Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Masters Thesis
Master of Arts
Chinese-European Economics and Business Studies
Number of words: 14152
Berlin
30 May 2014
Abstract
With the advent of the era of information technology the number of Internet
users taking advantage of online shopping has been steadily growing. Such
tendency is also applicable to the travel industry and its big part online air ticket
bookings, which has rapidly adopted Internet technology and online services.
Having its enormous population and huge number of travellers shopping online,
Chinese online air ticket market presents great potential for domestic firms as well
as for foreign agents. In this study consumer behavior of Chinese and German air
ticket buyers is examined in a cross-cultural perspective. Based on the 5-stage
model of the buying decision process and Hofstedes dimensions of national
culture this research identifies differences and similarities between the Chinese
and the Germans in terms of their information search, purchase and post purchase
behavior. The findings reveal what sources of information are mostly used and
what attributes of online air ticket offer are mostly valued by air passengers from
these two countries. In addition, this study tests several hypotheses about
travellers perceptions of sales agents reputation and mobile devices usage and
draws some conclusions and implications for a foreign air ticket agent planning to
expand to Chinese market.
Keywords:
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Table of contents
1. Introduction.......4
1.1 Research gap addressed, research question and strategic questions..5
1.2 Contribution and structure of the thesis.....7
2. Literature review...................................................................................7
2.1 Air ticket sales structure and main definitions...7
2.2 Chinas online travel market and air tickets sales......9
2.3 Consumer behavior during the online travel booking.....11
2.4 Online air tickets purchase behavior........14
2.5 Cultural aspects of online purchase behavior in China and across cultures....16
3. Study objectives and hypotheses....21
3.1 General objectives of the study........21
3.2 Research hypotheses........22
4. Data collection and results..26
4.1 Questionnaire structure and development....26
4.2 Samples and data collection.27
4.3 Survey results...28
4.3.1 Demographic data28
4.3.2 Travellers air ticket purchase experience...29
4.3.3 Hypotheses testing...33
5. Discussion and implications...34
6. Research limitations37
7. Conclusion..37
Bibliography39
Appendices..45
List of tables
Table 1: Research dimensions of online travel booking behavior....14
Table 2: Research dimensions of online air ticket booking intention..16
Table 3: Statements for the proposed hypotheses....26
Table 4: Respondents demographic profile.....29
Table 5: Respondents air ticket purchase experience......30
Table 6: Comparison of Chinese and German respondents attitudes towards air
ticket purchase.........34
List of figures
Figure 1: Simplified structure of air ticket sales.....9
Figure 2: Hofstedes dimensions of national culture for China....17
Figure 3: Comparison of Hofstedes dimensions of national culture for China and
Germany..21
Figure 4: Respondents area of residence.....28
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1. Introduction
New era of information technology brought multiple advantages to the
mankind. In particular, the Internet allowed us to search for goods in stores right
from our apartments and find best offers in several clicks. More and more people
all over the world prefer to shop online and order all kinds of products on different
websites. Apart from consumer goods sales and e-tailing, online travelling sector
has been booming in recent years and the number of users booking their vacations
on the Web has been steadily growing. Historically, air tickets sales represented a
big part of the travel industry and their share is even more significant when
talking about online travelling.
According to the forecast of International Air Transport Association (IATA),
the annual number of airline passengers worldwide will reach 3,3 billion in 2014,
which makes it approximately 9 million people holding an air ticket and boarding
a plane every day all over the world. Over the last few years, digital environment
has significantly shaped the relationship between primary ticket sellers, i.e.
airlines, intermediaries (e.g. travel agencies or other ticket resellers) and their
customers air passengers. One of the consequences of that process is that online
electronic ticket booking started dominating as the main channel of shopping for
flights in the end of the 2000s (Chao et al., 2009: 176). To say more, that process
of transition towards e-ticketing is being fueled by the convenience, time saving
and cost efficiency of paperless air tickets. Those travellers, who are too busy to
purchase flight tickets via phone, in physical ticket offices or over the counter,
benefit from online bookings in the first place (Chao et al., 2009). Such shift
emphasizes the importance of the Internet for the future of travel and air ticket
industries, especially in developing countries.
Being the most populous country in the world and at the same time a rapidly
developing economy, China presents great potential as a consumer market. For the
online sales this is particularly promising due to the intensive development of the
Internet in China. According to the report of China Internet Network Information
Center (CNNIC) released in January 2014, the number of Internet users in China
increased by 9,5% in 2013, reaching 618 million. However, because of huge total
population, this number makes countrys Internet penetration rate only 45,8%,
which is a relatively moderate figure compared to those of many Western
countries (CNNIC, 2014). Nevertheless, China remains a country with the biggest
number of netizens that is projected to exceed 700 million in 2015 (Wonderful
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Driven by the interest of a German air ticket agent to enter Chinas travel
market this research was undertaken to understand travellers purchase behavior
in China and Europe, with the latter represented by Germany. Understanding the
customer is viewed here as one of the first steps for further estimation of the
potential and prospects in a new market. Besides, such interest is also
accompanied by several practical questions. Being closer to and more familiar
with his domestic customers a German seller would like to know how Chinese
consumers search for air tickets online as opposed to other nations. What are the
preferences of people in China when they make a decision to book an air ticket
and are these preferences significantly different from those of the Germans? Will
a foreign air ticket agent have to overcome the psychic distance (Johanson and
Vahlne, 1977) between himself and ticket buyers from China when the latter are
too cautious about dealing with a foreign company? Altogether these strategic
questions led to the formulation of the research questions for this study:
How do Chinese consumers behave when they purchase air tickets online
compared to the Germans?
The focus of this paper is to observe, examine and analyze differences and
similarities in consumer behavior of Chinese and German travellers when
purchasing air tickets online. The reason for the interest in Chinese consumers lies
in future market potential and growth of this industry in China. As for Germany, it
was chosen as a representative of European society for several reasons. Firstly, as
it was reported by World Travel & Tourism council in the end of 2013, German
travel market is among the most developed travel markets in Europe with the total
value of $US 152 billion, including approximately $US 11 billion of online travel
market value. German Travel & Tourism industrys total impact on countrys
GDP accounted for 4,4% in 2013 and is expected to grow at the annual average
rate of 1,7% over the next decade (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2013a).
