Governance structures and the market orientation of airports in Europe's peripheral areas

This paper investigates the relationship between governance structures and the market orientation of airports. The focus is on Europe's peripheral areas, where airports tend to be publicly owned and operated as an independent entity or as part of a regional or national airport system. This paper finds that market orientation is significantly higher at independently operated airports compared to system-operated airports and that independent governance structures, market opportunities and competitive intensity have a significant positive effect on airport market orientation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.