Assessment of air cargo airlines: An interpretive structural modeling approach

Using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology this study explored the nonstatistical factors that might affect a cargo airline. ISM allows a better understanding of the mutual influence among different attributes and the consequences, which helps the decision maker make more informed decisions. The study used ISM methodology to summarize and identify the relationships among attributes that influences the competitive advantage of a cargo airline, operational factors that might influence the firm's processes, and characteristics that might affect the overall financial stability of the airline. Relationships among attributes were derived and structured into a hierarchy in order to identify subsystems of interdependent elements with corresponding driving power and dependency. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.