The adoption of internet shopping for travel services

The study explores consumers' adoption of Internet shopping in the context of UK travel services. The key objective is to identify the profile of Internet shoppers and the antecedents of Internet shopping adoption for travel services. The study proposes a model for the prediction of Internet shopping adoption, drawing upon Davis' (1989) Technology Acceptance Model with the inclusion of individual characteristics, perceived risk and trust. The model identifies the structural relationships among the eight constructs (i.e. perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, innovativeness, involvement, opinion leadership, perceived risk, trust and adoption), which were examined through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with AMOS. The study employs a multi-methodology approach, which involves focus group discussions at the exploratory stage and a questionnaire survey in the data collection stage. The final survey was of a screened sample of 500 respondents who had purchased travel services online. A total of 299 qualified respondents from all over the UK completed the online survey. The descriptive results present a profile of travel e-shoppers in terms of demographic, geodemographic and buying patterns. The SEM tested the hypothesised relationships among the constructs, as postulated in the model. Nine of the hypothesised links were supported and six were rejected. Eventually, a robust model that has statistical and explanatory power was confirmed. The results explicitly clarified several key contributions to marketing theory and for the travel and tourism industry. For example, it was demonstrated that perceived usefulness is the key determinant of Internet shopping adoption decisions. Also, consumer innovativeness is the key influence on Internet shopping adoption at the personal level, followed by consumer involvement in the shopping process. The study also reveals three new relationships, between opinion leadership and perceived ease-of-use, consumer involvement and ease-of-use and consumer innovativeness and trust, which have not been examined empirically by previous research. By identifying the primary drivers of Internet shopping adoption for travel services, the study contributes to and extends the understanding of the Internet as a medium for commercial use in the B2C arena as well as expanding the literature on new technology adoption