Secondly, Germany is the most populous country in the EU with the largest
number of potential travellers and air passengers in this region. In 2013 total
number of passengers landing at or taking off from German airports exceeded 200
million (the exact number is 201,6 million), adding 1,4 million as opposed to the
year 2012 (Deutscher Reiseverband, 2014). Finally, the importance of the research
related to the Chinese and German markets and business environment of these two
countries in a cross cultural perspective was determined by the specificity of MA
CEEBS program.
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2. Literature review
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reasonable to expect air ticket industry to keep booming in the future. All in all,
along with the development of aviation industry in China and existing tendency of
this market towards maturity, the growth rate of air ticket sales is projected to
stabilize at around 12% per annum (iResearch, 2013: 11).
Total value of air tickets sales in China almost reached 300 billion RMB in
2013 with the average of almost 1 million tickets sold per day (iResearch, 2013).
Accordingly, the market share of online air tickets distribution amounted for 27%
in 2012 and was expected to further increase in 2013, exceeding 30% of total air
ticket sales, reports iResearch Consulting Group. Online channels are getting
extremely popular among Chinese travellers and are gradually taking over from
the offline channels. However, even though OTAs are eroding the market share of
traditional agencies, the latter still remain one of the major sources for air ticket
purchase. The streets of Chinese megalopolises are still abundant in offline travel
agencies offices, which makes one assume that many Chinese, especially of older
generation, still prefer to buy tickets offline and to delegate to office sales
managers the right of finding and choosing best offers.
In terms of structure of the online air ticket market, in 2012 about 60% of
tickets were provided by OTAs and the rest came from direct online sales
(iResearch, 2013). At the same time, third-party sales platforms keep dominating
over non third-party platforms as a major online sales channel for air tickets. Such
platforms provided more than 60% of online ticket sales in 2012 and this number
was expected to grow in 2013 (iResearch, 2013). Fierce competition between
expanding travel platforms, OTAs and direct online sales is projected to be one of
the main characteristics of this market in the next years.
Another trend noted by market researchers from iResearch Consulting Group
is a growing tendency of Chinese consumers to self-guided tours and outbound
vacation. Independent planning and booking of different components of a journey
by future travellers is expected to give additional impetus to the development of
online air ticket sales and other related services.
Finally, when talking about online sales another highlight of Chinas Internet
development an advent of mobile era marked by the rapid growth of mobile
Internet users - should not be neglected. By the end of 2013 more than 500 million
people in China accessed Internet via their mobile devices (ZDNet, 2014). This
number accounts for 80% of countrys total Internet users and has grown about 19%
as opposed to 2012 (CNNIC, 2014). In terms of online travel market it in the first
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towards the Internet and online searching or functional, innovation and other
needs of travellers (Vogt and Fesenmaier, 1998), but also by beliefs about travel
websites and travel agents (Conyette, 2012: 8), which is important for this study.
Additionally, the authors foresee growing popularity of mobile devices and
suggest undertaking future research about their role in online travel searching.
The second group of findings summarized by Peng et al. (2013) presents the
determinants of online travel booking behavior in a purchase stage. Here for this
research it was important to understand that online booking intention rests upon
the characteristics of the website such as usefulness, convenience and security,
characteristics of online vendors, especially their reputation and prices, and
personal characteristics of consumer himself, including age, gender, educational
background and Internet experience. These features were chosen from a variety of
factors and taken into consideration for the research structure when creating a
questionnaire. Moreover, future importance of mobile travel bookings was
mentioned again in the described part of the summary (Peng et al., 2013: 281).
The last part of the described review deals with customers loyalty formation
after booking. For the survey of this study two main ideas were derived from this
group of findings. Firstly, apart from website and information quality perceived
value is important for customer satisfaction and possibility of repurchase,
especially in the case of air ticket bookings (Llach et al., 2013). Secondly, offline
service factors of online booking and their influence on loyalty formation have not
been broadly studied so far both in online travel industry in general and with
regard to airline tickets booking in particular (Peng et al., 2013: 282).
Table 1 provides a summary of online travel booking behavior research
dimensions.
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Booking
behavior
Post purchase
behavior
Suggestions
- Role of mobile devices
in online travel search
(Conyette, 2012)
- Factors influencing
perceived value of online
bookings (Peng et al.,
2013);
- Travel booking
behavior with regard to
specific product
categories (Amaro and
Duarte, 2012);
- Future role of mobile
devices in online travel
booking (Peng et al.,
2013);
- Information quality (Li and Zhang, 2002); - Offline service factors
- Perceived value (Llach et al., 2013);
of online travel booking
(Peng et al., 2013)
empathy can give additional advantage to airlines, air ticket sellers or service
providers and trigger customers online purchase intention (Sam and Tahir, 2009:
8). The notion of empathy implies personalization and individualized attention to
the customer. It intertwines with the dimension of trust and altogether enhances
the value and therefore strengthens buyers intention to purchase. Additionally, it
is proposed that trust and empathy play a mediating role between website
characteristics and final purchase intention (Sam and Tahir, 2009: 7).
Similar approach was chosen by Bukhari et al. (2013), who added to the
above mentioned factors several other constructs such as system quality, airline
reputation and price perception. The framework proposed by the authors identifies
and measures the relationship between these factors and consumers electronic
satisfaction and intention to buy tickets online from airlines websites.
Kim et al. (2005) and Kim et al. (2009) focus on one of the factors
influencing travellers behavior in purchasing airline tickets on the Internet
perceived risk. At first, the correlation between different dimensions of risk was
established and their impact on customers willingness to buy air tickets online
was analyzed (Kim et al., 2005). Later it was discovered that in overall risk of air
ticket purchase security dimension is the most important. In addition it was found
out that taking into consideration web vendors reputation and recommendations
from personal network are preferred as risk-reduction strategies when buying air
tickets online (Kim et al., 2009).
