A hybrid MCDM model for evaluating the corporate image of the airline industry

In today's highly competitive airline industry it is acknowledged that having a preferred corporate image may have an impact on customer loyalty towards the firm. A good corporate image also provides a powerful way of differentiating a company from its competitors and to stimulate purchases, especially in the airline industry. However, in the past, corporate image was a vague concept that was difficult to measure quantitatively. Therefore, this paper proposed a hybrid MCDM model to evaluate corporate image. Factor analysis is initially used to extract some independent common factors, and the fuzzy integral is used to integrate the performance ratings of the interdependent attributes in each common factor. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is adopted to determine the relative weights linking each independent common factor. Finally, a simple additive weight (SAW) method is used to evaluate corporate image and reputation. A study of international airlines is conducted for verification. The results of this study can help airlines understand their relative positions with competitors and develop better strategies to fulfill customers' needs.