C/B/210. Dissertation. Comparative and contrastive study Virgin Atlantic and BA: Cultures and Strategies

The ultimate aim of the dissertation is to focus on long-time competitors BA and Virgin Atlantic. The two have been engaged in sensitive but in the same time quite fierce competition for number of years. The researcher attempted to identify, whether one or another can be considered more competitive or yet, more successful, due to ones organisational structure, strategy or possibly other factors. This dissertation has been mainly based upon the secondary research due to the nature of the chosen research topic, i.e. its scope and size. No primary research tools have been used in this dissertation. Nevertheless, the researcher has identified the possibility of improving the research in the future via adding a number of primary research tools such as interviews or focus groups in order to deepen the knowledge on some key aspects and receive more practical and professional opinion on a number of questions. Furthermore, the literature review was specifically based on various academic and practical sources of information, which were clearly justified in the methodology section, i.e. the way the sources were selected and the information coding techniques used. The researcher has used a number of strategic and analytical models in order to analyse the obtained data. In particular, the researcher has used SWOT, PEST, Porters Five Forces and some other more practical model and tools, which provided the research with the necessary depth and comprehension. The dissertation features a solid conclusion and recommendations as the result of the commenced study, which can be briefly described as follows; both companies have strong and weak sides but also, both BA and Virgin Atlantic has achieved their success via completely different approaches and strategies as well as using completely different organisational structures. The researcher has come to conclusion that it is difficult to predict the future of two competitors, except that they may need to consider the external environment as well as other competitors instead of concentrating on rivalry between them selves.