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Drivers and barriers to online airline ticket purchasing
Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Air Transport Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jairtraman
Drivers and barriers to online airline ticket purchasing Carla Ruiz-Mafe´ a, Silvia Sanz-Blas a, Joaquı´n Alda´s-Manzano b, * a b
Department of Marketing, Universitat de Vale`ncia, Facultat d’Economia, Avda. De los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain Department of Marketing, Universitat de Vale`ncia and Ivie, Facultat d’Economia, Avda. De los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Online tickets Travel agents Usefulness Perceived risk Airline revenue
Although online sales of airline tickets are growing, many travellers are still reluctant to use the web as a purchase channel. Given the cost advantages of online sales for airlines, it is useful for them to know the main drivers and barriers affecting the use of the Internet to purchase tickets. This study analyses the influence of risk, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the airline ticket online purchase intention. The results of a survey show that perceived purchase risk and perceived usefulness exercise a direct influence on airline ticket purchasing intentions, while perceived ease of use has an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. Psychological risk, performance risk and privacy risk are the predominant perceived risk dimensions in airline tickets purchase, whereas social risk and time loss risk are negligible. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The Internet is causing significant changes in the commercialisation of tourist products. As Button (2002) points out, the key comparative and qualitative information about travel options are readily transferred electronically and the electronic ticket has also removed the need for physical contact with the vendor and the high transaction costs of secure mailing. By way of example, traditional Spanish travel agencies lost 21.5% of their customers to online shopping in 2006 (Media Planning Group, 2007); the online tourist industry is worth in excess of V3000 million. By 2010 it is anticipated that in Europe over 60 million users will buy their travel online (Ju´piter Research, 2007). The Internet offers a distribution channel that enables customers to book air tickets rapidly, conveniently and with substantial price savings. It tears down the barriers to the availability of competitive ticket price information, intensifies market transparency and gives more power to the e-customer. Airline tickets are the most sold product on Internet in Spain, amounting to 36.5% of electronic commerce (Red.es, 2007). In the US, airline websites have also growing as a mechanism for selling airline tickets, capturing 58% of sales in 2005 (ComScore, 2006). But despite the continued growth in online airline ticket sales, many Spanish consumers are still somewhat reluctant to make online reservations or purchases. Out of every 10 airline ticket buyers,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 963828537; fax: þ34 963828333. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Alda´s-Manzano). 0969-6997/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2009.02.001
eight involved the Internet to obtain information on times and prices, but only 3 finally bought the ticket online. Buyers also show no particular loyalty to a given website, as abundant information and price competition encourage them to change portals continually. Here we look at online reservation/purchase of airline tickets. According to Xperience Consulting (2007), users largely value website safety and ease of use when buying online and 35% of users state that they abandon the purchase due to information overload. We evaluate the role of perceived risk, airline website perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, on Internet shopping. 2. Background The technology acceptance model (TAM) was developed by Davis (1989) to explain acceptance of information technology for different tasks. He showed that the intention to use a system is determined by what an individual believes about that system; the two most important beliefs being perception of the usefulness of the new technology and the perceived ease or difficulty of that use. McKechnie et al. (2006) point out that TAM has been successfully applied to a range of computer-based technology, both general (e-mail, office suite applications, and online shopping) and specific (accounting services, banking). Davis et al. (1989) define perceived usefulness as the degree to which a consumer believes that use of a system will increase his/ her performance. In the context of airline ticket sales, Internet will be viewed as a useful instrument if the individual perceives that tickets can be bought faster, at a better price or that more flights can
C. Ruiz-Mafe´ et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
Privacy risk
Performance risk
Social risk
Time loss risk
295
Psychological risk
Risk index
H4
H5
Perceived usefulness
H1
Intention to buy online
H3 H2
Perceived ease of use
Fig 1. Intention to buy online airline tickets.
