Growth Opportunities and Strategies Southwest Airlines

BUSINESS-LEVEL COOPERATIVE STRATEGIES

Business-Level Cooperative Strategies: Southwest Airlines

From the onset, it would be prudent to note that business-level cooperative strategies, as Henry (2021) points out, come in handy in efforts to “grow and improve firm performance in individual product markets (industries)” (204). Over the past few years, Southwest Airlines has not been keen on exploring partnerships or strategic alliances with its peers or carriers in the industry. As a matter of fact, this particular airline remains one of the few major airlines that has not sought to establish partnerships with other players in this increasingly competitive industry. I am of the opinion that embracing a business-level cooperative strategy would, from a strategic competitiveness point of view, enable Southwest Airlines to outperform rivals, i.e. via addition of skillsets/knowledge, cost reduction, etc. There are various business-level cooperative strategies that Southwest Airlines could seek to pursue. One such strategy which could be of great relevance to Southwest Airlines is complementary strategic alliances. In this case, Southwest Airlines would be seeking to integrate certain resources it has at its disposal with those of another airline so as to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace (or industry). Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, and Bamford (2018) point out that in this case, firms come to the realization that they cannot develop a competitive advantage, or at least do so in an efficient manner, on their own. For instance, Southwest Airlines could reach out to a peer with a proposal of sharing certain capabilities (i.e. access to certain routes) in a complementary manner.