Entrepreneurial Health Assessment for Qantas Airways

The report outlines the entrepreneurial health and innovation culture of Qantas Airways using the Corporate Entrepreneurial Climate Instrument and entrepreneurial intensity as theoretical frameworks. The analysis indicates that Qantas Airways has a high degree of entrepreneurship and innovation based on its market shares and internal practices.

Entrepreneurial Health Assessment for [Qantas Airways]
Assignment 2 IBU5COV Corporate Venturing
[Pick the date]
La Trobe University
[Author names]
Word count =
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Executive Summary
The report outlines the entrepreneurial health and innovation culture of the Qantas Airline
whereby the internal and external information is utilised using the Corporate Entrepreneurial
Climate Instrument and the entrepreneurial intensity as a theoretical frameworks to give
insightful judgment to the entrepreneurial environment of the company. The analysis indicate
the Qantas Airlines has the highest intensity in terms of innovation events based on the
market shares it has over the competitors. The analyses also imply that the company incurs
high innovativeness and proactiveness among its employees as well as risk taking that have
accumulated to high degree of entrepreneurship.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………….2
1. INTRODUCTION AND COMPANY OVERVIEW.....................................................4
1.1 Overview of entrepreneurial health............................................................................4
1.2 Overview of Qantas Airways Company......................................................................4
2. THEORETICAL CONCEPTS........................................................................................5
2.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................5
2.2 Concept of entrepreneurial intensity...........................................................................5
2.3 The concept of corporate entrepreneurial climate.....................................................6
a) Managerial support.......................................................................................................6
b) Work discretion.............................................................................................................6
c) Employee motivation....................................................................................................7
d) Availability of time........................................................................................................7
e) Organisational boundaries...........................................................................................7
3. RESEARCH APPROACH...............................................................................................7
3.1 Self-reporting.................................................................................................................8
3.2 External commentary...................................................................................................8
4. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.........................................................................8
4.1 Part A: Entrepreneurial Intensity...............................................................................8
a) Qantas Airways entrepreneurial intensity..................................................................8
b) The position of Qantas Airways on an entrepreneurial grid..................................10
4.2 Part B: Climate for Corporate Entrepreneurship...................................................11
5. CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................14
APPENDICES........................................................................................................................17
Appendix A: Abbreviations...................................................................................................17
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Impacts of transformation Program on achievement of targets..................................9
Figure 2: Market shares of Airlines operating in Australia (2017)..........................................10
Figure 3: An Entrepreneurial Grid for the airlines in Australia...............................................10
Figure 4: Qantas group engagement scores.............................................................................12
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1. Introduction and Company Overview
1.1 Overview of entrepreneurial health
Entrepreneurial health or culture is the hope of companies today. The managers for various
organisations are striving to achieve competitiveness and excellent performance in the market
through attempts to invoke the entrepreneurial climate in their organisations (Roundy et al.,
2018, pp.192-226.). Concisely, creating an entrepreneurial culture is advantageous to the
business environment as it promotes the skills and mindset geared towards innovation,
creativity, and calculated risk-taking as well as employee empowerment. The concept applies
across all the stakeholders at an individual level, teams and the entire organisation, especially
in a fast moving and technology competitive company. However, productive entrepreneurial
culture is centred on concerted practises including modelling, structure, constant
communication, and positive reinforcement, which keeps the focus of employees on an
entrepreneurial mindset that facilitates innovation and creativity (Swab and Johnson, 2019,
pp.147-165). Therefore, the purpose of the report is to assess the corporate entrepreneurial
health of companies using Qantas Airways as a focused company.
1.2 Overview of Qantas Airways Company
Qantas Airways is one of the largest airlines in Australia, which developed in tandem through
civil aviation development. Sir Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinnes, and Sir Fergus McMaster
started the company in the 1920s as Queensland and Northern Territory Arial Services
limited, which has undergone a rampant transformation over the years with substantial
growth in the market shares and establishment of the brand name it has today (Qantas, 2019).
Qantas Airways has world-class facilities that enable the company to provide comprehensive
scheduling, online booking services, cheap air tickets, low airfares, and excellent hospitality
services. The provision of these services is aligned to the company’s mission and vision
statement, which claims that the organisation is Australia’s leading premium airline that is
dedicated to being the best. Additionally, the services are also expected to align to the
purpose of the company, which is to meet the customer expectations every time they fly so
that the company can continue investing in the business that will ever strive to pride an
exceptional level of service to the clients (Make my Trip, 2011).