be accessed than through a traditional travel agency. Perceived ease of use of the channel is one of the aspects that the Internet user most takes into consideration when making the purchase decision. It can be defined as the degree to which a person believes the use of a given system will ease learning, understanding. Thus over complex the website designs or those involving excessive steps are less likely to attract and retain users (Eriksson et al., 2005; Venkatetsh and Davis, 2000). Therefore we posit the following hypotheses: H1 Perceived usefulness of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the online purchase of airline tickets. H2 Perceived ease of use of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the online purchase of airline tickets. Davis et al. (1989) has also suggested that ease of use is an antecedent to perceived usefulness. According to Venkatetsh and Davis (2000) ‘‘the less effort a system is to use, the more using it can increase job performance’’, that is, Internet will be perceived as more useful if it is easier to use; this has been supported empirically by Dishaw and Strong (1999) and Igbaria et al. (1997). We thus hypothesize that: H3 Perceived ease of use of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the channel’s perceived usefulness. The concept of perceived risk exists when consumer cannot completely foresee the consequences of his/her behaviour. Therefore, the subject’s perception of risk in a given purchase
situation is in relation to: uncertainty (the lack of knowledge about what could happen) and possible negative consequences (purchase-related loss) (Bauer, 1960). Perceived purchase risk is the Internet user’s expectation of losing out in a given transaction (Forsythe and Shi, 2003). Several studies have considered perceived risk as a multidimensional construct that subdivides losses or risk factors that together explain the overall risk associated with the purchase of a product or service. In the sphere of electronic transactions, the identified risk dimensions are: performance, psychological, time, social and privacy (Cunningham et al., 2005), and applied to the online purchase of airline tickets these involve: Performance: fear that the product or service acquired will not meet consumer expectations, i.e., that the ticket purchased is not received, does not allow the flight to be taken, or does so under travelling conditions different from those anticipated. Psychological: fear of loss of self-esteem due to the wrong choice of product/service; i.e., a incorrect ticket generates anxiety and stress in the consumer. Time: the sensation of wasting time associated with the purchase, and especially, the time that the consumer perceives is unnecessarily spent in looking for and finding a ticket on the Internet or in making the online purchase. Social: the consumer’s fear that other people consider the choice inappropriate thus embarrassing consumer. Privacy loss of control over personal information that may be used without the person’s knowledge or consent; i.e., if the consumer perceives that the airline company has violated
C. Ruiz-Mafe´ et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
296 Table 1 Measurement scales. Construct
Construct dimensions
Cronbach’s alpha
Item descriptions
Source
Perceived risk
Performance
0.86
Adapted from Featherman and Pavlou (2003)
Social
0.86
Time
0.83
Psychological
0.92
Privacy
0.89
Global
0.91
If I used Internet to buy airline tickets. I would be worried that the ticket purchased was not worth the price I would be worried about paying with my credit card I would think it was highly likely I wouldn’t receive the ticket It would be difficult to find out about the flight characteristics (time schedule, plane characteristics, .) I would be worried that the ticket didn’t provide the flight advantages listed on the website It would be highly likely that the ticket was no use It would worsen my image with friends and family Some people whose opinion I value would think I didn’t act correctly My friends or relations would think I am imprudent I would be concerned about wasting too much time making the purchase There would be a high probability of wasting time looking for the correct flight I would be worried that too much time would go by before I received the ticket I would feel uncomfortable I would feel anxious I would experience unnecessary stress I would feel that my personal information could be used without my consent I would feel I would receive a lot of spam in the future I would feel my personal data would be unproperly used I would feel anything could go wrong during the purchase I would feel the purchase could not meet my expectations I would feel it could be risky
Adapted from Davis (1989), Davis et al. (1989)
Perceived usefulness
0.90
Using Internet to buy airline tickets. Would make the purchase of airline tickets easier Would help me to purchase more quickly Would be useful for my airline ticket purchases Would help me to shop more efficiently
Perceived ease of use
0.91
Using Internet to buy airline tickets. Would be easy for me to learn Would be simple to do Would not require much mental effort Would be easy following the instructions on the website
Intention to buy online
–
Intends to use Internet in the future to buy airline tickets 1 ¼ I am completely sure I won’t do it to 7 ¼ I am completely sure I will do it
