Decision of top management teams participating in airline alliance

This study examined how upper echelon attributes account for airline alliance decisions. The upper echelon theory was chosen as the main theoretical foundation to account for an airline alliance. This study selected the top management team (TMT) as a proxy of the upper echelon. We collected data using various sources (e.g., Annual 10K, COMPUSTAT, EXECUCOMP, and other public resources). The study period was from 1998–2013. This study adopted logistic regression to analyze the data because the dependent variable appeared in a binary format. The results indicated that longer-tenured TMTs and TMTs possessing more share ownership are more likely to take part in an airline alliance. On the contrary, more educated TMTs and TMTs holding more stock options are less likely to participate in an airline alliance.