A more practical approach was undertaken by Toh et al. (2012). The surveys
were conducted in order to examine passengers perception of online air ticket
sales as well as factors affecting their actual behavior when making choices and
buying air tickets on the Web. Several findings of this paper deserve attention in
terms of their relation to this study. Firstly, the role of the Internet as a dominating
channel to search flights and favorable attitude of passengers towards online travel
agents were acknowledged (Toh et al., 2012: 83). Secondly, it was reported that,
logically, leisure travellers are more likely to book air tickets on the web than
business travellers, who most of the time rely on corporate travel planners (Toh et
al., 2012: 84). Expectedly, lower fares were revealed to be one of the main
motives driving passengers behavior. That is why due to the convenience of the
Internet for comparing flights on the basis of price ticket buyers opt for online
ticket sales channels. Interestingly, women were found out to be much more
aggressive low price seekers rather than men. All in all, the paper by Toh et al.
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(2012) is one of the rare studies, which provides more practical than academic
insights and implications about this sector of the travel industry.
Another investigation providing grounds for this research was carried out by
Park et al. (2009). In their work the determinants of air passengers buying
behavior were analyzed in a cross-cultural context. The findings report that
travellers purchase behavior depends on their expectations, ticket price and
airline service quality and differs not only by airlines, but also across cultures, in
particular between Korean and Australian passengers.
The findings of papers related to online air ticket booking and travellers
intention to purchase tickets on the Internet are summarized in Table 2.
Other
- Cultural
aspects
(Park et al.,
2009);
- Traits and
characteristics
of travellers
(Toh et al.,
2012);
culture. Power distance addresses the attitude towards inequality and measures the
acceptance of it in society. The dimension of individualism deals with the
interdependence among society members and relation between the individual and
the group. Uncertainty avoidance describes how the society deals with uncertainty
and ambiguous situations. Long-term orientation dimension helps to distinguish
between societies attaching more importance to the future and those promoting the
values related to the past and the present, including preservation of tradition and
respect for it. And masculinity has to do with dominant values and motivations in
society whether it is a desire to be the best or a concern about others and quality
of life. Later the framework was extended by adding the dimensions of
pragmatism and indulgence. According to the online Hofstede Centre, pragmatism
describes peoples attitude towards the fact that many things in life cannot be
completely explained and fully understood, whereas indulgence is based on
measuring the extent to which the society members control their impulses or
desires and to which their life is regulated by strict norms.
When applied to China and Chinese consumer behavior several dimensions
deserve particular attention. All the scores for all dimensions of Chinese culture
are presented in Figure 1. Here individualism vs. collectivism, long-term
orientation and pragmatism are important for the understanding of the drivers of
Chinese buyers behavior separately as well as compared to other countries.
China
118
87
80
66
20
Power
Distance
30
24
Figure 2: Hofstedes dimensions of national culture for China [adapted from The
Hofstede Centre]
consumer behavior model that means Chinese shoppers to a big extent rely on
their network and interpersonal communication in order to acquire information
(Mooij and Hofstede, 2011; Doran, 2000). Most often the Chinese seek for the
information among their acquaintances, friends and family members, easier accept
it from these sources and consider it in the first place when making a final
purchase decision (Doran, 2002; Luo, 2009).
Two other significant aspects are a very high score in long-term orientation
and a high level of pragmatism of Chinese society. According to the Hofstede
Centre, one of the important features of a pragmatic culture is the value attached
to being thrifty and not wasting ones money and other resources. That is why
price is revealed to be an important driver of Chinese consumer behavior during
the purchasing process and the stage of evaluating of existing alternatives (Li et
al., 1995). At the same time, in a long-term oriented collectivist culture the notion
of harmony is heavily emphasized (Mooij and Hofstede, 2011). Due to that price
may not necessarily be the main determinant for taking a buying decision.
Depending on the product, situation and demographic characteristics a Chinese
consumer can evaluate such attributes as sellers reputation, product quality and
functions or brand higher than the price (Lee, 2005: 60). Moreover, Mooij and
Hofstede point out that maintaining harmony influences complaining behavior of
the society members. People in such cultures are less likely to submit an official
complaint, if they are not satisfied with the service or product, but will distribute
this negative review in own personal network. It is also much more difficult to
win such customers back after their negative experience (Mooij and Hofstede,
2011: 189), which all in all elevates the role of sellers reputation and after sale
service.
During the last decade with the explosive growth of e-commerce in China
online market and online consumer behavior has been of particular interest for
consulting agencies (MEC China, 2011; KPMG, 2014) as well as for scholars (Li
and Buhalis, 2006; Guo, J. and Noor, 2011). Several consulting agencies focusing
on online business in China in their reports summarize the most typical traits of
Chinese consumers (Beg et al., 2013; DDMA, 2011). Some of these traits are
directly related to this study and stages of buying decision process examined by
this research. Firstly, Beg et al. (2013) point out that the Internet is the most
frequently used source of information for Chinese shoppers. Similar idea is
reflected in the observation of DDMA (2011) stating that online information has
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great impact on final purchase decision of Chinese buyers and Internet users.
According to the findings of DDMA (2011), in China numerous online sources
are taken into consideration prior to the purchase and it is rare that one channel
prevails over the others. Depending on the product category, Chinese consumers
use various combinations of sources to collect the required information and place
different importance on different online channels (DDMA, 2011: 11). However,
the report of Beg et al. (2013) also confirms that information from other
consumers is often even more important and considerably shapes buying decisions
of the Chinese (Beg et al., 2013: 2). Finally, the summary stresses that customers
loyalty in china is often determined not by financial factors, but by companys
image and appeal, which makes it more and more difficult to maintain (Beg et al.,
2013: 4).
