Corporate strategies and the reputation of civil aviation agencies: a case study of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority

Abstract

From the modern academic and practice point of view in business management, corporate strategy and organisational reputation are aspects of significance and paramount importance (Feldman, 2020). They set the foundation and success drivers for basic company or business processes, operations and the manner in which they coordinated to achieve sought out goals (Bogomyagko and Machulskyi, 2012). However, Feldman (2020) notes that, for decades, it has been the concern for scholars to obtaining an understanding of how corporate structures and the managers overseeing them promote or damage corporate reputation in their businesses. Corporate strategy research seeks to address a different core question: how do managers set and oversee the scope of their firms. Implementing corporate strategies, Muteshi and Kariuki (2020) note that it entails configuration of capabilities inside the existing surrounding, realize the desires of the world market and to achieve stakeholder expectations. The study sought to examine the relationship between corporate strategies and organisational reputation in the aviation sector with a case study of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA). It examined the influence of the expansion strategy, contract management strategy, and social responsibility strategy on the reputation of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority. The study drew its theoretical base from the Dynamic Capabilities Theory by Teece and Pisano (1994), relational view of resources based theory by Dyer and Singh (1998), and the Agency Theory by Eisenhardt (1985). The study used a sample of 162 out of a population of 287. It registered a 53.7% response rate that is, 87 respondents. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used combining descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was collected using self administered questionnaires, interview guides, and document reviews. Data was analysed using frequencies, means, standard deviations, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients in a bivariate and multivariate regression analysis of corporate strategies; expansion strategy, contract management strategy, social responsibility strategy and the reputation of UCAA. It was established that corporate strategies have a moderately strong positive influence on the reputation of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority with a coefficient r = 0.606 at significance levels less than 0.01. The most influential corporate strategy is the contract management strategy given a β value = 0.324 greater than the β values 0.215 and 0.166 of the social responsibility strategy and expansion strategy respectively. The study recommends that organisational focus should be on best practice contract management so as to improve the reputation of civil aviation agencies.