A critical analysis of e-commerce use by Jordanian travel agents

While e-commerce has become a significant matter with the advancement of the Internet, there have been inadequate empirical research efforts concerning its acceptance in developing countries, specifically in the Middle East area, and more particularly in Jordan. Previous studies investigated e-commerce acceptance and use extensively, by employing different technology acceptance models in developed countries. However, the application of some technology models successful in developed countries, such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) have been found to be less predictive when tested in developing countries. This suggests that culture and the empirical setting of the study will have an effect on the technology acceptance and use. Moreover, there are limited studies that investigate the technology acceptance in the tourism sector in both the developing and developed countries. As a result, this study has attempted to fill this research gap by creating a developing country model (using Jordan as a research site) and then comparing this model to traditional models which arc predominantly Western/developed country- in origin. Data was collected from 313 travel agencies 111 the area of Amman through a questionnaire survey, and then the data was analysed through various analytical methods. Data analysis started with the descriptive statistics of the demographic variables, key informants and actual use of the Internet. Then an investigation of the reliability and validity of each construct was conducted using item-to-total correlations and exploratory factor analyses. The results of factor analysis were used as inputs in successive multiple regression analyses. E-commerce use was measured by time and frequency of the Internet use. The research findings indicate that the adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT), which was originally tested in the developed countries, can also explain e-commerce acceptance and use of travel agents. In addition, the study indicates the factors that affect e-commerce adoption in the Jordanian travel agencies, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived risk, government support, competition and external pressure, facilitating conditions and compatibility. The key influence drivers that have affected the behaviour intention to use e-commerce were the construct of competition and external pressure followed by the performance expectancy construct, then the effort expectancy and finally the facilitating condition constructs. Furthermore, the results of the analyses revealed that performance expectancy and effort expectancy along with social influence and competition and external pressure and facilitating conditions were significant factors and had a positive influence on the behaviour intention to use e-commerce. In contrast, perceived risk, along with government support and compatibility, were insignificant factors. In addition, the behaviour intention has a significantly positive effect on intended degree of use. Also, the findings of this study clarify the effects of various moderators on the behaviour intention to use e-commerce. Performance expectancy was not moderated by age and gender. Effort expectancy was moderated by gender with a stronger effect for males, but age did not moderate the relationship between effort expectancy and behaviour intention. Finally, age did not moderate the relationship between social influence and behaviour intention. In contrast, gender moderated this relationship, with a markedly stronger effect for women. The study contributes to the body of literature in the area of technology acceptance in developing countries and in the hospitality industry. The findings suggested that the UTAUT explains e-commerce acceptance and use in Jordanian travel agencies. It also provides several managerial and methodological implications. The study provides a useful model for managers of travel agencies to evaluate the factors that influence the use of e-commerce. It also provides suggestions to help managers to formulate organizational policies and marketing strategies prior to the use of the e-commerce. The limitations of the study together with directions for future research are also considered.