Exploring The Factors Influencing Continuance Usage Of Travel Websites In China

Information and information technology(IT) are of the utmost importance to the development of tourism, which may affect travelers’decisions a lot. Travel websites were born in such context.The factors influencing users’ IT acceptance behavior is a highly concerned topic in IS literatures. The initial acceptance of IS is the only first step for IS success, however, the long-term surviving of IS is relied on the continuance usage.(Karahanna et al.,1999; Bhattacherjee,2001). It’s more important for the websites. Therefore, the current research focused on travel websites. We empirically explored the factors influencing users’post-adoption of travel websites, at the same time, we integrated electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) into IS continuance model to find the connections between continuance and eWOM.The extended research model of IS continuance was constructed based on IS continuance (ECM) and Uses and Gratification (U&G), and users’ intention of eWOM was also integrated in the model at the same time. Through this research model, we can propose some practical marketing strategies for travel websites marketers.There are five chapters in this thesis:In the first chapter, we introduced the research background and made an literature review in and abroad of continuance usage. And three research questions were presented. For the second part, the theories used in our research were introduced. They are tourism e-commerce and travel websites, the electronic word-of-mouth, continuance usage and IS continuance model, uses and gratification theory(U&G). The third and fourth chapters are the two key parts of this thesis. Research model and research hypotheses were proposed in the third chapter, and12hypotheses were made based on the connection of variables. We also defined the variables, and the measurement model and formal questionnaire were constructed.The forth chapter is empirical research results. The validity and reliability of both the measurement and structural parameters of the proposed model were estimated using PLS(Partial Least Squares). The results of hypotheses were tested using T-value, ten out of twelve hypotheses were supported. Finally comes the conclusion. Through the current empirical research, we find that: users’continuance intention was influenced by satisfaction and perceived usefulness. Satisfaction was found to be influenced by perceived usefulness, confirmation, the strength and specialty of information. The research model can explain48.1%of the factors influencing users’ continuance intention to use travel websites. At last, I concluded the theoretical and practical contributions of the current research, and proposed the future possible research direction.