Apart from profound cultural studies and interest of consulting agencies,
Chinese consumer behavior and specifically online behavior and attitudes
attracted the attention of scholars. For instance, Guo and Noor (2011) examined
the factors, which influence the attitudes of Chinese consumers towards adopting
online shopping. In their study it was found out that such variables as sellers
reputation and marketing mix have a greater impact on the attitudes of Chinese
shoppers than perceived usability, security or privacy. The authors emphasize the
effect of product, price, promotion and place features on adopting online
purchasing in China. They also arguably state that after sale service or security of
online payment do not influence such adoption process and recommend online
vendors to focus on merchandizing as well as product quality, price and brand
characteristics (Guo and Noor, 2011: 30).
Li and Buhalis (2003) also attempted to identify the influential factors of
online shopping in China, but narrowed it down to travel products available on the
Web. In this paper they mainly focused on socio-demographic factors and such
perceptions of the Internet as complexity or compatibility, which altogether are
important for adopting online bookings of tourism products by those users, who
previously only looked and searched for travel information (Li and Buhalis, 2003).
Corresponding to the cross-cultural context of this research, existing works
have endeavored to study online behavior of different nations in comparison.
When comparing China to the Western World, scholars in their approach bring
into play Hofstedes dimensions as it is done in this paper.
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To start with, Gong t al. (2012) examined the attitudes towards online
shopping in China and the US. Drawing on the theory of cultural dimensions the
authors identified significant differences in the perceptions of online purchase
process between these two countries. In particular, Chinese consumers, on the one
hand, tend to see buying goods on the Internet as a more complex, but on the other
hand, as a more advantageous and less risky way of shopping than their American
counterparts (Gong et al., 2012: 32).However, several other studies reveal that the
correlation between a positive attitude towards online transaction and actual
intention to transact is weaker in collectivist societies like China than in
individualist cultures (Chan and Lau, 2001; Tan et al., 2010). Therefore, online
sellers should find the right message and clearly appeal to the consumers in China
in order to transform this positive perception of online channels and transactions
into a real intention to buy online (Tan et al., 2010: 12).
Another study aimed at a comparison of consumers from China and Western
Europe confirms the findings about the information search process, which were
mentioned above. Vuylsteke et al. (2009) showed that the Chinese use the Internet
as a source of information before purchasing more frequently than the Europeans,
but not necessarily treat online information as a determining factor for the final
buying decision. Interestingly, these scholars in their research investigated in what
way shoppers in China use search engines and revealed that they rarely browse
other pages after the first one (Vuylsteke et al., 2009: 18).
This research focuses on online consumer behavior of Chinese consumers
opposed to that of their German counterparts. Main prerequisites for such
comparison stem from cultural Hofstedes dimensions of national culture. Figure
2 provides a diagram comparing the scores for each dimension for China and
Germany [adapted from http://geert-hofstede.com].
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China
Germany
118
87 83
80
67
66 66
35
20
Power
Distance
65
40
30
26
24
goals was to check if any of the sources (metasearch engines, online and offline
travel agencies, official websites of airlines or even personal network) dominate
and in which combinations they are used in both countries.
Secondly, it was important to examine which attributes of air ticket offers
people from these two countries take into account before making a decision to
purchase from a particular vendor. Taking into account the observation of the
results of previous studies provided in Table 2, this research in the first place
focused on informational, transactional and trust and security aspects of decision
determinants. Also buyers perception of each attribute was examined from the
point of view of its relative importance compared to other attributes.
Finally, consumer behavior in the post purchase stage was studied in order to
discover which factors may attract a traveller to purchase from the same vendor
more frequently. It mainly implied rewards, bonus programs and other factors that
may be used to maintain customers loyalty. In addition, one of the questions of
interest was how online air ticket buyers perceive new search services, whether
they welcome new search options and are ready to adopt them.
3.2 Research hypotheses
Another part of the research was aimed at discovering air travellers
perceptions and attitudes towards information search, vendors credibility and
mobile devices as means of online ticket purchase. Thorough review of existing
market reports, academic findings and cultural dimensions and characteristics led
to the proposal of several hypotheses backed up with arguments and described
below.
The stage of online information search is scrutinized in terms of search depth
and the number of sources used. On the one hand, both German and Chinese
cultures are characterized by a highly pragmatic orientation as it was mentioned
above. According to Hofstede, in such societies people approve of thrift and have
strong propensity to save (The Hofstede centre). In Germany these values have
been strong historically since the pre-industrial age and thorough evaluation
before purchasing is often associated with the consumers from this country. And
as for the Chinese, there is an old saying stating that in order not to worry about
not knowing much about the variety of goods one should just compare them and
find out which is better. Moreover, the proliferation of the Internet and its
convenience has had a significant impact on consumer behavior in China. Firstly,
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the findings of Gong et al. (2012) confirm Chinese online consumers perceive
online shopping to be more useful and advantageous than do people from western
countries. Secondly, online activity of Chinese buyers has been noticed because of
their inclination to gather information not only from official brand websites, but
also from social media, blogs, forums, online reports etc. before making a
decision (DDMA, 2011).
On the other hand, thorough search prior to purchasing in China to a big
extent relies on recommendations received through the personal network (Doran,
2002; Luo, 2009). Living in a highly collectivist society, Chinese consumers often
prefer personal sources of information to market ones in terms of trust and
credibility (Doran, 2000). On the contrary, coming from a truly individualistic
culture, a German buyer would rely on his own knowledge and experience
obtained from external sources. In order to get this knowledge and to form a more
objective picture it seems logical to undertake a more careful search. In addition,
another dimension of the perception of online shopping may prevent the Chinese
from checking more websites before booking the air ticket. Some of the findings
of Gong et al. (2012) reveal that the Chinese perceive online shopping to be more
complicated than do their western counterparts. Therefore, this may influence the
views of Chinese travellers on the Internet usage for air ticket booking purposes
and their information search behavior.
All in all, based on these two conflicting argumentations the following
hypotheses were proposed:
H1a: Chinese and German travellers use equally large number of sources
when searching for air tickets online
or conversely,
H1b: Chinese travellers use fewer sources for comparison when searching
for air tickets online than do German travellers.
The next concern of this research has to do with travellers perception of the
ticket seller and his credibility. In terms of air ticket booking this aspect is
somewhat specific, especially when metasearch engine is used to find the best
flight fares. As it was mentioned above, search sources provide a comparison of
ticket offers and prices from a variety of different agents. When ready to purchase,
travellers are then redirected to the website of a particular partner of the
metasearch service company, where they are required to fill in all the booking
information and payment details. At the same time, some engines now extend
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their functions and take care of customers payment and booking as well, using
redirecting only if the ticket is to be purchased directly from the airline. The
passenger does not leave search engines website and deals with it regarding all
the questions of his air ticket booking through the same interface. For the user it
seems that only one company is involved in the entire process of the purchase.
Even though final ticket selling companys logo, name and contact details
normally do appear next to the standard online booking and payment form, it is
search service provider who sends booking confirmation and serves as an
intermediary and a guarantor of the money transfer. Probably, not all the travellers
are aware of such principles of work of the online channels they use. And that is
why it is reasonable to suppose that not all of those, who book tickets with search
engines, pay attention to the name of the final seller.
Chinese Qunar is an example of a flight fares search website that has
additional functions, which has just been described. According to the statistics
provided by China Internet Watch, Qunar is by the most popular online air tickets
booking portal in China. This is as true for bookings via its website as it is for
mobile applications (China Internet Watch, 2014). Hence, one may assume that
the name of the final air ticket seller or agent is less important for Chinese
travellers, as soon as this agent cooperates with Qunar and his price is low. If such
assumption is correct, reaching Chinese travellers through cooperation with Qunar
will seem to be one of the first options for a foreign air ticket agent, especially if
he can offer lower fares.
At the end of the day these ideas and reasoning developed into the second
hypothesis:
H2: Chinese travellers are less concerned about the name and reputation of
ticket vendor than German travellers.
Following the suggestions for further research focused on the future role of
mobile devices in online travel bookings, the third hypothesis was proposed in
order to examine travellers perception of air tickets booking via mobile devices.
When formulating the hypothesis the following data were taken into account: the
percentage of consumers who shop for travel on their desktops or laptops and that
of travellers who do it via smartphones or tablet PCs. As it is reported by
PhoCusWright (2013), 77% of travellers typically booked travel products on their
desktops and laptops in 2013 in Germany, which is 6% more than in 2012. At the
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same time passengers booking travel via mobile devices accounted for 23% with
12% doing it via smartphones and 11% via tablet PCs.
For the Chinese online travel market iClick (2013) provided comparative
statistics on devices usage for browsing and booking. Typical Chinese online
travel consumers used desktops or laptops for browsing travel products in 73% of
the cases in 2013, while 19% of them resorted to smartphones and 8% to PC
tablets. However, when actually making a reservation, 92% of travellers used their
desktops with the share of mobile devices usage plummeting to 2,3% for
smartphones and 5,7% for tablets. Such proportion makes it reasonable to assume
that Chinese users still do not feel comfortable and secure to enter payment details
while they are on the go. So, even though the number of mobile Internet users in
China keeps growing, the last hypothesis states:
H3: Chinese travellers perceive booking air tickets via mobile devices to be
riskier than do German travellers.
To collect the data on attitudes of Chinese and German travellers and to test
the hypotheses several statements adapted from other studies were used.
Regarding the information search stage and hypotheses H1a and H1b, the
respondents were offered two antithetical statements about the number of websites
visited prior to air ticket booking. To test the hypothesis H2 again 2 statements
were designed to assess travellers concern about the final ticket seller and their
price-consciousness. The last statement required the interviewees to express their
opinion about the security of air ticket booking using mobile devices. Full
statements are presented in Table 3 along with the references to related academic
works.
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Statements
IS1: I prefer to visit at least 3 or more
different websites to compare offers of
Information search (IS) air ticket and to take advantage of low
(number of sources used) prices.
IS2: I feel that visiting more than 2
different websites to compare offers of
air tickets is not worthwhile.
TVR1: If air ticket price is attractive,
Reputation of ticket
final sellers name and credibility are not
vendor (TVR)
(concern about final
that important.
ticket vendors
TVR2: I always check the name of the
reputation and
vendor before purchasing air tickets.
credibility)
Mobile devices (MD) MD1: I dont feel safe to pay for air
(risk when booking via tickets via my phone or tablet PC.
smartphones or tablets)
References
(Gupta et al.,
2004)
(Garnik, 2006)
- 27 -
Other
provinces
18,4%
6,1%
Beijing
6,1%
German sample
Bavaria
4,4%
Yunnan
6,1%
Chongqin
g
Other
lands
11,1%
Chinese sample
Sichuan
63,3%
N.
RhineWestfali
a
6,7%
Berlin
77,8%
- 28 -
- 29 -
The second question in this part of the test inquired about the sources of
information travellers normally use when looking for an air ticket online. For this
question it was allowed to give several answers. The results reveal that, not
surprisingly, respondents very often resort to the help of metasearch engines in the
information search stage of air ticket booking process. This answer was chosen by
69,4% (the most popular) of the interviewees in China and 64,4% (the second
most popular) in Germany. Among German survey participants the most popular
sources of information for air ticket purchase are websites of airline companies this option was ticked in 66,7% of all questionnaires. However, in China air
companies with 44,9% are far behind metasearch engines and almost as popular as
online travel agencies (42,9%).
In addition, in this question people were asked to specify which websites
exactly they use in a chosen category. In the Chinese part of the survey qunar.com
was mentioned more often than any other search engine - in 38,8% of the cases.
Such portals as taobao.cn, baidu.cn and skyscanner.com each appeared in 6,1% of
the answers. Among the travel agencies ctrip.cn is dominating with 20,4% of the
participants using it to buy tickets. German participants specified skyscanner.com
and swodoo.com as frequently visited search engines, while expedia.com and
fluege.de were mentioned among travel agencies.