privacy codes by, for example, using personal information to send unwanted e-mails. Due to the high levels of perceived risk associated with the shopping channel being used and the intangible nature of the service involved, the perception of possible losses associated reserving and purchasing tickets online is greater than that associated with traditional channels. The consumer has to assume responsibility for choosing from a large number of flights, obtaining the best price and making the reservation without errors, all within a shopping environment that requires the user to have particular skills. Perceived risk also influences other consumer perceptions (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) and is present in different stages of the purchase process. The electronic commerce acceptance model (Lee et al., 2001) has integrated perceived risk with TAM to explain e-commerce adoption. The perceived usefulness of the technological platform is determined by the perceived purchase risk. The combination of uncertainty and the cost of any loss reduce its perceived usefulness and, thus, adoption (Cheng et al., 2006; Seyal and Rahman, 2007) Therefore: H4 Perceived purchase risk has a negative influence on the perceived usefulness of Internet as a shopping channel. In particular, the following risk dimensions were found to have a negative influence on purchase behaviour: performance risk (Bhatnagar et al., 2000); performance, time and privacy risks
Adapted from Taylor and Todd (1995)
(Forsythe and Shi, 2003); privacy risk (Lu et al., 2005); and financial and time risk (Boksberger et al., 2007). Christou et al. (2004) has also shown that the less risk averse consumers are the more willing they are to purchase online, which is supported by Cunningham et al. (2005) who found that perceived purchase risk has a negative influence airline reservations and/or ticket purchases made online. Therefore: H5 Perceived purchase risk has a negative influence on airline ticket purchase. Fig. 1 summarises the hypotheses considered framework used here. 3. Methodology A questionnaire is developed using a 7-point Likert-type scales to look at online purchase intentions (Table 1). Data were collected online during April and May 2007. Although online surveys have sever limitations, Deutskens et al. (2006) indicate that due to improvements in survey software, the spread of the Internet, and people’s more extensive computer literacy, online and mail surveys produce equivalent results. The sample population comprises Internet users aged 16 or older who have never bought online an airline ticket. The sample replicates the population in terms of gender and age reflecting the proportions, represented in the Asociacio´n de Investigacio´n de los Medios de Comunicacio´n [Association for Media Research] (2007); the main directory of Internet users
C. Ruiz-Mafe´ et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
Privacy risk
Performance risk
0.237**
Social risk
0.069
0.190**
Time loss risk
297
Psychological risk
0.106 0.382**
Risk index
-0.117*
-0.213**
Perceived usefulness
0.397**
Intention to buy online
0.706** 0.174
Perceived ease of use
S-B Chi square = 218.17**; df =100; RMSEA=0.062; NFI=0.90; NNFI=0.93; CFI=0.95; IFI=0.95 **p<0.01; *p<0.05 Fig 2. Path significance for intention to buy online airline tickets.
in Spain. Ours sample involves 309 Internet users, 54% of whom are men, 80% are under 44 years old with above average income levels, 47.6% are students and 44.7% employees. They connect to the Internet very frequently, over 50% several times a day, and nearly 70% have been using the Internet for more than 3 years. As reliability tests, Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine internal consistency, showing all the construct’s measures exceed the critical value of 0.70 proposed by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) (Table 1), while risk was measured as a formative construct of all its dimensions (Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer, 2001). To assure the model identification, two reflective indicators for the formative construct are provided (Jarvis et al., 2003). 4. Results The conceptual model is tested using structural equation modeling and the estimates of the main-effects model and model goodness of fit indexes (Fig. 2) indicate a good fit. The perceived usefulness of the Internet as a shopping channel conditions the intention to buy online airline tickets. This suggests that airlines may still not have sufficient knowledge to build a ‘‘useful’’ website. Price is one of the attributes that makes a channel useful. If the marketing policies of the airlines do not drive them to fix lower prices for the tickets they sell on their own websites or through other online suppliers, as they are currently doing, the attractiveness of this channel falls dramatically. Online check-in at the same web address, special lodging offers, boarding passes printing,
flights and seats changing, free upgrades, hints to obtain the lowest fare, and online seat request can add further value to the customer. Perceived ease of use does not have a direct effect on the online purchases but it strongly influences the perception of usefulness of online channels, with a net mediated effect of ease of use on purchase intention of 0.280. A website will seldom be considered useful if it is difficult to navigate; the information is not organized neatly and it is not updated regularly, it does not load speedily, and the number of pages required to complete a reservation is high. A poorly designed digital storefront has an adverse influence on consumers’ online shopping experience. Usability studies of websites become important to determine if their architecture, navigation, design and layout allow consumers to easily navigate and find what they need. The significant and negative effect of risk perception on intention to buy airline tickets online both directly and via reduced perceived usefulness makes it helpful to analyse the types of risk that are relevant for consumers. As Fig. 2 shows, people do not mind when they are buying an online ticket how it will affect their public image (social risk is not significant in global risk perception), and do they think that the online channel will be time consuming. Their main concerns involve psychological, performance, and privacy risks. That means two things. First, that special care is needed to build the necessary reputational capital to ensure customers that the tickets bought online will satisfy their needs equally, if not better, than tickets bought at a brick-and-mortar agency. Airlines should find it relatively easy to meet this condition because many are established firms with years of customer
298
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relationships and established brand recognition. The use of independent consumer testimonials and an ‘‘About us’’ section, presenting the company, its mission, identity and e-commerce procedures could help in reducing performance risk, and subsequent psychological risk. Secondly, privacy risk implies that consumers are reluctant to share personal information for fear that their life will become an open book. Recommendations could focus on building trust before building the customer profile, avoiding the needs to fill out forms as a prerequisite for obtaining information on the website, letting consumers know in a prominent position on the site that any data exchanged is confidential, and letting them decide how they would like to receive information. If they prefer email, care should be taken not to flood their in-box. 5. Conclusions Our findings indicate that perceived purchase risk and perceived usefulness both directly influence the intention to airline tickets. Ease is also important because, although it does not directly influence behaviour, it does have an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. If an Internet user considers a website easy to use then this positively influences perception of the site’s usefulness and can lead to purchases. The results also show that risk is a multidimensional variable and that the dimensions do not all exercise the same influence on purchase intention. In particular, psychological risk, performance risk and privacy risk are the predominant perceived risk dimensions in airline tickets purchase whereas social risk and time loss risk are considered to be negligible. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the editor as well as the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Joaquin Aldas-Manzano acknowledges the financial support of the research project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Sciences (SEC2008-03813/ECON). References Asociacio´n de Investigacio´n de los Medios de Comunicacio´n (Association for Media Research) 2007. Navegantes en la Red.. Bauer, R.A., 1960. Consumer behavior as risk taking. In: Hancock, R. (Ed.), Dynamic Marketing for a Changing World: Proceedings of 43rd Conference. American Marketing Association, Chicago. Bhatnagar, A., Misra, S., Rao, H.R., 2000. On risk, convenience, and Internet shopping behavior. Communication of the ACM 43, 98–105. Boksberger, P.E., Bieger, T., Laesser, C., 2007. Multidimensional analysis of perceived risk in commercial air travel. Journal of Air Transport Management 13, 90–96. Button, K., 2002. Travel Information Systems in the 21st Century. Written testimony to the National Commission to Ensure Consumer Information and Choice in the Airline Industry. .
Cheng, J.M.-S., Sheen, G.L., Lou, G.C., 2006. Consumer acceptance of the Internet as a channel function perspective. Technovation 26, 856–864. Christou, E., Avdimiotis, P., Kassianidis, P., Sigala, M., 2004. Examining the factors influencing the adoption of web-based ticketing: Etix an dits adopters. In: Frew, A.J. (Ed.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism. ComScore, 2006. Comsocre Study Finds 35 Percent Increase in Number of Consumers Visiting Travel Sites.. Cunningham, L.F., Gerlach, J.H., Harper, M.D., 2005. Perceived risk and the consumer buying process: internet airline reservations. International Journal of Service Industry Management 16, 357–372. Davis, F.D., 1989. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly 13, 319–340. Davis, F.D., Bagozzi, R.P., Warshaw, P.R., 1989. User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science 35, 982–1002. Deutskens, E., De Ruyter, K., Wetzels, M., 2006. An assessment of the equivalence between online and mail surveys in service research. Journal of Service Research 8 (4), 346–355. Diamantopoulos, A., Winklhofer, H.M., 2001. Index construction with formative indicators: an alternative to scale development. Journal of Marketing Research 38, 269–277. Dishaw, M.T., Strong, D.M., 1999. Extending the technology acceptance model with task-technology fit constructs. Information and Management 36, 9–21. Eriksson, K., Kerem, K., Nilsson, D., 2005. Consumer acceptance of internet banking in Estonia. International Journal of Bank Marketing 23, 200–216. Featherman, M.S., Pavlou, P.A., 2003. Predicting E-services adoption: a perceived risk facets perspective. International Journal of Human–Computer Studies 59, 451–474. Forsythe, S., Shi, B., 2003. Consumer patronage and risk perceptions in Internet shopping. Journal of Business Research 56, 867–875. Igbaria, M., Zinatelli, N., Cragg, P., Cavaye, A.L.M., 1997. Personal computing acceptance factors in small firms: a structural equation model. MIS Quarterly 21 (3), 279–305. Jarvis, C.B., Mackenzie, S.B., Podsakoff, P.M., 2003. A critical review of construct indicators and measurement model misspecification in marketing and consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research 30, 199–218. Ju´piter Research, 2007. European Travel Consumer. . Lee, D., Park, J., Ahn, B.S., 2001. On the explanation of factors affecting: E-commerce adoption. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Information Systems, New Orleans. Lu, H.P., Hsu, C.L., Hsu, H.Y., 2005. An empirical study of the effect of perceived risk upon intention to use online applications. Information Management & Computer Security 13, 106–119. McKechnie, S., Winklhofer, H., Ennew, C., 2006. Applying the technology acceptance model to the online retailing of financial services. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 34, 388–410. Media Planning Group, 2007. El billete de avio´n es la compra ma´s habitual de los ˜ oles. (27/07/2006). Nunnally, J.C., Bernstein, I.H., 1994. Psychometric Theory, third ed. McGraw-Hill, New York. Red.es, 2007. Estudio sobre Comercio Electro´nico B2C 2007. (15/04/2008). Seyal, A.H., Rahman, N.A., 2007. The influence of external variables on the executives’ use of the Internet. Business Process Management 13, 263–278. Taylor, S., Todd, P., 1995. Understanding information technology usage: a test of competing models. Information Systems Research 6, 144–176. Venkatetsh, V., Davis, A., 2000. A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. Management Science 46, 186–204. Xperience Consulting, 2007. Estudio sectorial de viajes en Internet. ; .
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Air Transport Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jairtraman
Drivers and barriers to online airline ticket purchasing Carla Ruiz-Mafe´ a, Silvia Sanz-Blas a, Joaquı´n Alda´s-Manzano b, * a b
Department of Marketing, Universitat de Vale`ncia, Facultat d’Economia, Avda. De los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain Department of Marketing, Universitat de Vale`ncia and Ivie, Facultat d’Economia, Avda. De los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Online tickets Travel agents Usefulness Perceived risk Airline revenue
Although online sales of airline tickets are growing, many travellers are still reluctant to use the web as a purchase channel. Given the cost advantages of online sales for airlines, it is useful for them to know the main drivers and barriers affecting the use of the Internet to purchase tickets. This study analyses the influence of risk, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on the airline ticket online purchase intention. The results of a survey show that perceived purchase risk and perceived usefulness exercise a direct influence on airline ticket purchasing intentions, while perceived ease of use has an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. Psychological risk, performance risk and privacy risk are the predominant perceived risk dimensions in airline tickets purchase, whereas social risk and time loss risk are negligible. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The Internet is causing significant changes in the commercialisation of tourist products. As Button (2002) points out, the key comparative and qualitative information about travel options are readily transferred electronically and the electronic ticket has also removed the need for physical contact with the vendor and the high transaction costs of secure mailing. By way of example, traditional Spanish travel agencies lost 21.5% of their customers to online shopping in 2006 (Media Planning Group, 2007); the online tourist industry is worth in excess of V3000 million. By 2010 it is anticipated that in Europe over 60 million users will buy their travel online (Ju´piter Research, 2007). The Internet offers a distribution channel that enables customers to book air tickets rapidly, conveniently and with substantial price savings. It tears down the barriers to the availability of competitive ticket price information, intensifies market transparency and gives more power to the e-customer. Airline tickets are the most sold product on Internet in Spain, amounting to 36.5% of electronic commerce (Red.es, 2007). In the US, airline websites have also growing as a mechanism for selling airline tickets, capturing 58% of sales in 2005 (ComScore, 2006). But despite the continued growth in online airline ticket sales, many Spanish consumers are still somewhat reluctant to make online reservations or purchases. Out of every 10 airline ticket buyers,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 963828537; fax: þ34 963828333. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Alda´s-Manzano). 0969-6997/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2009.02.001
