International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Impact of hotel website quality on online booking intentions: eTrust

as a mediator
Liang Wang a,∗ , Rob Law a,1 , Basak Denizci Guillet a,2 , Kam Hung a,3 , Davis Ka Chio Fong b,4
a
School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 17 Science Museum Road, TST East, Kowloon, Hong Kong
b
Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau, E22-2043, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macau

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Growing competitiveness in the marketplace pushes hoteliers to fully take advantage of their websites
Hotel website quality as a marketing tool. This study proposed that a trusting relationship with customers could be developed
eTrust by investing in hotel website development. A research model that incorporates hotel website quality,
Online booking intentions
eTrust, and online booking intentions was put forward. The software AMOS 20.0 was adopted to analyze
Mediation effect
the proposed inter-variable relationships. Statistical results demonstrated that hotel website quality is
a strong predictor of eTrust which then also mediates the relationship between website quality and
consumers’ online booking intentions. Implications were offered for practitioners based on the results.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction opportunistic behaviors of online vendors for the lack of actual

Information technology has been established as an imperative
element of continuous innovation (MacKay and Vogt, 2012). In the
hospitality industry, the Internet has revolutionized business oper-
ations as a powerful operational and marketing tool since the late
1990s (Ip et al., 2012). Schmidt et al. (2008) summarized that the
richness of a website is closely related to the experience that a hotel
has in utilizing the Internet as an electronic media. In other words,
the more experienced a company the richer the websites would be.
Such statement implies the dynamic process of website develop-
ment, which goes along the continuum of customer relationships
ranging from transactional to relational orientations (Gilbert and
Powell-Perry, 2001). Gupta et al. (2004) echoed such an argument
and developed a framework which consisted of three levels, namely
information and design, e-commerce, and customer relationship
management.
The inherited nature of the Internet precludes full assess-
ments of product qualities and vendors, thus making cheat-
ing easier compared with brick-and-mortar transactions (Ba
and Pavlou, 2002). Consumers are more concerned about
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 3400 2337; fax: +852 2362 9362.
E-mail addresses: liang.wang@connect.polyu.hk (L. Wang),
rob.law@polyu.edu.hk (R. Law), basak.denizci@polyu.edu.hk (B.D. Guillet),
kam.hung@polyu.edu.hk (K. Hung), davisfong@umac.mo (D.K.C. Fong).
1
Tel.: +852 3400 2181; fax: +852 2362 9362.
2 and empirically tested a theoretical model that incorporates hotel
Tel.: +852 3400 2173; fax: +852 2362 9362.
3
Tel.: +852 3400 2258; fax: +852 2362 9362.
4
Tel.: +853 8822 4714; fax: +853 8822 2335.
contacts with sales persons or tangible products (Mayer et al.,
1995). Online consumer trust (eTrust), which can decrease
perceived risk and security concerns, is thus imperative to
eBusiness success (McKnight et al., 2002). More importantly,
lack of eTrust has been regarded as the main barrier to
Internet and e-commerce usage (Liebermann and Stashevsky,
2002). Surprisingly few large-scale empirical investigations in the
service literature, particularly the hotel industry, have systemati-
cally examined the relationship between hotel website quality and
eTrust. This study attempts to fill in this research gap to investi-
gate the impacts of hotel website quality upon eTrust as well as
the interaction effect of eTrust on hotel website quality and online
booking intentions.
As “perhaps the only way an online store communicates with
its customers” (Chang and Chen, 2008, p. 819), it is reasonable
to argue that a website is critical in the development of trusting
relationships with customers. Then the question is: How the
website quality will influence eTrust? At the same time, consumer
trust is a reliable predictor of purchase intention because it stimu-
lates consumer satisfaction and makes retention easier (Chen and
Barnes, 2007). Chang and Chen (2008) investigated the mediating
roles of perceived risk and trust in discussing the relationship
between online environment cues and online purchase intention.
Therefore, another question is: Can the effect of hotel website
quality upon consumers’ online booking intention be mediated
by eTrust? To address these two questions, this study proposed
website, eTrust, and online booking intention. The current study
endeavors to integrate eTrust into a causal model to examine

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.03.012
0278-4319/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115 109

its predictors and its mediating role, understanding of which the cost of information search and inspection (Kramer, 1999). In
could offer insights into establishing consumer trust in the hotel the service industry, trust enables long-term relationships with
industry. customers (Kumar et al., 1995).
The emergence and development of information and com-
munication technologies (ICTs) have provided scholars a novel
2. Literature review and hypothesis development
perspective to discuss trust in the online environment (i.e. eTrust).
Building on findings from traditional business settings, researchers
2.1. Hotel website quality
re-conceptualized the eTrust construct, mainly focusing on two
elements: perceived risk and eTrust referent.
According to Jeong et al. (2003), website quality is the “over-
In the online community, money losses and abuse of personal
all excellence or effectiveness of a [website] in delivering intended
information are the main concerns of subjective Internet risks (Bart
messages to its audience and viewers” (p. 162). However, this def-
et al., 2005). In the hospitality industry, hotel rooms are normally
inition overlooks the important roles of customer needs which are
big-ticket items that carry more inherent risks and increase the
crucial for the success of hospitality and tourism websites (Law
degree of uncertainty. As to the referent, the object of eTrust in
and Leung, 2000). More recently, Chang and Chen (2008) gave a
the present study is hotel website, while salespersons or stores are
more comprehensive interpretation by referring to website quality
the trusting objects in the offline environment. As previously men-
as “users’ evaluation of whether a web site’s features meet users’
tioned, a commercial website can be regarded as a store, which may
needs and reflect the overall excellence of the web site” (p. 821).
explain the empirically proven applicability of offline consumer
Such definition suggests the importance of consumers in assessing
trust variables in information system studies (Gefen, 2002; Sultan
website performance (Bai et al., 2008). The current study focuses on
et al., 2002).
consumer perceptions and thus follows Chang and Chen’s (2008)
Considering the risk and referent involved, eTrust can be con-
definition.
ceptualized as either a belief or a behavior. The former view defines
Extending Jarvenpaa et al.’s (2000) metaphor, a website could
trust as a positive expectation that stems from certain attributes
be regarded as a company’s online store and defines the atmo-
of the trusting party, including expertise, reliability, and honesty
sphere of online shopping. Similar to the offline environment where
(Doney and Cannon, 1997; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The latter
consumers need traditional cues like brand and reputation for deci-
treats eTrust as a behavior that reflects a consumer’s willingness to
sion making, Internet users rely on website attributes to judge
rely on the other party (McKnight et al., 1998). An integrative stance
the potential gains and losses. Effective website design means free
combines the two views by defining consumer trust as “a willing-
of barriers to online transactions like anonymity, lack of personal
ness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence”
communication, and electronic payment (Chang and Chen, 2008).
(Moorman et al., 1993. p. 82).
The effectiveness of hotel websites could be reflected from per-
Another issue in eTrust conceptualization is its dimensionality,
spectives of right content and easy to use (Au Yeung and Law,
majority studies about which are prevailed by the multidimen-
2004), which can be translated into functionality and usability. As to
sional view. Particularly, Ang et al. (2001) suggested that eTrust
website functionality, it pertains to “the degree of information pro-
has three dimensions, namely, ability, willingness to rectify prob-
vision about the website’s services/products,” while usability refers
lems, and presence of privacy policy. Gefen (2002) found that eTrust
“to what extent a website is efficient and enjoyable for its prod-
has three dimensions of integrity, ability, and benevolence. Gefen’s
ucts/services being promoted” (Au Yeung and Law, 2004. p. 309).
study is consistent with the seminal work by Morgan and Hunt
However, such categorization ignores the elements of privacy and
(1994), which discusses consumer trust in the offline environment.
security, which would cause consumer uncertainty in online trans-
A comprehensive review conducted by Wang et al. (2014a) found
actions (Pavlou et al., 2007). Following literature from other fields
that majority studies about trust in the tourism and hospitality
(e.g., Pavlou et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2004), it would be reasonable
industries were based on Morgan and Hunt (1994). With the defini-
