Central Tendencies Measurement Of Constructs

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This chapter consists of the summary of statistical analysis that discussed in the previous chapter. Besides, researchers discuss the major findings to confirm research objectives and hypothesis of this study and summarization for results of hypothesis testing are provided. After discussion of major findings, researchers will proceed to the implications and limitations of the study. Lastly, recommendations for future research and conclusion are being made at the end of this chapter.

5.1 Summary of Statistical Analysis

Summary of Descriptive Analysis

Demographic Profile of Target Respondents

Out of 300 target respondents, 174 are male whereas 126 are female. Besides that, majority of respondents fall under the age group of 28-32 years old, followed by 23-27 years old, 33-37 years old, 18-22 years old, 38-42 years old and 43 years old and above. The largest ethnic group among the respondents is Chinese, followed by Malay, Indian and other races. Moreover, majority of survey respondents are single. Most respondents have monthly income level of RM4, 501 to RM6, 000, followed by RM6, 001 and RM7, 500, income level of RM3, 001 to RM4, 500, RM7, 501 to RM9, 000, income level more than RM9, 001, income level of RM1, 500 to RM3, 000 and less than RM1, 500. In addition, the highest education level pursued by most respondents is degree, followed by master, professional, diploma, others, high school certificate and PhD. Lastly, most of the survey respondents get the source of travel information from internet.

Central Tendencies Measurement of Constructs

Mean of all the items are obtained from the SAS analysis. Based on the analysis, majority of the respondents agreed with the statements for five independent variables (Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Social Influence, Self Efficacy and Trust).

Moreover, standard deviation for each statement is analyzed using SAS. Notably, the standard deviation for all statement is approximately 1, which indicates that data values are moderately spread around the central tendency.

Summary of Scale Measurement

Data collected is tested and proven to achieve normality and reliability. Normality is assumed as the p-value in Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is more than 0.05 whereas reliability is assumed as all the variables have Cronbach’s alpha value of more than 0.7. Moreover, there is no multicollinearity problem as correlation between each independent variable is less than 0.9. All the pre-requisite assumptions are fulfilled, thereby multiple regression test could be preformed.

Summary of Inferential Analysis

Pearson Correlation

Based on the Pearson analysis, it can be concluded that each independent variable positively and significantly correlated with dependent variable.

Multiple Linear Regressions

Based on the coefficients analysis shows that five independent variables (PEOU, PU, Social Influence, Self Efficacy and Trust) significantly related to dependent variable (future intention to use). In addition, beta value (under standardized coefficients) indicates that perceived usefulness is the most influential independent variable.

5.2 Discussions of major findings

Table5.1: Summary Result of Five Hypothesis

Hypotheses

Supported (Reject H0)

H1: There is a relationship between PEOU and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

P=0.002

(P< 0.05)

H1: There is a relationship between PU and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

P=0.000

(P< 0.05)

H1: There is a relationship between social influence and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

P=0.004

(P< 0.05)

H1: There is a relationship between internet self-efficacy and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

P=0.000

(P< 0.05)

H1: There is a relationship between trust and Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

P=0.014

(P< 0.05)

Source: Developed for the study.

Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU)

H0: There is no relationship between PEOU and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

H1: There is a relationship between PEOU and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

Reject H0 if p < 0.05

According to table 5.1, it shows that significant value for perceived ease of use is 0.002 which is p-value is less than 0.05. In the result of this study, PEOU has a positive and significant relationship with Malaysian traveller’s intention to use travel website.

This validates the past researchers on intention to use online systems (Liu et.al., 2007; Wangpipatwong et.al., 2008). Furthermore, Jahangir and Begum (2008) further emphasized that PEOU had a positive effect on the customer direct or indirect adaptation intention in the content of e-services. Smith (2008) has also proven that PEOU of an e-commerce website has a positive effect on a senior citizen’s perception of the usefulness and ease of use of the website.

This result shows that travel website is user friendly not only for young generation but also older generation and easier to be understood or used. Some of the old generation seldom use travel website or other e-commerce website to do planning or transaction. So, if the website’s function is easy to be understood, it will be the first choice of older generation.

In addition, ease of use of a travel website is very important due to it affect the decision of travellers about whether want to choose the travel website for their travel planning or not. Hence, if it provides some comparison information for the travellers, it will help them save time to do other research.

In the conclusion, most of the e-commerce websites even travel websites’ functions are designed to be simpler and easier to use. Hence, PEOU is significant influence the user’s intention to use travel website.

Perceived Usefulness (PU)

H0: There is no relationship between PU and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

H1: There is a relationship between PU and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

Reject H0 if p<0.05

According to the Multiple Linear Regression result, it showed that significant value (p-value) for perceived usefulness is <.0001 which is less than 0.05. Thus, researcher reject H0 and H1 is accepted which the output indicates that there is a relationship between perceived usefulness and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

The result is supported and to be consistent with the findings of past studies. According to Luo et al. (2006), perceived usefulness of the travel website strongly determines the travelers’ future intention to use the travel website. Besides that, Atchariyachanvanich et al. (2006) also proved that a customer’s perceived usefulness of Internet shopping significantly affects his or her purchase intention through the Internet.