In the next question, aimed at measuring the number of sources Germans and
Chinese use prior to booking, more than a half of respondents in each group stated
they use several various websites and at least one metasearch engine. In the
opinion of about one third of the pollees of each group one search engine or travel
agency is sufficient for air tickets purchase and the rest opt for airline companies
websites.
The third question examined which attributes of online air ticket offering are
more important for the passengers. For this purpose the participants were required
to rank the following seven attributes from 1=the most important to 7=the least
important: air ticket price, name of the airline, ticket availability (suitable
departure and arrival date and time), name and credibility of air ticket vendor,
after sale service (e.g. electronic ticket issuing, confirmation, rebooking and
cancellation), rewards and benefits offered by the seller (e.g. frequent flier miles
or discounts) and payment method. According to the rank in each valid
questionnaire, each attribute was awarded the number of points from 7 (if ranked
1) to 1 (if ranked 7). After the completion of the survey the total score for each
- 31 -
attribute was calculated by summing up all the points given to each attribute in all
the questionnaires. The overall ranking for the whole sample was made in
accordance with the calculated total scores.
Overall results expose several differences and similarities between the two
groups. To start with, the most important attributes are by far tickets availability
and price. In the Chinese part of the survey these parameters were ranked the 1st
(total score of 297) and the 2nd (total score of 292) respectively, whereas in the
German sample it was the other way around 266 points and rank 1 for the ticket
price, 254 points and rank 2 for the availability. The difference between the
attributes number 2 and number 3 in both samples was about 70 points, while
number 3 and 4 again were very close to each other. Identically for both groups
the latter 2 positions were occupied by vendors credibility and airlines name
respectively. The next 2 attributes payment method and after sale service - are
almost equally (the 5th with 138 points and the 6th with 136 points respectively)
valued by German respondents, while in the Chinese part after sale service is
ahead of the payment method. Ranked number 7 rewards and benefits apparently
are the least important factor for the Chinese and German travellers when they
book air tickets online.
The last two questions of part B tested some of the perceptions of travellers in
the post purchase stage. Firstly, the participants were asked which rewards and
bonuses can make them buy tickets from a particular seller more often. They were
offered to choose different bonus programs or to provide their own suggestion.
Again several answers were allowed for this question. However, almost a half
(49%) of the Chinese and 44,4% of the German respondents were not attracted by
any of the rewards saying that only ticket price matters. As for the rest,
cumulative discounts were found attractive by 40% of interviewees in Germany,
while in China special offers for frequent fliers (28,6%) were chosen most
frequently. Interestingly, when suggesting their own variants 8,2% of Chinese
travellers emphasized safety, reputation and quality of service of airlines as
important factors influencing their repeat purchase decision.
Secondly, the travellers were asked to reflect upon their willingness to adopt a
new online air ticket sales option (e.g. a menu on the website), if the latter was
introduced by one of the websites they usually use for other purposes not related
to ticket purchase, for instance reading news and travel blogs or entertainment.
- 32 -
The results show that only 17,7% of German interviewees will not use such
option at all. In the Chinese sample such opinion was expressed by 30,6% of the
survey participants. Furthermore, 37,8% of Germans said they would start
comparing their existing sources with the new one and almost the same
percentage of people would test it first in order to make a decision. In China 47%
of the respondents in total welcomed the new option either for purchasing or price
comparison, while 22,4% would consider testing it.
Therefore, hypothesis H2 stating that Chinese travellers are less concerned about
the name and reputation of ticket vendor than German travellers is not supported.
The last hypothesis H3 that Chinese travellers perceive booking air tickets via
mobile devices to be riskier than do German travellers is also not supported. The
calculated t-value for MD1 is smaller than the critical value, so the null hypothesis
can be accepted and one can assume that the attitude of Chinese and German
consumers towards air ticket booking via mobile devices is similar. All the results
of the calculations for each statement along with the t-values and hypotheses tests
are presented in Table 6.
Table 6: Comparison of Chinese and German respondents attitudes towards
air ticket purchase
Attitudes
Chinese air
German air
ticket buyers
ticket buyers
T-value
(n=49)
(n=45)
(calc.)
Mean Std.Dev Mean Std.Dev
T-value
(critical)
*
Information
search (IS)
IS1
3,69
1,04
3,87
1,12
-0,77
IS2
2,51
1,08
2,24
1,17
1,13
Reputation of
3,4020
ticket vendor
(TVR)
TVR1
2,10
0,85
2,93
1,19
-3,86
TVR2
3,41
0,96
3,58
1,01
-0,83
Mobile
devices (MD)
MD1
2,49
1,04
2,36
1,26
0,56
*confidence level =0,001, the number of degrees of freedom =90
Hypotheses
H1a is
supported
H2 is not
supported
H3 is not
supported
similar across these two nations, they also reveal that several differences do exist.
Travellers in China and Germany make comparatively similar efforts and conduct
equally thorough search when looking for the best flight fares. They share more or
less the same perception of the security of air ticket bookings with mobile devices,
but the Chinese seem to be more concerned about the credibility of the seller,
whereas the Germans are more price-conscious. Moreover, travellers from these
two countries attach slightly different value to different attributes of air ticket
offers and show different inclination towards adopting new online air ticket search
options. As a result, some managerial implications emerge from the findings of
this research and some strategic advice can be offered to online air ticket sellers
and service providers planning to expand to the Chinese market.
When looking for air tickets both groups search for low fares quite carefully,
preferring to check several sources before finally booking a flight. At the same
time Chinese travellers rely on metasearch engines more than their German
counterparts, while the latter buy tickets from airlines websites more frequently.
On the average people from both countries do not agree that using more than 2
sources to find a suitable ticket at the lowest price is not worthwhile. In particular,
they usually use one or several search engines and compare the prices found there
with those offered by other websites. In this regards entering Chinese online air
ticket market by means of cooperation with the Chinese most popular metasearch
engine Qunar seems to be the first logical step. This will let ticket offers of a
foreign agent appear in Qunars search results, making them available for Chinese
passengers. However, in this case a company may encounter currency conversion
issues, because Qunar accepts payments only in RMB. That is why another
alternative is to cooperate with big well-established OTAs like Ctrip or other
resellers. To these Chinese incumbents it will bring access to new Global
Distribution Systems and, therefore, new airlines and destinations, whereas a
foreign agent will start selling in a new market and evade payment and currency
conversion problems. In addition, Chinese firms may be interested in such
cooperation for the purpose of expanding to overseas markets.