to include security and privacy attributes as an extra dimension of
tion of eTrust as positive expectation, Wang et al. (2014b) designed
hotel website quality. Given the increasing importance of online
and empirically tested an instrument for measuring eTrust made up
presence in the hotel industry, the present study proposes that
of three dimensions: integrity, ability, and benevolence. Ability is
hotel website quality has three dimensions, namely, functionality,
the degree to which hotels’ own websites are perceived to possess
usability, and security and privacy.
the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to execute the job
Considerable efforts from tourism and hospitality researchers
responsibilities properly. Integrity is about consumer perceptions
could be spotted in discussing impacts of hotel website quality.
that hotel websites will fulfill their claims. These two facets are
For example, Law and Hsu (2006) categorized Internet users into
based on cognitive assessment like the evaluation of information on
online browsers and online shoppers and afterwards investigated
contracts and structural assurances, which is associated with eco-
the perceived importance of hotel website attributes and dimen-
nomic rationale. Benevolence refers to the genuine concern, which
sions in a comparative manner. Such categorization implies hotel
is based on consumer emotional assessment of the goodwill that is
websites function as information channels and transaction forums.
associated with caring intentions (Dimoka, 2010).
After years of development, the Internet, as a marketing tool, plays
informational, transactional, and relational roles in today’s market
2.3. Online purchase intentions
(Tse, 2013). Bai et al. (2006) and Gan et al. (2006) examined rela-
tionship marketing features on websites of hotels in the US and
Consumer purchase intention has been widely discussed in mar-
Singapore respectively.
keting research because it functions as a dimension of behavioral
intention (Zeithaml et al., 1996) and is reportedly predictive of
2.2. eTrust actual purchase behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). More impor-
tantly, measures of intention are superior to behavioral measures
Initiated by psychologists in the 1950s, the concept of trust has in capturing consumers’ mind because actual behaviors could
made inroads into various disciplines, such as sociology (Zucker, be influenced by what a seller offers, such as discounted deals
1986), management (Das and Teng, 1998) and marketing (Morgan and coupons, rather than true preferences (Day, 1969). Data on
and Hunt, 1994). In marketing, trust enables consumer coopera- consumer purchase intention are also relatively easier to collect
tion because it reduces anxiety in decision making and reduces than those reflecting behavior (Chandon et al., 2005). Therefore,
110 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115
consumer purchase intentions have been widely applied in con-
sumer research investigations (Kalwani and Silk, 1982).
The advent of commercialized technology provides a strategic
marketing mechanism and functions as an important distribution
channel for selling firms’ products and services. It also changes con-
sumers’ buying behavior and profoundly influences their decision
making (Brown et al., 2003), giving marketing researchers a new
perspective to study purchase intention. Frameworks for offline or
traditional purchasing behavior are largely applicable to discuss-
ions on online buying intention. Online purchase intention refers
to customers’ willingness and intention to participate in an online
deal, and it includes the evaluation processes of website quality and
product information (Pavlou, 2003).
Tourism and hospitality scholars also assessed the importance
of purchase intention and its influencing factors in various contexts.
In wine tourism, Barber et al. (2010) found that wine tourists are
willing to pay premium prices for environmentally friendly wines
and have stronger visit intentions to wine region destinations.
Other studies investigated the factors influencing online purchase
intention from either hotel websites or online travel agents, includ-
ing information satisfaction (Jeong et al., 2003), website quality
(Law and Hsu, 2006), as well as online reviews (Xie et al., 2011).
Compared to offline purchase, online purchase intention requires
a higher degree of trust (Van der Heijden et al., 2003) as virtual
shopping involves more risks and uncertainties (Tan and Thoen,
2001).
2.4. Hypothesis development
A website is the main communication channel between con-
sumers and organizations (Casaló et al., 2008). Studies have
consistently proved that a high-quality website could increase
company image and help turn web browsers into buyers (Caruana,
2004). Therefore, website design becomes an essential topic in
studies and practices of online marketing strategies (Hoffman et al.,
1999).
