The Adoption of Web-Based Marketing in the Travel and Tourism Industry: An Empirical Investigation in Egypt
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
This paper seeks to explain the determinants of the levels of web adoption for marketing purposes by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the travel and tourism industry. Web adoption is specifically defined as the ownership of a website to communicate and/or deliver travel services to a target market. Additionally, the levels of adoption represent the different levels that SMEs go through in their adoption process starting with not owning a website to being a simple adopter to being a sophisticated adopter. A distinctive model is developed drawing on Roger’s innovation adoption model, the resource based view of the firm (RBV) and the results of previous empirical work. The model proposes that the adoption decision is dependent on a combination of perceived attributes of the innovation, organization specific characteristics which are derived from a resource-based view of the firm as well as decision maker characteristics. Both logistic and multiple regression are used to test the model and the resulting hypotheses. Analysis results indicate that innovation attributes are not the whole story when studying firms’ adoption of the web for marketing purposes, firm resources also affect the adoption decision. Additionally, different factors affect different levels of adoption so that when studying innovation adoption by firms, it is important to consider the adoption process as a continuous process that consists of different levels rather than a dichotomous process of adopt vs. non-adopt.
Recommended Citation
Hussein, R., Ennew, C., & Kortam, W. (2010). The adoption of web based marketing in the travel and tourism industry: an empirical investigation in Egypt (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham).