Investigating attitudes towards mobile commerce for travel products

Abstract

This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between the advantages and drawbacks of mobile shopping for travel products (mobile commerce), in contrast to conventional instore shopping from brick and mortar travel agents, and consumers' perception of the innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility and complexity) of m-shopping. In this vein, the present survey investigates also the correlation between consumers' perception of these characteristics and their intention to adopt m-shopping. Th e above relationships were examined on a sample consisting of 116 individuals in Greece that have used electronic commerce or mobile commerce (or both) in the past. According to the fi ndings, it appears that the advantages and drawbacks of physical eff ort and time pressure associated to conventional in-store shopping from a travel agent have a positive impact on consumers' perception of the characteristics of mobile shopping (m-shopping). Th e fi ndings also provide evidence that consumers' perception of the relative advantage and compatibility of mobile travel shopping have another positive impact on their future behavioural intentions to adopt m-shopping. Last, it was also examined if income, education and age moderate these relationships. Overall, these fi ndings have signifi cant implications for the content of mobile commerce services for travel products and the segmentation and targeting strategy of providers of such services.