Website quality is also a key driver of eTrust, as cues available on
the website increase consumers’ perceived control over the actions
of an online vendor by directly affecting their perceived security
and privacy (Hoffman et al., 1999). Shelat and Egger (2002) found
that provisions of proper and helpful information on websites
could stimulate consumers’ perceived trustworthiness. Correla-
tions between website quality and eTrust also received increasing
attention from tourism and hospitality scholars (e.g., Fam et al.,
2004; Kim et al., 2011; Sparks and Browning, 2011).
Trust is important in mitigating uncertain feelings to enable real
purchases as it is a vital driving force of consumer online purchase
intention. Therefore, Golmohammadi et al. (2012) recommended
establishment of trusting relationships as an effective marketing
strategy in boosting online sales. Sultan et al. (2002) indicated that
online trust could enhance consumers’ purchase intentions and loy-
alty, and found the mediating role of trust between website factors
and consumers’ intention to act. Jarvenpaa et al. (2000) and Yoon
(2002) supported these views and empirically proved the positive
effects of eTrust on online purchase intention.
Therefore, the study hypothesized the following:
H1. Consumer perception of hotel website quality positively
affects perceived eTrust level.
H2. Consumer perceived eTrust level positively affects online pur-
chase intentions.
H3. Consumer perception of hotel website quality positively
affects online purchase intention.
The study tested the effect of hotel website quality on online
booking intentions and eTrust, and further examined the mediating
Fig. 1. Conceptual model (structural model).
effect of eTrust between hotel website quality and online booking
intention. Fig. 1 presents the conceptual framework.
3. Method
A field survey approach was adopted to achieve the stated
research objectives. A questionnaire consisting of three sections
was used. Following previous studies, a period of 12 months is
appropriate for respondents to recall their experiences (Law and
Hsu, 2006). According to Law and Leung (2000), responding to con-
sumer needs is critical to the success of hospitality and tourism
websites, implying the importance of understanding needs of
potential and existing customers. Two screening questions were
formulated in the first section to identify eligible respondents,
namely, “have you ever purchased anything online in the past 12
months” and “have you stayed at any hotels in the past 12 months”.
Positive answers enabled respondents to proceed with the survey.
The second section probed the three variables included in the
proposed model (i.e. website quality, eTrust, and online book-
ing intention). The constructs were measured with multiple items
closely following previous studies (i.e., Au Yeung and Law, 2004;
Chung and Law, 2003; Law and Hsu, 2006; Kim et al., 2009a,b;
Gefen et al., 2003; Corbitt et al., 2003; Bai et al., 2008; Hausman and
Siekpe, 2009). However, the literature mainly examined these vari-
ables, especially eTrust, in the Western context. Thus, interviews
with Chinese Internet users and academic experts were conducted
to obtain insights into measuring these variables in a novel context.
After considering the interview results, an initial measurement
list was formulated. Variable attributes were measured on a 7-
point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly
agree). Cummins and Gullone (2000) stated that expanding the
number of choice-points would not systematically damage scale
reliability while increasing sensitivity. Preston and Colman (2000)
stated that a 7-point scale is superior to a 5-point scale in ensur-
ing the stability of participants’ responses and capturing detailed
differentiation among perceived agreement levels. The third sec-
tion measures demographic characteristics, including gender, age
group, education level, and monthly personal income.
A group of Chinese graduate students majoring in tourism-
and hospitality-related programs and 11 Chinese web users were
invited to review the questionnaire before it was finalized. Minor
revisions were made based on their suggestions. When the ques-
tionnaire was completed, a pilot test was used to assess the internal
consistency of each construct. Online survey company Sojump
(www.sojump.com) distributed email invitations to panel mem-
bers and administered the survey to 422 Chinese Internet users.
Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the pilot test data
and results are presented in Table 1. Following Davidow’s (2000)
approach, items with factor loadings lower than .5 or cross-loadings
greater than .3 were deleted. In this way, an item from the eTrust
scale was deleted because of a low factor loading. Factor loadings
for other items fell in between .586 and .875. Cronbach’s Alpha
for all latent variables was between .753 and .93, well above the
threshold (Nunnally, 1978).
 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115 111

