Cross-border route expansion strategies and the degree of low cost carriers’ intra-regional liability of foreignness Master Thesis MSc. Business Studies – International Management Supervisor: Dr Johan Lindeque Second reader: Dr Vittoria Scalera Student: Puck Voorneveld Student ID: 11129786 Submission Date: 27th January 2017 Abstract This study applies a qualitative multiple case-study research design to explain the cross-border route expansions of low-cost carriers (LCCs) based in the ASEAN sub-region. The study analyses two cases: the cross-border route expansions of AirAsia, Lion Air and their respective subsidiaries. In existing research, the effect of institutions on a phenomenon is often measured at national level. Hence, this thesis seeks support for the influence of subnational institutions on cross-border expansions. Findings in the study support the moderate regional integration of the ASEAN sub- region. This limited regional integration results in higher transaction costs and consequently higher intra-regional liability of foreignness (LoF) in the event of cross-border expansions. The effect of formal institutions on national and subnational level influence route expansions by LCCs and support the need for strategic-asset seeking expansion motives. Besides the institutional perspective, the importance of the resource based view was confirmed. Firm-specific advantages (FSAs) are supported to be of significant importance in cross-border expansions by LCCs. Keywords: cross-border route expansion, regionalization, intra-regional liability of foreignness, formal/informal institutions, low cost carrier 2 Statement of Originality This document is written by student Puck Voorneveld who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. 3 Acknowledgements In the first place, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. Johan Lindeque for his endless patience and guidance. His enthusiastic coaching was extremely valuable and after every conversation I felt re-energized and inspired to continue writing. Especially in the last weeks of writing my thesis, his elaborated suggestions, motivational words and experience pushed the development of my thesis to reach this result. Secondly, I would like to thank my fellow students and friends who shared all their time with me in the library, discussing each other’s theses and different thoughts on the thesis subjects. Last but certainly not least, I want to thank my family and relatives; they have been very supportive to me in the entire thesis process which was long and not always without challenges. 4 Table of contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Literature review ............................................................................................................................ 12 2.1. Globalization and regionalization ........................................................................................... 12 2.2. Liability of Foreignness .......................................................................................................... 14 2.3. Institutional theory .................................................................................................................. 15 2.4. Regional institutional integration ............................................................................................ 16 2.5. Rescaling geographic space .................................................................................................... 18 2.6. Firm Specific Advantage ......................................................................................................... 19 2.7. Dunning’s investment motives ................................................................................................ 20 2.8. The Industry Specificity of Regionalization: The Airline industry ......................................... 21 2.9. Problem statement ................................................................................................................... 23 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 27 3.1. Research Philosophy ............................................................................................................... 27 3.2. Qualitative Case Study Research Approach ............................................................................ 28 3.3. Case Selection for Study ......................................................................................................... 29 3.4. Quality criteria ......................................................................................................................... 31 3.5. Data collection ......................................................................................................................... 32 3.6. Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 33 4. Results ............................................................................................................................................ 37 4.1. Within-case analysis ................................................................................................................ 37 4.2. Cross-case analysis .................................................................................................................. 68 5. Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 74 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 78 7. References ...................................................................................................................................... 81 8. Appendices ..................................................................................................................................... 89 Appendix 1: International Route Expansions per subsidiary ......................................................... 89 Appendix 2: Airport Categorization: List of all destinations of Lion Air & AirAsia .................. 118 Appendix 3: Overview of sources used for analyzing route expansions ..................................... 123 Appendix 4: Overview of sources used for airport categorization ............................................... 123 5 Index of Tables and Figures Table 1: Case Specification……………………………………………………………………... 30 Table 2: Data Sources………………………………………………………….………………... 33 Table 3: Airport Categorization…………………………………………………………..……... 35 Table 4: Coding Scheme…………………………………………………….…………………... 36 Table 5: AirAsia Group Summary Table………………………………………………………... 38 Table 6: Malaysia Air Asia Route Expansions……………………………...…………………... 40 Table 7: Malaysia Air Asia Cross-border Expansions………….…………..…………………... 41 Table 8: AirAsia X Route Expansions…………………………….…………..………………... 43 Table 9: AirAsia X Cross-border Expansions………………………………...…….…………... 44 Table 10: Indonesia AirAsia Route Expansions…………………………………….…………... 45 Table 11: Indonesia AirAsia Cross-border Expansions………….…………………….………... 46 Table 12: Indonesia AirAsia X Route Expansions……………….……………………………... 47 Table 13: Indonesia AirAsia X Cross-border Expansions………….…….……………………... 48 Table 14: Philippines AirAsia Route Expansions………………………………………..……... 49 Table 15: Philippines AirAsia Cross-border Expansions………….………….………….……... 50 Table 16: Thai AirAsia Route Expansions……………………………………….……………... 52 Table 17: Thai AirAsia Cross-border Expansions…………………………………………..…... 53 Table 18: Thai AirAsia X Route Expansions……………………………….…………………... 54 Table 19: Thai AirAsia X Cross-border Expansions………….………………….……………... 55 Table 20: Lion Air Group Summary Table ………………………...…………………………... 57 Table 21: Lion Air Route Expansions…………………………………………………………... 58 Table 22: Lion Air Cross-border Expansions……………………….…………………………... 59 Table 23: Thai Lion Air Route Expansions……………………………………………………... 60 Table 24: Thai Lion Air Cross-border Expansions ………….……………...…………………... 61 Table 25: Wings Air Route Expansions…………………………………….....………………... 62 Table 26: Malindo Air Route Expansions……………………………...……...………………... 63 Table 27: Malindo Air Cross-border Expansions………….……………...……...……………... 64 Table 28: Batik Air Route Expansions……………………………………...…………………... 66 Table 29: Batik Air Cross-border Expansions………….……………………..………………... 67 Table 30: Cross-Case Summary Table on Regional Orientation and Cross-border Expansion Motives………………………………………………………………………………………….. 69 Table 31: Cross-Case Summary Table on Expansion Motives and Formal Institutions………... 72 Table 32: Results of Working Propositions……………………………………………………... 74 Figure 1: Regional Orientation of Destinations for each Airline Group…………...…...………. 70 6 Index of Acronyms AAX AirAsia X AFTA Asean Free Trade Area APEC Asia-Pacific macro-region ASAM ASEAN Single Aviation Market ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations CAQDAS Data Analysis Software CAPA Centre of