Commercialization Strategy in Managing Online Presence in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry

Kuzma, Joanne, O'Sullivan, Sherry, Philippe, T.W., Koehler, J.W. and Coronel, R.S. (2017) Commercialization Strategy in Managing Online Presence in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry. International Journal of Business Strategy, 17 (1). pp. 59-68. ISSN 2378-8585

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Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as Drones, originally gained international prominence for warfare and surveillance. Today, Drones are commercially made and distributed to the general public. Academic researchers have studied the technical aspects of Drones. However, with the public interest and demands for Drones, there is a need to study commercialization of Drones, specifically management issues and strategies. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the commercialization of Drones by reviewing websites of companies that market Drones. We identified four countries where businesses have been established to capitalize on the public demand for Drones. We selected twenty-five companies in each of the four countries. Each of the selected companies sponsored websites aimed at capitalizing on the potential Drone market. We conducted a content analysis of each of the 100 company’s websites. The results of our content analysis identified two significant variables that differentiate advanced, or nascent commercial endeavours from those companies making a “sort-of attempt” to get on the Drone bandwagon. Our analysis identified two significant variables that distinguished the websites on mature Drone companies. The two variables: attention to legal compliance; and insurance coverage. Our analysis of website data supports our conclusion that a Drone company website should effectively communicate their management position regarding two crucial issues: legal compliance and insurance coverage.

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