Competitive advantage analysis and strategy formulation of airport city development—The case of Taiwan

In the past decade, the focus of international airport development has shifted from a transportation hub towards a multi-functional aero metropolis. An airport city serves not only as an index of a country’s performance in development, but also plays the role as impetus of national industries and a gateway to economic globalization. Through literature review, secondary data analysis and interviews with focus groups and experts, this paper explores development features, operation strategies and competitive advantages of various airport cities in newly industrialized economies. This research also proposes a novel approach to strategy formulation, which utilizes the theory of competitive advantage of nations (a revised diamond model), SWOT analysis and strategy matching using the TOWS matrix and competitive benchmarking. The case study of Taoyuan International Airport illustrates the applicability of the proposed approach in systematic competitive analysis and strategy formulation of airport city development. The strategic planning put forward not only provides practical reference for systematic operation of related units, but also inspires a new research model and direction of study for airport city development.

Research highlights
► This work explores definition of airport cities as well as the intelligence about development features, operation strategies and competitive advantages s in Four Asia Tigers.
► Development key factors of airport-city are analyzed and discussed based on competitive advantages of nation.
► The case study of Taoyuan International Airport illustrates the applicability of SWOT analysis, TOWS matrix matching and benchmarking for strategy formulation of airport city development.