Table 1
Measures of variables of interest.

Measurements Factor loadings Item-to-total correlations Eigenvalue Variance explained Cronbach’s alpha

Hotel website usability 3.738 62.301 .876

U1 Clear language .740 .740
U2 Easily understandable information .779 .742
U3 User-friendly layout .808 .643
U4 Well-organized information .798 .751
U5 Graphics matched with texts .590 .605
U6 Simple website navigations (e.g. menu or site map) .628 .619
Hotel website Functionality 2.542 50.833 .753
F1 Hotel reservation information .591 .444
F2 Hotel facilities information .729 .529
F3 Information of promotions/special offers .586 .509
F4 Price information of hotel rooms .736 .607
F5 Information of destinations where hotels are located .650 .525
Security and privacy 2.116 70.524 .787
SP1 Privacy policy relating to customers’ personal data .832 .561
SP2 Information of secured online payment system .727 .679
SP3 Information of third-party recognition .710 .648
Integrity 8.913 30.200 .930
T10 Hotel official websites do not deceive customers. .793 .806
T11 Hotel official websites fulfill commitments they made. .796 .819
T12 Hotel official websites provide information in an honest .828 .828
way.
T13 I have confidence in promises made by hotel official .794 .835
websites.
T14 Hotel official websites do not make false statements. .808 .782
T16 I will not be overcharged when booking a room via hotel .686 .690
official websites.
T17 All in all, I trust hotel official websites. .634 .516
Benevolence 1.499 20.500 .864
T5 Most official websites have a good reputation. .620 .616
T6 Designs of hotel official websites consider consumer .765 .715
needs.
T7 Hotel official websites are professional. .723 .733
T8 Hotel official websites keep customer interests in mind. .716 .740
T9 Recommendations on hotel official websites are made for .671 .622
mutual interest.
Ability .959 18.457 .847
T1 Hotel official websites have the necessary ability to .828 .683
handle sales transactions on the Internet.
T2 Hotel official websites have sufficient expertise to do .836 .722
business on the Internet.
T3 Hotel official websites have sufficient resources to do .744 .685
business on the Internet.
T4 Hotel official websites have adequate knowledge to .663 .651
manage their business on the Internet.
Online booking Intention 2.822 70.545 .861
OPI1 It is likely that I will book hotel rooms from hotel .775 .623
websites the next 12 months
OPI2 It is possible that I will book hotel rooms from hotel .837 .706
websites the next 12 months
OPI3 I am willing to book hotel rooms from hotel websites .875 .755
OPI4 I plan to book hotel rooms from hotel websites .869 .746

Another round of data collection was carried out to find out the
inter-variable relationships. The same online survey company col-
lected 842 valid questionnaires. It is worth noting that respondents
included in the first survey were excluded from the second phase.
the study were young and well-educated Chinese with relatively
decent salaries.
4.2. Reliability and validity of measurement models

Following Anderson and Gerbing (1988), a two-step approach

4. Data analysis and results
4.1. Demographics of respondents in the second survey
Demographic structures of respondents in this study were pre-
sented in Table 2. The second survey had relatively more female
respondents. The majority were aged between 26 and 35, repre-
senting 47.86 percent of the entire sample. Most of the respondents
held a bachelor degree, and around 8 percent had a graduate
degree. In terms of monthly salary, the respondents who received
RMB 3001–RMB 6000 comprised over 40 percent of the sample
(US$1 = RMB 6.1, Southmoney.com, 2014). Overall, respondents in
was adopted, which consisted of examining individual measure-
ment models and then the structural model. To check reliability
and validity of each measurement model, confirmatory factor anal-
ysis was performed, using AMOS 20.0. A reliability test checks the
internal consistency of measurement items per variable in differ-
ent settings and conditions (Vitolins et al., 2000). Table 3 shows the
composite reliability estimates of all factors were between .752 and
.923, suggesting acceptable reliability (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988).
Construct validity examines the extent to which a scale truly
measures a construct of interest, including convergent and dis-
criminant validity (Peter, 1981). Convergent validity refers to the
degree to which items measuring their corresponding construct are
112 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115

Table 2 acceptable reliability as both AVE values and composite reliability

Profile of respondents.
were satisfactory.
Demographic items Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender 4.3. Structural model and hypotheses testing