eight involved the Internet to obtain information on times and prices, but only 3 finally bought the ticket online. Buyers also show no particular loyalty to a given website, as abundant information and price competition encourage them to change portals continually. Here we look at online reservation/purchase of airline tickets. According to Xperience Consulting (2007), users largely value website safety and ease of use when buying online and 35% of users state that they abandon the purchase due to information overload. We evaluate the role of perceived risk, airline website perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, on Internet shopping. 2. Background The technology acceptance model (TAM) was developed by Davis (1989) to explain acceptance of information technology for different tasks. He showed that the intention to use a system is determined by what an individual believes about that system; the two most important beliefs being perception of the usefulness of the new technology and the perceived ease or difficulty of that use. McKechnie et al. (2006) point out that TAM has been successfully applied to a range of computer-based technology, both general (e-mail, office suite applications, and online shopping) and specific (accounting services, banking). Davis et al. (1989) define perceived usefulness as the degree to which a consumer believes that use of a system will increase his/ her performance. In the context of airline ticket sales, Internet will be viewed as a useful instrument if the individual perceives that tickets can be bought faster, at a better price or that more flights can
C. Ruiz-Mafe´ et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
Privacy risk
Performance risk
Social risk
Time loss risk
295
Psychological risk
Risk index
H4
H5
Perceived usefulness
H1
Intention to buy online
H3 H2
Perceived ease of use
Fig 1. Intention to buy online airline tickets.
be accessed than through a traditional travel agency. Perceived ease of use of the channel is one of the aspects that the Internet user most takes into consideration when making the purchase decision. It can be defined as the degree to which a person believes the use of a given system will ease learning, understanding. Thus over complex the website designs or those involving excessive steps are less likely to attract and retain users (Eriksson et al., 2005; Venkatetsh and Davis, 2000). Therefore we posit the following hypotheses: H1 Perceived usefulness of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the online purchase of airline tickets. H2 Perceived ease of use of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the online purchase of airline tickets. Davis et al. (1989) has also suggested that ease of use is an antecedent to perceived usefulness. According to Venkatetsh and Davis (2000) ‘‘the less effort a system is to use, the more using it can increase job performance’’, that is, Internet will be perceived as more useful if it is easier to use; this has been supported empirically by Dishaw and Strong (1999) and Igbaria et al. (1997). We thus hypothesize that: H3 Perceived ease of use of Internet as a shopping channel has a positive influence on the channel’s perceived usefulness. The concept of perceived risk exists when consumer cannot completely foresee the consequences of his/her behaviour. Therefore, the subject’s perception of risk in a given purchase
situation is in relation to: uncertainty (the lack of knowledge about what could happen) and possible negative consequences (purchase-related loss) (Bauer, 1960). Perceived purchase risk is the Internet user’s expectation of losing out in a given transaction (Forsythe and Shi, 2003). Several studies have considered perceived risk as a multidimensional construct that subdivides losses or risk factors that together explain the overall risk associated with the purchase of a product or service. In the sphere of electronic transactions, the identified risk dimensions are: performance, psychological, time, social and privacy (Cunningham et al., 2005), and applied to the online purchase of airline tickets these involve: Performance: fear that the product or service acquired will not meet consumer expectations, i.e., that the ticket purchased is not received, does not allow the flight to be taken, or does so under travelling conditions different from those anticipated. Psychological: fear of loss of self-esteem due to the wrong choice of product/service; i.e., a incorrect ticket generates anxiety and stress in the consumer. Time: the sensation of wasting time associated with the purchase, and especially, the time that the consumer perceives is unnecessarily spent in looking for and finding a ticket on the Internet or in making the online purchase. Social: the consumer’s fear that other people consider the choice inappropriate thus embarrassing consumer. Privacy loss of control over personal information that may be used without the person’s knowledge or consent; i.e., if the consumer perceives that the airline company has violated
C. Ruiz-Mafe´ et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 15 (2009) 294–298
296 Table 1 Measurement scales. Construct
Construct dimensions
Cronbach’s alpha
Item descriptions
Source
Perceived risk
