Adoption of Mobile Commerce in the Air Travel Sector : a Qualitative Survey of Attitudes

Abstract

The study presented in this paper examines the case of the customer adoption of an air travel innovation, namely delivering through mobile telephones electronic tickets as well as boarding passes and other related services for air travel, which may be viewed as an innovation in service delivery. The qualitative study reported here adopted Rogers’ model of perceived innovation attributes and was augmented by Bauer’s framework of perceived risk. Participants in focus groups were categorised according to their attitudes towards buying electronic tickets for air travel through mobile phones. The perceived innovation attributes were identified to be significant determinants of travellers’ adoption decisions and practices. In addition, two more dimensions (compatibility with a person’s values and previous experience with the product category) were found to influence travellers’ adoption decisions, stressing the high complexity of the adoption decisions for mobile phone-based air travel service innovations. The findings have practical value for organisations in the air travel sector as well as for Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and traditional travel agents.