The necessity of entering Chinese market via cooperation with domestic
companies is also determined by the fact that Chinese passengers are slightly
more concerned about the name of the ticket seller. The comparison of
respondents attitudes towards the reputation of air ticket vendor has proven that
Chinese travellers do not pay less attention to sellers credibility than Germans. It
- 35 -
is either equally important for both groups or even less important for German
passengers, especially when the price is low. That is why reaching the customer
by offering flight fares on behalf of a Chinese agent will be more beneficial, rather
than operating under companys own name, not recognized by the travellers in the
Chinese segment of this market. This last point is particularly true for smaller
foreign firms and technical service providers.
Another argument supporting the way of cooperation for the market entry is
that according to the survey results Chinese consumers are more conservative than
the Germans about using new air ticket search options. That is directly related to
those firms providing technical solutions and online support. For them it will be
more difficult than in Germany to persuade the travellers to switch to a new sales
channel, because less Chinese respondents were ready at least to give it a try and
to spend some time testing such new websites air ticket sales services.
Survey results also confirm that price is a dominant attribute of air tickets,
which influences travellers choice. For that reason it is difficult to attract both
Chinese and German passengers by various rewards and bonus programs.
However, the fact that the Chinese pay a lot of attention to the quality of service
implies that exceptional after sale support may be one of the key success factors to
win the favor of Chinese ticket buyers. That is why foreign agent must be ready to
provide all the air ticket related after sale features including electronic ticket
issuing, payment and booking confirmation, cancellation, rebooking etc. All such
requests should be processed via a Chinese-speaking call center, which again
speaks in favor of collaboration with already established resellers.
The last part of the findings deals with the attitudes of Chinese and German
travellers towards mobile devices usage for online air ticket bookings. Despite the
differences in statistics on mobile bookings in China and Germany, it was found
out that the Chinese do not perceive this channel to be riskier than do German
travellers. Such results indicate that the role of mobile bookings should not be
neglected when operating on Chinese travel market. The attention paid by Chinas
travel giants Ctrip, Qunar and eLong to the importance of mobile strategy
(iResearch, 2014) proves that this sales channel is seen as a promising source of
revenue in the future.
- 36 -
As almost any other academic study, due to various reasons this research has
several limitations. First of all, both groups interviewed during the survey
consisted of about 50 respondents each, which makes it difficult to generalize the
findings considering the total population of Germany and China. Secondly, from
the point of view of demographic data both samples are biased in terms of
interviewees area of residence and age. Young people coming from Sichuan
province dominated in the Chinese group and in Germany most of the responses
were collected in Berlin area. In addition, women are overrepresented in the
Chinese sample, while the German group has an excess of students, whose
preferences may be significantly different from those of working travellers.
Finally, this research aims at assessing the attitudes and purchase behavior of air
ticket buyers in several stages of the booking process at the same time. Having
only two to three questions devoted to each stage, this study is to a certain extent
superficial and does not cover all the perceptions and motivations of the
consumers purchasing air tickets on the Internet.
Nevertheless, the findings of this research provide some insights about the
purchase behavior of air passengers in a cross cultural perspective. The results and
implications can be used in academic as well as in practical purposes. For instance,
more profound further research may be carried out to investigate the drivers of
consumer behavior in one of the stages of ticket booking process. Moreover,
future empirical studies can extend cultural scope of the research question and
examine similar behavior in several other countries or across the whole European
region. Further works should also endeavor to obtain a broader variety of data in
terms of demography and representability.
7. Conclusion
study was not only to get some insights about air ticket market in China, but also
to compare behavioral patterns of Chinese and German online ticket buyers.
Based on the data collected with the help of the survey conducted in Germany
and China this study has managed to test several hypotheses and to identify
differences and similarities among the attitudes towards online air ticket booking
process in these two countries. The comparison across nations revealed that
Chinese and German travellers act in a similar way when searching for air tickets,
attach comparatively equal importance to various attributes of air ticket offers and
in genera share similarly positive perception of mobile devices as means of online
air ticket purchase. At the same time, slight differences related to consumers
price-consciousness and their concern about ticket sellers reputation and
credibility were found out by this research. Such results were thoroughly analyzed
and discussed from the point of view of their academic and practical application.
Following that some managerial implications regarding a business strategy to
enter the Chinese market were provided along with the suggestions for future
research and recommendations on research quality improvement.
- 38 -
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Appendices
Appendix I
Questionnaire
A. Personal information
1. Which age group do you belong to?
18-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
60+
- master degree
-Ph.D
unstable (e.g.student)
B. Purchase experience
1. How many times have you purchased air tickets during the last year?
0
1-2
3-5
more than 5
2. When searching for air tickets, which sources of information do you usually use? (several
answers)
- metasearch engine(s) (e.g. qunar; taobao; skyscanner; cheapflights; momondo; kayak etc.)
(please specify)_______
- online travel agencies (e.g. ctrip; elong; expedia; cheaptickets etc) (please specify) ______
- air companies websites
- traditional offline travel agencies (e.g. travel agency office in the street)
- my personal network (e.g. relatives or friends working in a travel agency, air company or
other travel related firm)
- other (please specify) ______________
- 45 -
3. How many websites do you usually visit before purchasing the air ticket?
- one metasearch engine
- one travel agency
- one or several air companys websites
- one metasearch engine and several other websites (e.g. travel agency, air company)
- several metasearch engines and several other websites (e.g. travel agency, air company)
- other (please specify) ______________
4. Please rank the following attributes of the air ticket offer in accordance with their
importance and influence on your final buying decision (7 the most important, 1 the least
important):
- name of the airline
- availability of the ticket (suitable date and time)
- air ticket price
- name and credibility of the ticket seller (the website you fill in the form at and pay money to)
- after sale service (e.g. ticket issuing/confirmation/rebooking/cancellation)
- rewards and future benefits offered by the seller (e.g. future discounts/promotions for frequent
buyers)
- payment method
5. Which of the following rewards and bonuses could make you purchase air tickets from a
particular seller more often?