Performance
0.86
Adapted from Featherman and Pavlou (2003)
Social
0.86
Time
0.83
Psychological
0.92
Privacy
0.89
Global
0.91
If I used Internet to buy airline tickets. I would be worried that the ticket purchased was not worth the price I would be worried about paying with my credit card I would think it was highly likely I wouldn’t receive the ticket It would be difficult to find out about the flight characteristics (time schedule, plane characteristics, .) I would be worried that the ticket didn’t provide the flight advantages listed on the website It would be highly likely that the ticket was no use It would worsen my image with friends and family Some people whose opinion I value would think I didn’t act correctly My friends or relations would think I am imprudent I would be concerned about wasting too much time making the purchase There would be a high probability of wasting time looking for the correct flight I would be worried that too much time would go by before I received the ticket I would feel uncomfortable I would feel anxious I would experience unnecessary stress I would feel that my personal information could be used without my consent I would feel I would receive a lot of spam in the future I would feel my personal data would be unproperly used I would feel anything could go wrong during the purchase I would feel the purchase could not meet my expectations I would feel it could be risky
Adapted from Davis (1989), Davis et al. (1989)
Perceived usefulness
0.90
Using Internet to buy airline tickets. Would make the purchase of airline tickets easier Would help me to purchase more quickly Would be useful for my airline ticket purchases Would help me to shop more efficiently
Perceived ease of use
0.91
Using Internet to buy airline tickets. Would be easy for me to learn Would be simple to do Would not require much mental effort Would be easy following the instructions on the website
Intention to buy online
–
Intends to use Internet in the future to buy airline tickets 1 ¼ I am completely sure I won’t do it to 7 ¼ I am completely sure I will do it
privacy codes by, for example, using personal information to send unwanted e-mails. Due to the high levels of perceived risk associated with the shopping channel being used and the intangible nature of the service involved, the perception of possible losses associated reserving and purchasing tickets online is greater than that associated with traditional channels. The consumer has to assume responsibility for choosing from a large number of flights, obtaining the best price and making the reservation without errors, all within a shopping environment that requires the user to have particular skills. Perceived risk also influences other consumer perceptions (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) and is present in different stages of the purchase process. The electronic commerce acceptance model (Lee et al., 2001) has integrated perceived risk with TAM to explain e-commerce adoption. The perceived usefulness of the technological platform is determined by the perceived purchase risk. The combination of uncertainty and the cost of any loss reduce its perceived usefulness and, thus, adoption (Cheng et al., 2006; Seyal and Rahman, 2007) Therefore: H4 Perceived purchase risk has a negative influence on the perceived usefulness of Internet as a shopping channel. In particular, the following risk dimensions were found to have a negative influence on purchase behaviour: performance risk (Bhatnagar et al., 2000); performance, time and privacy risks
Adapted from Taylor and Todd (1995)
(Forsythe and Shi, 2003); privacy risk (Lu et al., 2005); and financial and time risk (Boksberger et al., 2007). Christou et al. (2004) has also shown that the less risk averse consumers are the more willing they are to purchase online, which is supported by Cunningham et al. (2005) who found that perceived purchase risk has a negative influence airline reservations and/or ticket purchases made online. Therefore: H5 Perceived purchase risk has a negative influence on airline ticket purchase. Fig. 1 summarises the hypotheses considered framework used here. 3. Methodology A questionnaire is developed using a 7-point Likert-type scales to look at online purchase intentions (Table 1). Data were collected online during April and May 2007. Although online surveys have sever limitations, Deutskens et al. (2006) indicate that due to improvements in survey software, the spread of the Internet, and people’s more extensive computer literacy, online and mail surveys produce equivalent results. The sample population comprises Internet users aged 16 or older who have never bought online an airline ticket. The sample replicates the population in terms of gender and age reflecting the proportions, represented in the Asociacio´n de Investigacio´n de los Medios de Comunicacio´n [Association for Media Research] (2007); the main directory of Internet users
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Privacy risk
Performance risk
0.237**
Social risk
0.069
0.190**
Time loss risk
297
Psychological risk
0.106 0.382**
Risk index
-0.117*
-0.213**
Perceived usefulness
0.397**
Intention to buy online
0.706** 0.174
Perceived ease of use
S-B Chi square = 218.17**; df =100; RMSEA=0.062; NFI=0.90; NNFI=0.93; CFI=0.95; IFI=0.95 **p<0.01; *p<0.05 Fig 2. Path significance for intention to buy online airline tickets.
