Collaborative Research: RUI: Air Cargo Services and Competitive Advantage in Industrializing Economies

航空货运在当代全球经济中是一个越来越重要的环节，尽管研究很少。然而，航空货运服务的可用性和质量因城市、地区和国家而异。这个项目将研究航空货运服务的变化如何影响出口制造商的竞争力和他们所在的当地经济。通过问卷调查和对航空货运公司和出口制造商的深入访谈，将在马来西亚、菲律宾和新加坡的背景下评估航空货运服务的供需层面。利用定量和定性方法，将开发出模型，以显示随着公司业务国际化，航空货运服务的使用情况如何变化，外资公司和本地公司与航空货运公司的关系有何不同，以及更多地使用信息技术如何改变航空货运业的关系。虽然有大量关于生产性服务业的描述性理论文献，但几乎没有一本涉及航空货运。到目前为止，航空货运一直被简单地视为某些特殊货物的一种运输方式。然而，新的国际分工的加速出现以及公司对竞争优势的相伴而来的影响导致了航空运输业的技术复杂性和组织结构的演变。航空公司开发了更广泛的不同速度服务的产品线，利用通信技术的进步加快了航空货运托运人和承运人之间的信息流动，并形成了国际联盟，以更好地为跨国公司服务。从本质上讲，已经开发了一套更加丰富的服务。在东南亚三个充满活力的经济体中，探索这些复杂的服务、提供这些服务的航空公司以及使用这些服务的出口商，将展示航空货运对发展中经济体竞争力的影响。

Air cargo is an increasingly vital, though little researched, link in the contemporary global economy. Yet the availability and quality of air cargo services vary among cities, regions, and countries. This project will examine how variation in air cargo services affects the competitiveness of exporting manufacturers and the local economies within which they operate. Through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with air cargo carriers and exporting manufacturers, both the supply and demand dimensions of air cargo services will be assessed in the context of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, models will be developed to show how the use of air cargo services changes as firms internationalize their operations, how foreign-owned and locally owned firms differ in their relationships with air cargo carriers, and how greater use of information technology has changed relationships in the air cargo industry. While there is a significant descriptive and growing theoretical literature on producer services, virtually none of this addresses air cargo. Heretofore air cargo has been treated simply as a means of transport for certain special goods. However, the accelerated emergence of a new international division of labor and concomitant reach by firms for competitive advantage have produced an evolution in the technological sophistication and organizational structure of the air transport industry. Airlines have developed broader product lines of different speed services, used communication advances to accelerate the flow of information among air cargo shippers and carriers, and formed international alliances to better serve multinational corporations. In essence, a much richer set of services has been developed. An exploration of these complex services, the carriers that provide them, and the exporters that use them in three dynamic Southeast Asian economies will demonstrate the role of air cargo as an influence upon the competitiveness of developing economies.