Investigating Task Completion for a Complicated Online Travel Search

In this study we explore how user characteristics such as trust, persistence, and perceptions of the benefits and impediments of online travel shopping influence user likelihood to complete a specific travel shopping task. Through an uncontrolled experiment with a multistep travel search task, we test the difference in user characteristics between those who completed and those who did not. Sixty-four percent did not complete the travel itinerary. The results of analyses using logistic regression indicate that those who trust more were less likely to complete the task, while those with a high perception of the benefits of online shopping were more likely to complete the task. Those with more self-reported persistence were more Iikley to complete the task.

[1]  Jannica Heinström,et al.  The impact of personality and approaches to learning on information behaviour , 2000, Inf. Res..

[2]  Diane Nahl.  A Conceptual Framework for Explaining Information Behavior , 2001 .

[3]  Soo Young Rieh.  On the Web at home: Information seeking and Web searching in the home environment , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[4]  Shailendra C. Palvia,et al.  Distribution Channels in Electronic Markets: A Functional Analysis of the 'Disintermediation' Hypothesis , 1999, Electron. Mark..

[5]  P. Sheldon.  Tourism Information Technology , 1997 .

[6]  Marios Koufaris,et al.  The development of initial trust in an online company by new customers , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[7]  R. MacAvoy,et al.  Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers , 1999 .

[8]  Thomas D. Wilson,et al.  Human Information Behavior , 2000, Informing Sci. Int. J. an Emerg. Transdiscipl..

[9]  David Miller,et al.  Web search strategies and human individual differences: A combined analysis , 2005, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[10]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  Information behaviour: an interdisciplinary perspective , 1997, Inf. Process. Manag..

[11]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust , 1995 .

[12]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Information seeking research needs extension toward tasks and technology , 2004, Inf. Res..

[13]  Susan Dunman,et al.  Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services , 1996 .

[14]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Information Retrieval Interaction , 1992 .

[15]  Kalervo Järvelin,et al.  Task Complexity Affects Information Seeking and Use , 1995, Inf. Process. Manag..

[16]  Paul Solomon,et al.  Discovering information in context , 2005, Annu. Rev. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[17]  D. Fesenmaier,et al.  Assessing structure in the pleasure trip planning process. , 2000 .

[18]  Pirkko Walden,et al.  Self-Booking of High- and Low-Complexity Travel Products: Exploratory Findings , 2001, J. Inf. Technol. Tour..

[19]  A. Bandura.  Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory , 1985 .

[20]  Xueming Luo.  Trust production and privacy concerns on the Internet , 2002 .

[21]  Srikanth Beldona.  Cohort Analysis of Online Travel Information Search Behavior: 1995-2000 , 2005 .

[22]  Pirkko Walden,et al.  A Reassessment of the Efficacy of Self-Booking in Travel , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).