J. Alberto Castañeda

The effect of Internet general privacy concern on customer behavior

Abstract Privacy and its related variables are important determinants of customer behavior in the electronic market. This paper aims to examine the concern for customer privacy on the Internet, mainly with regard to disclosing personal information online. Furthermore, by establishing an experimental situation, we will analyze how this behavior is influenced by familiarity with the website sponsor, the level of control over the information the customer has and the sensitivity of the information requested. The results indicate that all the above-mentioned variables (except familiarity) have a significant impact on consumer online behavior.

Attitudes' hierarchy of effects in online user behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of the internet, as a new information channel for the consumer, on business results, and in particular, the consequences of attitude towards the web site with regard to customer behaviour and web site sponsor brand.Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was used to gather data to test the relationships in the research model.Findings – The paper shows the importance of attitude towards the web site and attitude towards the internet in explaining attitude towards the brand and consumer e‐behaviour, and identifies the hierarchy of effects operative among these three concepts of attitude: attitude towards the internet; attitude towards the web site; and attitude towards the brand.Research limitations – This study only looked at one category of web site – free‐content sites. Future research could apply the conclusions of this study to other types of web sites, e.g. the e‐commerce web site and the corporate web site.Practical implications...

The influence of the Internet on destination satisfaction

Purpose – The aim of the present study is to provide an insight into the effect that the satisfaction with the information obtained through the Internet may have on the satisfaction with the selected destination. In particular, assuming that the Internet functions as an effective source of information for the tourist, one would expect the above relationship to be positive and significant.Design/methodology/approach – In order to test the proposed hypotheses, a structured questionnaire was administered to tourists of different nationalities. The total number of valid cases was 279. The field work was done between June 2004 and June 2005.Findings – The results seem to show that the greater the tourists satisfaction with the Internet, the fuller is his or her enjoyment of the holiday. This relationship, however, is moderated by two variables – the tourists previous experience of the destination and the tourists experience of the Internet. These conclusions may well prove crucial for the future use of the ...

Antecedents of internet acceptance and use as an information source by tourists

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to aim to identify the antecedents of both actual acceptance and future use of the internet as a tourism information source. In the tourism sector, the internet is a medium of growing importance. Nonetheless, very few studies have researched the antecedents of internet acceptance and use by tourists.Design/methodology/approach – This purpose was pursued by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and applying it to a broad sample of international tourists.Findings – The main findings concern the antecedent role of actual use with regard to future use, as well as the roles of usefulness and ease of use as drivers of the acceptance of the internet as an information source by the tourist.Research limitations – The study analysed the acceptance of the internet as an information source but not its use as a medium for purchasing tourism products or services.Practical implications – While most research results suggest that businesses and institutions should direct th...

E‐service quality as antecedent to e‐satisfaction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of culture on the relationship between each of the dimensions of e-service quality and satisfaction with a web site involving purchase of a tourism service. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was administered to 300 international tourists (150 British and 150 Spanish) who had purchased a tourism product via the internet. The study employs a structural equation model to analyse the effect of cultural dimensions on the relationship between e-service quality and online tourist satisfaction. The original data were standardised in order to allow comparison. Findings – The results show that the influence of the dimensions of service quality on the tourists’ satisfaction with their online purchases is moderated by cultural dimensions, namely uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism. Research limitations/implications – In this study only two cultures are used to analyse the moderating effect of cultural dimensions on the relationship between quality and satisfaction and only two cultural dimensions are analysed. Practical implications – The key practical implications of the work lie in illuminating the variations in tourist satisfaction when making an online purchase, and understanding the role played by cultural dimensions in interactions with web-based businesses. Originality/value – This paper makes progress in the study of the dimensions of the e-service quality. Furthermore it is a cross-cultural study which pays attention to the moderating effect of the cultural dimensions on the relationship of each dimension of e-service quality with satisfaction with the web site.

The dimensionality of customer privacy concern on the internet

Purpose – This study attempts to carry out an approximation both to the conceptual delimitation and to the measuring of customer concern for privacy on the electronic market.Design/methodology/approach – To complete the objective of this research, an overview of the literature is made in an attempt to summarise the main proposals as regards dimensions of the construct analysed. Furthermore, two studies were carried out with the aim of evaluating the instruments to measure concern for privacy on the internet and which support the conclusion concerning the constructs dimensionality, reached following the aforementioned literature overview.Findings – From the main results reached, we can highlight that the concern for privacy on the internet construct has a structure consisting of two dimensions, which are confirmed through the scales evaluated for different contexts of use of the internet. These dimensions are: concern for control over the collecting of personal information, and its use on the electronic m...

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in the use of the internet as a tourist information source

The modelling of new information technologies usage behaviour is of great interest to managers who need to evaluate the probability of success in the introduction of these technologies. This study empirically tests the capacity of Daviss Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) and Davis et al.s Motivational Model (MM) (Davis et al., 1992) to help understand the determinants of the intention to use the internet to search for holiday information. The findings show that these theories do explain the intention of internet use by the tourist.