- frequent flier miles
- cumulative discount after each purchase
- special offers for frequent fliers
- gifts after spending a specific sum of money
- none of the above - only ticket price matters
- your own variant______________
6. Imagine that one of the websites you frequently visit not for ticket purchase, but for other
purposes (e.g. news, entertainment, travel forum etc.) introduces a new option air tickets search
and sales. It looks like a new menu on the webpage, where you can choose the destination, set
travel dates and then check air ticket prices and buy them.
Would you welcome such ticket search/sales option?
- yes, I would start buying on this website
- yes, I would start using this option to compare it with the sources I already use
- no, I am satisfied with the sources I already use
- no, I am not going to spend time on getting familiar with one more new interface
- I would test its convenience and reliability first and then will make a decision
- other ______________________
- 46 -
strongly disagree
disagree
neutral
agree
strongly
agree
strongly disagree
disagree
neutral
agree
strongly
agree
Qunar, Taobao, Skyscanner etc. are search engines that do not sell air tickets, but just
provide price comparison of tickets offered by other vendors. Final vendor is a reselling
company which sells you the ticket and which you pay money to. It can be a travel agency or
another ticket reseller.
strongly disagree
3. If air ticket price is attractive, final sellers name and disagree
credibility are not that important.
neutral
agree
strongly
agree
strongly disagree
disagree
neutral
agree
strongly
agree
strongly disagree
5. I dont feel safe to pay for air tickets via my phone or disagree
tablet PC.
neutral
agree
strongly
agree
- 47 -
A.
:
A1
18-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
60+
A2_________________
A3
______________
A4
A5.
3000
3000-5000
5001-10000
______________
10000
B.
B1.
0
1-2
3-5
5
B2
qunar; taobao; skyscanner; kayak _________________
ctrip.com (); elong.com; expedia; cheaptickets _____________
______________
B3
______________
- 48 -
B4 1 = 7 =
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
B5.
--
______________
B6. //
______________
C.
C1.
3
C2. 2
C3.
C4.
C5.
- 49 -
Umfrage
Personal Information
Geschlecht:
1. Welcher Altersgruppe gehren Sie an?
18-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
M (mnnlich)
W (weiblich)
60+
Doktor
Zahlungsmethode
5. Welche folgenden Bonus Programme knnten Sie so beeinflussen, dass Sie knftig die Flugtickets
speziell von nur einem bestimmten Anbieter kaufen werden?
Vielflieger-Meilen
Kumulativer Rabatt nach jedem Einkauf
Spezielle Angebote fr Vielflieger
Geschenke, nachdem Sie eine bestimmte Geldsumme gezahlt haben.
Keinen aus den obengenannten Varianten - nur Ticketpreis ist wichtig
Ihre eigene Variante ______________
6. Stellen Sie sich vor, eine Web-Seite, welche Sie fr andere Zwecke hufig besuchen haben (z. B. Nachrichten,
Unterhaltung, Reise-Forum usw.), fhrt nun eine neue Option zum Suchen und Kaufen von Flugtickets. Das ist so
gestaltet, wie ein neues Men der Web-Seite. Hier knnen Sie zunchst das Ziel und Reisedaten whlen, dann die
Flugpreise prfen und dann am Ende des Prozesses die Flugtickets kaufen.
Wrden Sie eine solche Suche / Verkaufsoption begren?
Ja, ich wrde anfangen auf dieser Web-Seite Tickets zu kaufen
Ja, ich wrde anfangen diese Option zu verwenden, um die mit anderen Systemen zu vergleichen, welche ich
bereits verwendet habe
Nein, ich bin mit dem System zufrieden, das ich bereits verwendet habe
Nein, ich mchte nicht meine Zeit verschwenden, um mich mit einem neuen Interface vertraut zumachen
Ich wrde die Bequemlichkeit und Zuverlssigkeit erst einmal testen und dann eine Entscheidung treffen
Sonstiges, und zwar ______________
Die Einstellung zum Flugticketskauf
C1. Ich bevorzuge mindestens 3 oder mehr verschiedene
Web-Seiten zu besuchen, um Angebote fr die Flugtickets zu
vergleichen und den niedrigsten Preis auszusuchen.
C2. Ich denke, dass es sich nicht lohnt, mehr als 2
verschiedene Web-Seiten zu besuchen, um Angebote fr die
Flugtickets zu vergleichen.
trifft gar
nicht zu
trifft nicht
zu
unentschieden
trifft zu
trifft
vollkommen
zu
trifft gar
nicht zu
trifft nicht
zu
unentschieden
trifft zu
trifft
vollkommen
zu
Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo etc. sind Suchmaschinen, die keine Flugtickets verkaufen, sondern nur den Ticketspreis von
anderen Anbietern vergleichen. Der Verkufer ist am Ende ein anderes Unternehmen welches Ihnen das Ticket verkauft
und an welche Sie den Ticketpreis bezahlen. Der Verkufer kann ein Reisebro oder ein anderer Ticket-Hndler sein.
C3. Wenn der Ticketspreis attraktiv ist, sind der Name und
die Zuverlssigkeit des Verkufers nicht so wichtig.
C4. Vor dem Kauf der Flugtickets berprfe ich immer den
Namen des Verkufers.
trifft gar
nicht zu
trifft nicht
zu
unentschieden
trifft
zu
trifft
vollkommen
zu
trifft gar
nicht zu
trifft nicht
zu
unentschieden
trifft
zu
trifft
vollkommen
zu
trifft gar
nicht zu
trifft nicht
zu
unentschieden
trifft
zu
trifft
vollkommen
zu
Vielen Dank, dass Sie sich die Zeit genommen haben an dieser Umfrage teilzunehmen!
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