However, the company exhibits extensive managerial practices, which include the creation of
an innovative and entrepreneurial environment that has ensured its task force utilises all their
skills, knowledge, and resources at its disposal in offering satisfactory services to the
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customers in the industry (Make my Trip, 2011). For instance, the company has innovative
governance in place, which encourages the employees to challenge the way things are done
through taking ownership and finding a better way thus motivating the workers in seeking to
drive advantage thus strengthening the brand strength. Through innovation, the company has
been able to broaden the reach of Qantas loyalty and to build active domestic businesses as
well as turning around the Qantas international using the proactive management that has
created an entrepreneurial environment. Besides, the entrepreneurial culture has given various
managers in different departments to guide their staff in engaging in competitive product
innovation through utilisation of the technology to invent quality products that facilitate the
provision of quality services to the local and international customers.
2. Theoretical Concepts
2.1 Introduction
Different pieces of literature have attempted to expound on the theoretical and conceptual
frameworks of the entrepreneurial climate in organisations, which is inclined to the
innovation of new products for the acquisition of larger market shares (Moussa, McMurray,
and Muenjohn, 2018, pp.231-240). Scholars have arguably claimed that the theoretical
frameworks surrounding the entrepreneurial health and innovation are the key drivers that are
emulated by managers in setting their taskforce into motion to invent new products to quench
the dynamic customers’ needs and satisfaction. Therefore, the theoretical concepts and
frameworks can be illustrated based on the following aspects.
2.2 Concept of entrepreneurial intensity
The theoretical concept of entrepreneurial intensity is centred on the opportunities and the
availability of resources to focus on the pro-activity, risk-taking, and innovativeness.
Concisely, intensity determines the frequency of innovative events over a defined period of
time that are put in place by the relevant stakeholders such as employees. The art of risk
taking determines the degree of entrepreneurial intensity whereby the managers who pursue
risk ideas that can put the company at jeopardy (Uy, Foo, and Ilies, 2015, pp.375-389). On
the other hand, innovativeness facilitates generation of valuable and new ideas as well as
processes and strategies to increase the market shares whereas pro-activity is when the
employees are ready to evaluate the challenges and benchmark solutions from their
competitors. However, the theoretical entrepreneurial intensity model requires that for the
managers to increase the frequency of innovative ideas, they should create uncertainty,
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encourage EI, facilitate a rewarding system to the employees as well as provision for an
autonomy where the employees are given freedom to solve problems (Sadiku-Dushi, Dana,
and Ramadani, 2019, pp.86-99).
2.3 The concept of corporate entrepreneurial climate
Khoza, Groenewald, and Schachtebeck (2018) defined the entrepreneurial climate concept as
an approach of identifying opportunities through the provision of solutions to the challenges
and problems facing the customers by innovating new products and services. The idea takes
centre stage of the entrepreneurial mindset of the employees regardless of their expertise and
the resources that are currently available by invoking a way of thinking that critical thinking
about both the internal and external opportunities. These are enhanced through the
establishment of effective human management systems, culture, controls, and organisation
structures, which ensures the employees work in accordance to the corporate entrepreneurial
culture that can only be realised by combining the factors in an organisation that are
summarised in the CECI model (Corporate Entrepreneurial Climate Instrument). The five
elements of CECI are discussed below.
a) Managerial support
Managerial support in corporate entrepreneurial support is the willingness of the top
managers to promote practises that champion for innovation through the provision of
resources to the employees. In the past, the middle level managers had to work hard in getting
the attention of the top managers for presentation proposals and innovative activities making
innovation to face turbulences as opposed to today’s leadership and management skills where
the managers are flexible and accommodative towards new ideas (Steyn and De Bruin, 2018,
pp.1-8).
b) Work discretion
Discretion defines the willingness of the managers to tolerate failure and trials of new ideas.
Such commitment of the managers discourages quitting or abandoning of ideas especially in
the technology-based platforms where innovation has been associated with significant trial
and error practices. Those managers that tolerate different innovation and entrepreneurial
risks are likely to facilitate evaluation and assessment of innovation risks, which can turn the
company into fortunes, or losses before enrolling the ideas or products (Morris, Kuratko &
Covin, 2011, p69).
