A cross-country investigation of customer transactions from online to offline channels

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate multichannel integration of hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs) and to compare consumer behavior between China and Indonesia in the context of online to offline (O2O) commerce. We examine how the services, brand and market share of OTAs influence behavioral intentions in both online and offline channels. SERVQUAL, theory of reasoned action and the halo effect are integrated to develop the research model.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate Chinese and Indonesian customers' experiences and behavioral intention of OTAs and hotels, the customers who booked hotels using OTAs were invited to participate in the questionnaire survey. This study collected 336 and 305 data from China and Indonesia, respectively. A partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used to test and compare the research hypotheses and model between China and Indonesia.FindingsThe results compare the similarities and differences of cross-country customer experiences and behavioral intentions of OTAs and hotels. The effect of website service quality on online satisfaction, the effect of online satisfaction on offline confirmation and the effects of offline confirmation and booking intention on patronage intention are significant and positive in both countries. Website service quality is positively associated with booking intention for Indonesia but not for China. The relationship between perceived size and booking intention is significant for China but not for Indonesia. The findings provide insights into the development of O2O commerce for global markets and multichannel strategies between OTAs and hotels.Originality/valueWith the development of O2O commerce, increasingly more hoteliers are opening up online and offline sales channels by cooperating with OTAs. Although several cross-country studies have investigated consumer behavior or behavioral intentions, behavioral settings are based on online or offline channels rather than the integration of both channels. Although some research has studied the integration or competition of OTAs and hotels, none of these studies have investigated the issues from the perspective of country comparison. This study provides the understanding of how customers in different countries and with different backgrounds react to the same e-commerce development, especially the cooperation of OTA and hotels.

Consumer Behavior in Online-to-Offline (O2O) Commerce: A Thematic Review

“…First, O2O commerce is location-based [2] and focuses on local retail and life service industries [19,26], such as restaurants, hotels, and entertainment. Second, the transactions in O2O commerce typically involve both online and offline channels [27,28]. Third, the features of O2O commerce make it difficult for consumers to return goods as easily as in traditional e-commerce [9,19].…”

Embracing mobile shopping: what matters most in the midst of a pandemic?

“…With reference to Table 4, reliability was confirmed as all values of composite reliability and rho_A were higher than 0.7 (Ooi et al, 2012;Wong et al, 2014;Huang et al, 2020). In addition, convergent validity was ascertained as all loadings were higher than 0.7, whereas AVE for every construct exceeded 0.50 (Chong et al, 2012;Leong et al, 2019;Hou et al, 2020).…”

On the relationships between digital brand evidence, relationship quality and behavioural intentions among online tourism agencies’ customers

“…Service quality is the third component of brand evidence and is crucial in the development of dominant service brands, because it enhances the perceived brand's value and supports better a brand's positioning (e.g., Aaker, 1996;Nam et al, 2011). Chang et al (2019) and Huang et al (2020) show that OTA can improve their acquisition and retention rates and reduce customers' intention to rebook using the hotel websites by increasing the quality of their website services. Earlier studies in the offline service context conceptualize service quality as a multidimensional construct reflecting service's core quality, interaction quality and servicescape quality (Brady and Cronin, 2001).…”

“…Two OTA's online service quality factors (i.e. responsiveness and information quality) were also found to enhance customers' brand experience (Chang et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2020) and they are anticipated to help OTA in achieving better acquisition and retention rates through the development of highquality relationships with their customers (Chang et al, 2019). All other e-service quality factors were found non-significant, suggesting that customers perceptions about OTAs' brand is not determined by their capabilities to fulfil their task in a reliable way that respect customer's privacy, as well by their digital servicescape design, reflecting its platforms interfaces' easiness and aesthetics.…”