Development of a framework to evaluate the impact of behavioural factors on the performance of strategic railway alliances in the UK

Al-Naseri, WJH

Abstract

The increasingly competitive environments that industries are operating in today, pose several complex challenges, such as technological advances in both hard and soft systems, which require behaviours, skills and knowledge. These competencies can be better accessed by organisations through the creation of strategic alliances, as they allow individual organisations to leverage their comparative advantages and ultimately gain an edge. The formation of strategic alliances has now become a fundamental business strategy in several industries, while individual organisations are less competitive alone, with the formation of strategic alliances, they stand a better chance of competing. Accordingly, this research seeks to explore the impact of behavioural factors on the performance of strategic railway alliances.
This research investigates the impact of behavioural factors, namely the behavioural success factors and behavioural negative factors, which impact on the performance of strategic railway alliance, in order to provide affordable and effective solutions that can be adopted. Therefore, the aim is to propose strategic guidelines and a framework, to enhance the performance of strategic railway alliances, through the identification of behavioural negative attitudes that impact on railway alliance performance, and the proposal of enhancement steps to overcome the negative effects. For the proposed purpose of this research, the selection of a developed country (the UK) permits a clear and in-depth understanding of the process involved when conducting strategic railway alliance functions.
This investigation adopts an exploratory sequential mixed-method approach that follows a case study strategy. Using a mixed-method approach assists in the improvement of both the validity and reliability of the current research. The data has been collected sequentially using semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys and the data collection period was carried out from November 2017 to July 2018. A content analysis technique was used to analyse the collected qualitative data and identify themes and patterns. Moreover, Chi-square tests were used to analyse collected quantitative data in order to understand the level of significance for each factor, while a Kruskal-Wallis test determined whether there was any significant difference between the independent variables (participant experience) and dependent variables (behavioural success factors and behavioural negative factors).
The findings demonstrate that the presence of behavioural success factors is significantly important within strategic railway alliances, as the efficient and effective availability of these factors will ultimately enhance the successful delivery of the performance of strategic railway alliances. Whilst behavioural negative factors identified hinder the achievement and success of the relationships inside the strategic railway alliances.
This research contributes to the scant literature currently published in the field of strategic railway alliances in developed countries, such as the UK. The originality of such research could be attributed to the limited attempts that have been conducted previously, which explore the nature and achievement of successful strategic railway alliances. The strategic guidelines and framework provided during the research are targeted to enable the arrival of sensible means, that can overcome the barriers in a strategic railway alliance process and achieve the outcomes. The proposed guidelines and framework are expected to be beneficial for the railway industry, as well as business, governments, and academics. They focus on debilitating the behavioural negative attitudes that can lead strategic railway alliance performance to failure. Furthermore, this research will be considered beneficial for non-governmental and non-business organisations as it will shine a light on the best practices for the creation of a strategic alliance in future programmes.

Citation

Al-Naseri, W. Development of a framework to evaluate the impact of behavioural factors on the performance of strategic railway alliances in the UK. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Feb 12, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 12, 2020
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2020