Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
Data Collection and Data Analysis 
The respondents for the study were randomly selected from the database of 21,500 U. S. customers (18 
years and older) who had purchased at least one travel product online over the past year (April 2004-April 2005). 
The website was considered typical of an online technology-based, self-service interface. Data for the study was 
collected using a survey distributed via email to 10,564 online customers of a U.S. based online travel company. The 
company was primarily engaged in the provision of travel and tourism information and travel plans booking for air, 
hotel, car, tour, show, event, and sports products. The company’s website was used as the primary retail channel of 
distribution for their travel and tourism product set; therefore the category of travel products was acceptable for 
study. A convenience sample of online shoppers (e.g., people with online shopping for travel experience) was 
conducted in April 2005 to aid in the development of the survey. A pre-test was administered to further refine the 
quality, value, and attitudinal measures derived from the literature review. Thirty-five graduate students majoring in 
hotel administration at UNLV participated in the pretest. The participants were asked to take the survey online and 
provide feedback to ensure all instructions and questions were understood as intended. The initial emailing, which 
took place in April 2005, was followed by 4 reminders sent every 5 days after. A total of 10,564 emails were sent to 
participants. Respondents who opted out or communicated their preference to be taken off the mailing list were 
deleted appropriately from the email list of participants. The survey resulted in a 94% delivery rate and a 3 % usable 
response rate (n = 333 usable questionnaires). Specifically, of the 668 respondent visits to the survey site, 405 were 
completed while 213 were partially completed- and thus discarded as unusable. Of these 405 returned responses, 72 

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