in Spain. Ours sample involves 309 Internet users, 54% of whom are men, 80% are under 44 years old with above average income levels, 47.6% are students and 44.7% employees. They connect to the Internet very frequently, over 50% several times a day, and nearly 70% have been using the Internet for more than 3 years. As reliability tests, Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine internal consistency, showing all the construct’s measures exceed the critical value of 0.70 proposed by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) (Table 1), while risk was measured as a formative construct of all its dimensions (Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer, 2001). To assure the model identification, two reflective indicators for the formative construct are provided (Jarvis et al., 2003). 4. Results The conceptual model is tested using structural equation modeling and the estimates of the main-effects model and model goodness of fit indexes (Fig. 2) indicate a good fit. The perceived usefulness of the Internet as a shopping channel conditions the intention to buy online airline tickets. This suggests that airlines may still not have sufficient knowledge to build a ‘‘useful’’ website. Price is one of the attributes that makes a channel useful. If the marketing policies of the airlines do not drive them to fix lower prices for the tickets they sell on their own websites or through other online suppliers, as they are currently doing, the attractiveness of this channel falls dramatically. Online check-in at the same web address, special lodging offers, boarding passes printing,
flights and seats changing, free upgrades, hints to obtain the lowest fare, and online seat request can add further value to the customer. Perceived ease of use does not have a direct effect on the online purchases but it strongly influences the perception of usefulness of online channels, with a net mediated effect of ease of use on purchase intention of 0.280. A website will seldom be considered useful if it is difficult to navigate; the information is not organized neatly and it is not updated regularly, it does not load speedily, and the number of pages required to complete a reservation is high. A poorly designed digital storefront has an adverse influence on consumers’ online shopping experience. Usability studies of websites become important to determine if their architecture, navigation, design and layout allow consumers to easily navigate and find what they need. The significant and negative effect of risk perception on intention to buy airline tickets online both directly and via reduced perceived usefulness makes it helpful to analyse the types of risk that are relevant for consumers. As Fig. 2 shows, people do not mind when they are buying an online ticket how it will affect their public image (social risk is not significant in global risk perception), and do they think that the online channel will be time consuming. Their main concerns involve psychological, performance, and privacy risks. That means two things. First, that special care is needed to build the necessary reputational capital to ensure customers that the tickets bought online will satisfy their needs equally, if not better, than tickets bought at a brick-and-mortar agency. Airlines should find it relatively easy to meet this condition because many are established firms with years of customer
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relationships and established brand recognition. The use of independent consumer testimonials and an ‘‘About us’’ section, presenting the company, its mission, identity and e-commerce procedures could help in reducing performance risk, and subsequent psychological risk. Secondly, privacy risk implies that consumers are reluctant to share personal information for fear that their life will become an open book. Recommendations could focus on building trust before building the customer profile, avoiding the needs to fill out forms as a prerequisite for obtaining information on the website, letting consumers know in a prominent position on the site that any data exchanged is confidential, and letting them decide how they would like to receive information. If they prefer email, care should be taken not to flood their in-box. 5. Conclusions Our findings indicate that perceived purchase risk and perceived usefulness both directly influence the intention to airline tickets. Ease is also important because, although it does not directly influence behaviour, it does have an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. If an Internet user considers a website easy to use then this positively influences perception of the site’s usefulness and can lead to purchases. The results also show that risk is a multidimensional variable and that the dimensions do not all exercise the same influence on purchase intention. In particular, psychological risk, performance risk and privacy risk are the predominant perceived risk dimensions in airline tickets purchase whereas social risk and time loss risk are considered to be negligible. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the editor as well as the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Joaquin Aldas-Manzano acknowledges the financial support of the research project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Sciences (SEC2008-03813/ECON). References Asociacio´n de Investigacio´n de los Medios de Comunicacio´n (Association for Media Research) 2007. Navegantes en la Red.
Cheng, J.M.-S., Sheen, G.L., Lou, G.C., 2006. Consumer acceptance of the Internet as a channel function perspective. Technovation 26, 856–864. Christou, E., Avdimiotis, P., Kassianidis, P., Sigala, M., 2004. Examining the factors influencing the adoption of web-based ticketing: Etix an dits adopters. In: Frew, A.J. (Ed.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism. ComScore, 2006. Comsocre Study Finds 35 Percent Increase in Number of Consumers Visiting Travel Sites.