Contents

• Introduction 3
• Context of the Research 3
• Research Questions 5
• Literature Review 5
• Approaches to External Analysis of the environment 6
• PESTLE Analysis 6
• Porter’s Five Forces 7
• Approach to Internal Analysis of the environment 7
• SWOT Analysis 7
• Business Growth Model 8
• Ansoff Growth Matrix 8
• Analysis of the Impact of Gulf Blockade on Qatar Airways 9
• Research Approach/Methodology 12
• Research Approach 12
• Population and Sampling 14
• Qualitative Data Collection Method 14
• Data Analysis 15
• Issues of Ethics and Access to Data 16
• Action Plan of Work 17
• References 19

Description

Organizations need to constantly re-visit their strategies and implement new strategies if required to achieve sustained competitive advantage in response to the changes in internal and external factors (Johnson et al., 2012). It is essential for the organizations to formulate strategy, which is innovative to achieve competitive advantage over others and for long-term sustainability (Rothaermel, 2016). Strategy can be either deliberate or it emerges with changing external environmental conditions. Strategies, which are developed and implemented by considering the internal and external environmental factors are more successful as the outcome of the strategy is already known and can be compared to the objective developed by the organization (Mckeown, 2015). Strategy is aimed at providing the right direction to the organization when it is faced with many challenges such as competition, changing market conditions, growth and changing consumer preferences or changes in the political or social environment (David & David, 2014). Qatar Airways is the national carrier of Qatar and is headquartered in Doha (Qatar Airways, 2017). It has a hub and spoke network and links over 150 destinations across Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, North and South America from its base at Hamad International Airport, Doha (Qatar Airways, 2017). The airline has won the award for World’s Best Airline and is recognized as one of the best airlines in the world (Qatar Airways, 2017). But in the past few months the airlines has been facing several challenges due to the Gulf Blockade (Alkhalisi, 2017). The following research proposal aims at outlining the research approach to study the impact of Gulf blockade on its operations and how it can mitigate the adverse effects of the blockade on its operations.