همکاری تامین کنندگان اصلی: همکاری، انعطاف پذیری و ارتباطات استاندارد بین شرکت های هواپیمایی و آژانس های  مسافرتی   Collaborating pivotal suppliers: Complementarities, flexibility, and standard communication between airline  companies and travel agencies

1. Introduction Flight tickets are one of the decisive travel products (Christiaanse and Venkatraman, 2002; Law et al., 2010); thus, collaborating with the airline companies in designing travel product connectivity and timetable coordination has been the strategic aim of travel agencies (Castillo-Manzano and Lopez-Valpuesta,
2010; Christiaanse and Venkatraman, 2002; Granados et al., 2012a,b; Koo et al., 2011; Pearson et al., 2015). Moreover, Internet advances have boosted both the number of travel cyber intermediaries and the business models of airline companies and travel agencies (Daft and Albersb, 2015; Koo et al., 2011; Wei and Ozok, 2005), which in turn have enabled an increased online transparency of travel suppliers’ products and prices. Previous studies have argued that travelers look for lower ticket prices on the Internet, and while their concern with journey complexity results in comparing prices from different airline companies online (Christiaanse and Venkatraman, 2002; Koo et al., 2011; Zhang and Morrison, 2007), they still order tour packages from travel agencies. At a strategic level, travel agencies should pursue for sustainable improvements in product quality and innovation, enhanced competitiveness, and increased market share with collaborating partners. However, there are specific gaps in the literature, concerns airline and travel agency relations. Although most topics recognize collaborating among travel agencies (Castillo-Manzano and Lopez-Valpuesta, 2010; Huang, 2006; Zhang and Morrison,
2007), and between travel agencies and hotel (Karande and Magnini, 2011; Ku et al., 2011; Medina-Munoz et al., 2002; Wong and Kwan, 2001), few studies have explored the alliance between airline companies and travel agencies. Second, although most companies recognize that flexibility is a key to collaborating performance, many have not yet analyzed the role of complementarities as a driver of supply flexibility. Third, the specific gaps in the literature regarding delivery quality and standard communication with partner competencies from the perspective of resource-basedhave not been comprehensively examined. Therefore, study aims to elucidate how supply chain factors affect alliance performance with partners based on Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) perspective. The SCP perspective contextualizes collaborating strategies as responses to structural changes in the relevant market; facing with tourism market changes rapidly, delivery quality from airline companies is about travel products being readily available as requested (Vanpoucke et al., 2009). From the perspective of travel collaborating, the primary purpose of establishing the tourism supply chain design is really a mix of many factors: securing tourism products supply form suppliers (Kim, 2006; Noshad and Awasthi, 2015), involving suppliers of supply chain in tourism product development (Khan et al., 2012; Kim, 2006), and achieving both cost minimization and fast response to market changes; collaborating pivotal airline companies play a crucial role in shaping strategies. Furthermore, resource sharing takes place when two or more organizations in a network combine their complementary assets, resulting in a unique combination of assets that help companies tap market opportunities, leading to competitive advantage. Travel agencies provide travelers with information about tourist products and services that they distribute, and airline companies employ strategic collaboration to increase their competitiveness in service quality, innovation, and cost (Baron and Harris, 2010; Skipper et al., 2009) due to the ever changing business environment; however, few studies have examined how delivery quality and complementarities with partner competencies affect strategic alliances between airlines and travel agencies.