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c) Employee motivation
(Steyn and De Bruin, 2018, pp.1-8) Ascertained that rewards and reinforcement systems are
vital measures that promote corporate entrepreneurial climate through encouraging internal
competition among the workers who are the cornerstone for innovative ideas. Motivation
supports commitment, dedication, and hard work among employees which when steered
towards entrepreneurship results in the innovation of new ideas and products.
d) Availability of time
Time availability is an essential factor the promotes testing of ideas and opinions which
precipitates innovations. (Steyn and De Bruin, 2018) Alluded that employees who work on
tight schedules without sufficient time for discussions and interaction among colleagues at
work are less likely to come up with innovative ideas. The authors defended that adequate
time is an element of a creative culture whereby he claims that most plans do not come by
when people are busy with routine work.
e) Organisational boundaries
The organisational boundaries are the structures that a company is centred on. (Morris,
Shenkar, and Mackey, 2019, p.110) Depicted that if an organisation is made up of many
levels of hierarchy, complicated and lengthy approval cycles, restricted communication
channels and unrealistic criteria of performances, it will limit the existence of innovative and
a corporate entrepreneurial culture among the employees. Such organisational boundaries
restrict the intensity of innovations due to the rigidness in the structures put in place to govern
the operations of the employees.
3. Research Approach
The research utilised both the qualitative and the quantitative data and pieces of information
in drawing inferences and deriving meaningful insights concerning the selected organisation,
Qantas Airways Company. The use of mixed method ensured that limitations of relying on a
single type of data were eliminated while maximising on the advantages of using both the
qualitative and quantitative sets of data (Woolcock, 2019, p.147). Concisely, this implies that
the report used the qualitative data to give meaning to the quantitative data thus furthering the
understanding of the corporate entrepreneurial climate of the company and the resultant
innovation intensity. The collection of data relied on the two approaches as illustrated below.
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3.1 Self-reporting
Self-reporting is the data or information disclosed by the company concerning itself through
platforms such as the press releases, annual reports, and websites among others. These
sources would be utilised to harness vital information pertinent to corporate entrepreneurial
climate and intensity.
3.2 External commentary
The external commentary was also used in conveying the information about the company,
which included data from the customer, and employee reviews concerning the topic of study.
The data collected through self-reporting as well as the external commentary were vital in
assessing the entrepreneurial intensity of Qantas and corporate entrepreneurial climate of the
company as indicated in the data analysis section.
4. Data Analysis and Discussion
4.1 Part A: Entrepreneurial Intensity
Entrepreneurial intensity (EI) is the measure to capture the amount and degree of
entrepreneurship evidenced within the organisation (Castellano, Khelladi, and Ivanaj, 2019).
Concisely, the concept of EI puts into account the frequency of innovation of new products
and ideas, the newness or the innovativeness attitudes, proactiveness, and risk-taking
experienced within the company, which is measured by its position on an entrepreneurial
grid.
a) Qantas Airways entrepreneurial intensity
The data collected from the reports and the company website indicates that the company has
the Qantas Transformation program that promotes innovation of new products and services as
well as improvement on the existing ones (Qantas Airways, 2016). The program has enabled
the company to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, data analytics, and digital
platforms. However, the implementation of these aspects has led to an increase in the rate of
entrepreneurial intensity due to the accelerated innovation among employees such as the
invention of low carbon technologies and operational innovations such as new recovery
system, consolidated passenger and executive information systems, and new compass
technologies through innovativeness attitudes.
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Additionally, the company reports that the transformation programs facilitated the employees
with the adequate resources making them achieve in innovating ways of improving customer
satisfaction among other targets as depicted in figure 1 showing the achieving targets and
progress.
Figure 1: Impacts of transformation Program on achievement of targets (Source: Qantas
Airways, 2016)
The indicated achievements are attributed to an influential entrepreneurial culture that has
the measures for the target and the progress of different aspects in the industry (Qantas
Airways, 2016).
b) The position of Qantas Airways on an entrepreneurial grid
An entrepreneurial grid is an essential tool for determining the role of entrepreneurship by the
managers as well as the resultant performance of an organisation among its competitors. For
instance, Figure 2 illustrates that by 2017, reports indicate that Qantas Airways were the
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leading airline service providers in Australia accounting for 31 per cent of market shares
followed by Emirates airlines at 9.45 per cent (Casey, 2017).
