schedule coordination, shared sales, fleet maintenance) without renouncing their independence in the face of global competition. Iberia has subsequently modified the composition of its portfolio to move towards a more vertical collaboration with the integration into the IAG Group (Iberia, British Airways, Air Lingus and Vueling). This second phase is a quest to increase market power with deep changes in the nature of its alliances while maintaining coopetitive alliances.

Here we consider the various ways in which airlines integrate their business activities. The thin markets, long distances, poor infrastructure, and challenging terrain over which many airlines based in developing countries operate can make it difficult to reap the economies of scale, scope, and density that carriers in more developed nations enjoy. There also remain institutional barriers to cross border trade in airline services. As a response to this, airlines from developing regions “cooperate” in a number of ways. This may involve multinational ownership, code sharing, or joint ventures. The rationale for these actions, together with discussion of the outcomes of some of them, is considered here.