Self-Service Technologies (SSTs)—The Next Frontier in Service Excellence: Implications for Tourism Industry

Abstract

This research aims to understand how self-service technologies (SSTs) can bring about service excellence for tourists by the moderated mediating effect of satisfaction and tourist types, from the customer’s perspective. The study draws on survey data from 627 tourists from North Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, United States, and Germany who had experience using SSTs during their travel period for either leisure or business. The utility theory, Lancaster’s consumer theory, and random utility theory form the basis of this research’s theoretical framework. This study is the first attempt that examines the SSTs’ characteristics as antecedents of service excellence from the customer point of view in tourism literature. Moreover, this research enhances knowledge by integrating the concept of service excellence and SSTs’ characteristics into the abovementioned theories. The results revealed that service excellence could be provided for customers through SSTs, which this service excellence drives through the characteristics of SSTs. The result of moderated mediation tests on the relationship between SSTs’ characteristics and service excellence revealed that tourist types moderate the mediating effect of SSTs satisfaction for functionality, enjoyment, security/privacy, convenience, and customization. Meaning the mentioned constructs are more influential for business travelers than leisure travelers. Limitations, practical and theoretical implications are also discussed.

Assessing the State of ICZM in an Island Tourist Destination—Applying SESs and Ostrom’s Collective Action Principles: A View from Coastal Communities

“…The values of skewness ranged from −0.666 to 1.750, and for kurtosis, the values ranged from −1.258 to 1.758 except for the TIM_1 variable (3.049). Therefore, we observed normal distributions for all the variables, as suggested by Sposito et al [101] who recommend ±3.3 as the upper threshold for normality, which is in line with previous studies [91,102]. For the details, see Table A1/Appendix A.…”

“…Information was gathered by applying a five-point Likert scale ("1 = strongly agree"; "5 = strongly disagree"). The survey was developed in English, and then, by using the back-translation method, it was translated to Turkish [90,91], which is in line with previous studies [91][92][93]. The data collection process was carried out over three months from 27 January to April 2021.…”

Public support for counterterrorism efforts using probabilistic computing technologies to decipher terrorist communication on the internet

“…For example, health information that is relatively routine, like blood pressure, is considered less risky to send over insecure channels than more sensitive information like a cancer diagnosis (Atienza et al, 2015 ), though these concerns can be alleviated for some people by government-enforced privacy policies (Hwang & Lin, 2020 ). People are generally willing to give simple demographic information or basic opinions and behaviors, but they are more resistant to allow others access to more sensitive information, like health and financial information (Dhagarra et al, 2020 ; Safaeimanesh et al, 2021 ).…”

Strategies for coping with frontier technologies and innovations in Africa

“…Knowledge capabilities backed by good infrastructure, human development, openness, and a favourable business environment are essential for coping with FTI [23]. A positive statistically significant relationship exists between Self-Service Technologies (SSTs)' characteristic of functionality, security/privacy, assurance, design, customization, and users' satisfaction/utility gained from using SSTs [26]. Also, Satisfaction/utility gained from using SSTs positively affects service excellence, and mediates the relationship between (a) functionality, (b) enjoyment, (c) security/privacy, (d) assurance, (e) design, (f) convenience, and (g) customization and the service excellence [26].…”

“…A positive statistically significant relationship exists between Self-Service Technologies (SSTs)' characteristic of functionality, security/privacy, assurance, design, customization, and users' satisfaction/utility gained from using SSTs [26]. Also, Satisfaction/utility gained from using SSTs positively affects service excellence, and mediates the relationship between (a) functionality, (b) enjoyment, (c) security/privacy, (d) assurance, (e) design, (f) convenience, and (g) customization and the service excellence [26]. This is a great and welcome development that speaks toward the impact of SSTs and FTIs on global development.…”