Figure 2: Market shares of Airlines operating in Australia (2017) (Source: Casey, 2017)
The indicated growth in market shares reflects a distinctive entrepreneurial culture from
which we can position the company on the entrepreneurial grid as shown in the figure 3 for
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Qantas airways
Emirates (EK)
An Entrepreneurial Grid for Qantas Airline
Competitors
Jetstra Airways
Singapore Airline
competitors.
Figure 3: An Entrepreneurial Grid for the airlines in Australia (Source: Prepared by
Author)
The grid indicates a more significant amount of entrepreneurship for Qantas airline implying
a high number of entrepreneurial events, innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness
compared to the primary competitors such as Emirates EK airlines.
4.2 Part B: Climate for Corporate Entrepreneurship
About the CECI instrument, the company can be said to be at the pick of an entrepreneurial
culture. The information obtained from the company websites and annual reports depict that
the Qantas Company enjoys adequate management support that is extended to different
departments which have championed for innovative ideas and provision of resources for
entrepreneurial culture. The company has achieved this through the formation of a
transformation program that ensures every creative design is thoroughly researched, tested
and fabricated (Qantas Airways, 2016).
On the other hand, the reports indicate that the company uses an autonomous system of
governance where the middle-level managers are given the mandate to spearhead innovative
ideas in different departments such as those responsible for Growth and Diversification at
Qantas, and Customer and brand investing. Additionally, other departments are Data and
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digital harnessing, those accountable for Energy actions, emissions, and supply chain,
Maximisation of Domestic position, safety and security, and the department of aligning the
company with the Asian market. The work discretion/ autonomy has therefore promoted the
corporate entrepreneurial climate in the company.
On the other hand, the company has organisation boundaries that encourage the sharing of
information which is based on a simple structure which facilitates capturing and helping the
employees to build on their ideas. The two distinct businesses, in essence, Qantas
international and Qantas domestic are managed by CEOs who are supportive of the
innovation programs from the company’s employees.
Additionally, the company has a rewarding system of its employees whereby the workers are
congratulated on innovative achievements through recognition and promotions thus enabling
an entrepreneurial health environment.
Besides, the taskforce enjoys the aspect of time availability, which has made many
employees to donate their time and skills to investing in customer, and brand through the
reconciliation action plan 2007 and working with communities and engaging them to identify
the loopholes or setbacks in service deliveries (Qantas Airways, 2016). For instance, the
attribute of time availability, which is a recommendation of the CECI instrument, led to an
increment in the percentage of the engagement scores whereby the elements of the survey
included engagement and culture, leadership capability, talent development and managing
change towards an entrepreneurial culture and innovation. The increase in engagement scores
from 2012 to 2016 is shown in the figure 4 (Qantas Airways, 2016).
Figure 4: Qantas group engagement scores (Source: Qantas Airways, 2016)
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5. Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be deduced that entrepreneurial health in organisations is an essential
factor that plays a significant role in determining the performance of the company in the
market. Having a productive entrepreneurial culture is the backbone of innovation of new
services and products in line with the satisfaction of the customers, whose needs are ever
changing. However, an entrepreneurial health culture requires that the company complies to
some crucial aspects defined in the CECI instruments with the five factors that promote
corporate entrepreneurship which are organisational boundaries, availability of time,
management support, work discretion, and employee motivation (Steyn and De Bruin, 2018,
pp.1-8).
The application of the CECI tools can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an
organisation concerning entrepreneurial health through an analysis of the mentioned five
factors. For instance, the Qantas Airways has strong managerial support towards innovation
thus promoting a healthy entrepreneurial culture whereas the limitation of the company is the
lack of reinforcement system for rewarding the employees other than the conventional
recognition used by many companies (Qantas Airways, 2016). However, the entrepreneurial
culture of Qantas implies that the organisation will grow its market shares to be the biggest
airline in Asia and entire Europe.
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References
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[Online]
Available at: https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/277448/analysis-
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 Moussa, M., McMurray, A. and Muenjohn, N., 2018. A conceptual framework of the
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 Woolcock, M., 2019. Reasons for Using Mixed Methods in the Evaluation of
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Appendices
Appendix A: Abbreviations
CECI - Corporate Entrepreneurial Climate Instrument
QA – Qantas Airways
EI – Entrepreneurial Intensity
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