The result showed that Malaysian travellers would use the travel website when they found it is usefulness. Therefore, the travel website usage would increase when the travellers found that the travel website would enhance their travel arrangement effectively. Besides, the reason why the travellers found the travel website is useful is mainly because the website would enable them to accomplish their task more quickly than using the traditional ways.

Todays, the travellers could easily get the travel information which they want by access to the travel website. The travel website would offer a lot of valuable travel information such as recommended hotels, airlines and vacation activities which travellers can use to plan for their vacations. Thus, the travellers might found that the travel website is useful and could help them to plan their vacation more efficiently and effectively by compared to traditional ways like go to the travel fair or travel agents.

5.2.3 Self Efficacy (SE)

H0: There is no relationship between internet self-efficacy and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

H1: There is a relationship between internet self-efficacy and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

Reject H0 if p < 0.05

Through the test, it shows that significant value for internet self-efficacy is 0.004 which is p-value is less than 0.05. Therefore, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted which identified that there is a relationship between internet self-efficacy and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

The researches prove that there is positive relationship between self-efficacy and information systems (Lopez & Manson, 1997; Liang et.al., 2010). This has been proven that users with higher Internet self-efficacy are more likely to use e-services (Hsu and Chiu, 2003; Ariff et.al., 2012). From the research of Park, Oh and Kang (2011), they also found that internet self-efficacy had a strong positive relationship with the intention to use e-service.

This study revealed that users with higher confidence level and belief are more likely to use travel website. It implies that increasing users’ Internet self-efficacy is critical to the success of travel website. This is due to the self-efficacy serves as indirect force through TAM to enhance user’s intention to use e-service.

Moreover, searching for travel information requires skills than simply aimlessly surfing the web. For instance, user needs to know where to look and what specific terms to type into a search engine. It might be easier than use other media, such as magazines to find the same travel information.

Therefore, the usage of travel website will be increased if the users believe that the travel website is user friendly and easier to be explored. In the conclusion, there is a positive and significant relationship between Internet self-efficacy and the intention to use travel website.

Social Influence (SI)

H0: There is no relationship between social influence and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

H1: There is a relationship between social influence and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website.

Reject H0 if p < 0.05

In the test result, it shows that significant value for social influence is <.0001 which is p-value is less than 0.05. So, H1 is accepted which means there is a relationship between social influence and Malaysian travellers' intention to use travel website

The research of Wang and Lin (2011) has improved the result that the social influence significantly affects user’s intention to use e-service directly and indirectly. This is strongly supported by past researches about the positive effect of subjective norm and intention to use e-ticket services (Manzari, 2008; Dehbashi & Nahavandi, 2009).

This result indicated that the trend of using travel website becomes more common in the recent years. Most of the people are either influencing their peers or influenced by their peers to use the travel website. This is possibly due to the travel agents are advertising the promotions which stated in the travel website and share these promotions by using social network such as Facebook, email and etc. Those recipients will share the information of travel website to their family or friends if the promotions are interesting.

Besides, most of the young generation are connecting with Information Technology in their life. Hence, they might prefer to search information through travel website than other media. This is because travel website is the fastest way to get up-to-date information and easier to compare to other travel website. In conclusion, there is a positive relationship between social influence and intention to use travel website.

Trust (TR)

H0: There is no relationship between trust and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

H1: There is a relationship between trust and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

Reject H0 if p<0.05

Base on the Multiple Linear Regression result, it showed that the significant value (p-value) for trust is 0.014 which is less than 0.05. Hence, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted which the output indicates that there is a relationship between trust and Malaysian travellers’ intention to use travel website.

The result is supported and is consistent with the past researchers. According to Kwek et al. (2010), online trust is positively related to online purchase intention of the online shoppers. Other than that, Kim et al. (2009) and Shiau et al. (2012) also proved that customer trust has a strong positive relationship with their intention to make online transaction.

The result revealed that Malaysian travellers would use travel website when they trust on the travel website. Thus, the travellers will frequently use the travel website when they found that the travel website is trustworthy. Additionally, the travellers also would use the travel website when they have a good reason to trust the website. The travellers would trust on a travel website because the website able to provide useful and easily understood information to them. According to Chen and Barnes (2007), useful and easily understood information on the website would reduce asymmetric information, and this would increase the users’ trust toward the website.

Moreover, there is no physical interaction between the buyer and the seller in the online transaction, the buyer would only interact with the website instead. Thus, the security and privacy issues would be arise. The users might concern whether his or her financial data and personal information will be exposed and used incorrectly. However, due to the advancement of the information technology and information system, the security system of a website is getting stronger and reliable. Therefore, the travellers would choose to trust the travel website would have a strong and secure system to protect their privacy.

5.3 Implication of the study

5.3.1 Practitioner Implication

The result of this study provides insight for Malaysian travelers to realize whether Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), social influences, internet self-efficacy and trust have any relationship towards Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website. Besides, it also provides information to Malaysian travelers about that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), social influences, internet self-efficacy and travel motivation have the most significant influence towards Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website. Hence, travel agents can focus on certain strategic that help to increase more Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website.

H1 is supported that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) has a significant positive influence the Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website in this research through Multiple Regression analysis. So, travel agents need to set the travel website to become more easily to use. Thus, Malaysian travelers will seldom use travel website if that website is too complicated to use it or the user difficult to understand it function. Before travel agents want to design a travel website, they need to fulfill users’ requirement and try to make them easy to understand and use it. However, many users will more interested to use the travel website when it can give more convenient to them when the travel website become more easily to use.

From this research, Perceived Usefulness (PU) has a significant positive influence the Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website because H2 is accepted through multiple regression analysis. Researchers conclude that the Malaysian travelers are willing to learn and use the travel website. Thus, many users believe that the travel website will bring a lot of benefit to them and give them more convenient. Furthermore, users can complete their task quickly and save their time when compare to traditional ways. Moreover, travel website can provide a good environment to users in order to ensure they can get the travel information quickly and conveniently.

Moreover, H3 is supported that social influence also has a significant positive affect the Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website through multiple regression analysis. Hence, travel agents can plan to disseminate about travel website knowledge through travel fair or multi-media. Many users will be affected by those event or multimedia and start to use travel website. As stated by Peter and Olson (1999), friends and relatives are the most influential in motivating behavior of travel decision. Thus, colleagues and friends who also use the travel website in arranging travel plans also will affect other users to become interested to use the travel website. Furthermore, travel agents can try to encourage those users who are expert to use travel website to pass their knowledge or ability to other new users.

In addition, multiple regression analysis shows that self-efficacy have positive relationship with Malaysian travelers’ intention to use the travel website in this research as H4 is accepted. Self efficacy is a person’s judgment about ‘I can’ or "I cannot’ belief in performing certain task. It shows that how confident a person to perform a particular activity. According to Ahmad & Juhdi (2008), the ability to search among Internet users can be grouped based on the frequency of time spent using the net at home or at the office. The longer the time users spend on internet, the more confident when in using internet as they are more familiar with it. Hence, when the users have a high internet self efficacy, they will believe that they have the skill to do well and they will believe that other factors will keep them succeed. Indeed, for those users that have a low self efficacy, travel agent should encourage them to use travel website and promote the travel website. Travel agent can teach them how to use the travel website step by step or set up a page, showing the process of using the travel website, let the user know that the proper way and the advantages using travel website.

Lastly, H5 is supported that trust has the significant affect Malaysian travelers’ intention to use travel website through multiple regression analysis in this research. Many users interested to use the travel website when they trust the travel website can provide a comfortable environment and give them more convenient. Thus, travel agents need to manage the website’s overall image and try to gain customers trust in a travel website. This overall image also implies e-branding, which is becoming a popular research interest for both academics and practitioners in different fields (Chen, 2006). Whenever the consumer sees this brand, it conveys to him or her certain satisfaction, quality, and/or other benefits (Howard & Sheth, 1967) associated with this brand. Therefore, travel agents must try to fulfill their condition and provide them a secure service. Besides, users have no doubt about trusting travel website when travel website became more trustworthy.

5.4 Limitation and recommendation for the study

There are few limitation found in the study. Initially, the study just conducts at Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang, which is just a portion of Malaysia. This will restricted the ability of researchers to cover a wider area research. Limited locations give limit information for the study. Henceforth, future study should conduct in whole Malaysia or cross country comparison in order to get different perception and result to develop a full and intensive research.

Next, the availability of information such as supporting materials, published journals and articles that used in the study is mostly adopted from foreign countries or others sector. This finding may not suitable to used in Malaysia’s study or traveling sector as we take foreign country’s research as our past study. Different sector have different theories to apply, not all sector can apply same theory. Different comparison can make the study have different result to compare. Researcher can find the similar study in this sector for the research.

Furthermore, the limited financial resources and time available make the study can’t conduct for whole population in Malaysia. With limited financial resources and time available, this study just can take 300 samples from selected location. The study need more time available and more financial resources to conduct in this research. The sample size is not strong enough to represent all the Malaysian. At least 1 year time period used to conduct this study. In 1 year period, researcher can get more samples from whole Malaysia. It can help researchers get more accuracy data to conduct this study. In order to get more respondents, questionnaire could be request to place in the counter of travel agency or travel fair and exhibition to let customer fill up the questionnaire.

Besides that, in this study also need to face the problem of misinterprets by the researchers and misunderstood of the questionnaire by the respondents. This happen when the researchers distribute the questionnaire to the respondents, the researchers may give the wrong interprets from English to Chinese. When respondents get the wrong interpret, respondents may misunderstood the meaning of the question. For this limitation, researchers should prepare the questionnaire in bilingual language.

In overall, although there are some limitation indicated in this study. However, these limitations were encountered by researchers and do not affect the overall result. These limitations can lay a background for future study and have more understood on the factor that affect Malaysian traveler to use travel website.

5.5 Conclusion

After finish the process of testing, samplings, analysis and justifications, here comes to a conclusion that all research questions have been give feedback and all research objectives has been fulfilled. In the conclusion, this research proves that the relationship between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, social influence, trust and Malaysian traveler’s intention to use travel website are all significant and positive.