Male 397 47.1
Female 445 52.9 After securing the reliability and validity of individual measure-
Age
Less than 18 2 .24
ment models, the overall model fit was assessed afterwards by
18–25 251 29.81 conducting structural equation modeling (SEM). Model fit indices
26–35 403 47.86 include ratio of the chi-square (2 ) to the degree of freedom (df),
36–45 149 17.70 comparative fit index (CFI), goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted
46–55 32 3.80
goodness of fit index (AGFI), normed fit index (NFI), and root mean
56–65 5 .59
Education square error of approximation (RMSEA). A model is generally con-
Less than secondary/high school 3 .4 sidered acceptable if values of CFI, NFI, and GFI are greater than
Completed secondary/high school 64 7.6 .9, AGFI is greater than .8, RMSEA is smaller than .08, and 2 /df
Completed college/university diploma/degree 710 84.3 is smaller than 5 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988; Hair et al., 2010). Table 5
Completed postgraduate degree 65 7.7
Your average monthly income (RMB)
presents the standardized path coefficients, and shows that the pro-
3000 or below 118 14.01 posed model fitted the data reasonably (2 /df = 3.266; GFI = .870;
3001–6000 346 41.09 AGFI = .851; NFI = .879; CFI = .907; RMSEA = .059). The relationship
6001–9000 200 23.75 between hotel website quality and eTrust (Hypothesis 1) was sup-
9001–12,000 104 12.35
ported by the corresponding estimate of .577 (t = 10.717, p < .001).
12,001 or above 38 4.51
No salary/refuse to answer 36 4.28 The standardized path coefficient from eTrust to online booking
intentions (Hypothesis 2) was .369 (t = 6.45, p < .001). This finding
indicates that eTrust is a significant predicator of online booking
intention. Hypothesis 3 is also supported by a statistically signif-
correlated (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). The convergent valid- icant estimate of .19 (t = 3.559, p < .001), positively linking hotel
ity test could be passed if factor loadings and average variance website quality to online booking intention.
extracted (AVE) are above the threshold of .5 (Hair et al., 2010). All
constructs showed satisfactory convergent validity as factor load- 4.4. Mediating effect of eTrust
ings ranged from .498 to .874 and most AVE values were larger than
.5, which are statistically significant at .001. Discriminant valid- The proposed model specifies hotel website quality as an exoge-
ity can be examined by estimating the inter-correlation among nous construct while eTrust and online booking intention as
constructs. Kline (2005) suggested that for adequate discriminant endogenous constructs. The proposed model was re-estimated by
validity correlations between two random constructs should be constraining the direct effect of website quality on online book-
lower than .85. A more stringent method is to compare AVE esti- ing intention to examine the mediating effect of eTrust. Baron and
mates to squared inter-construct correlations and the latter should Kenny (1986) suggested four necessary conditions for the exist-
be smaller than the former. Table 4 shows that the square roots ence of mediation effect, all of which were met in this study. That
of AVE values were all greater than their corresponding inter- is, ˇ12 , ˇ13 , and ˇ23 were significant. The fourth condition can be
construct correlations, indicating acceptable discriminant validity. satisfied if the parameter estimate between hotel website quality
Higher-order variables of website quality and eTrust also showed and online booking intention becomes insignificant (full mediation)

Table 3
Reliability and validity of measurement models.

Constructs Measurements Factor loadings AVE Composite reliability

Hotel website quality .634 .839

Hotel Website Usability (.838) U1/U2/U3/U4/U5/U6 .757/.766/.755/.818/.686/.657 .550 .880
Hotel Website Functionality (.799) F1/F2/F3/F4/F5 .640/.678/.552/.604/.599 .380 .752
Security and Privacy (.750) SP1/SP2/SP3 .567/.806/.867 .574 .797
eTrust .655 .847
Integrity (.680) T10/T11/T12/T13/T14/T16/T17 .829/.868/.874/.848/.805/628/.682 .633 .923
Benevolence (.995) T5/T6/T7/T8/T9 .687/.789/.810/.799/.686 .572 .869
Ability (.716) T1/T2/T3/T4 .781/.870/.818/.798 .668 .889
Online Purchase Intention OP1/OP2/OP3/OP4 .498/.588/.846/.856 .511 .799

Note: Values in the parentheses are factor loadings of latent constructs for second order variables of hotel website quality and eTrust, respectively.

Table 4
Inter-construct correlations and squared root of AVE estimates.

Ability Benevolence Integrity

Ability .818
Benevolence .655 .776
Integrity .491 .716 .798

Hotel website usability Hotel website functionality Security and privacy

Hotel website usability .748

Hotel website functionality .699 .616
Security and privacy .649 .600 .758

Note: inter-correlation coefficients are below the diagonal and squared root of AVE estimates are presented on the diagonal.
 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115
Table 5
Structural parameter estimates and goodness-of-fit indices.
Hypothesized path
Hypothesis 1: hotel website quality → eTrust (ˇ12 )
Hypothesis 2: eTrust → online booking intentions (ˇ23 )
Hypothesis 3: hotel website quality → online booking intentions (ˇ13 )
or less significant (partial mediation) than the parameter estimate
(ˇwq to bi ) in the constrained model. The result showed that eTrust
had a partial mediating role (ˇ13 = .190, t = 3.559, and ˇwq to bi = .452,
t = 8.651). More importantly, the Chi-square value in the mediated
model significantly improved at the .001 level (2 = 50), suppor-
ting the mediating effect of eTrust. The indirect effect of eTrust was
also examined to explain its role. The indirect effect of hotel web-
site quality on online booking intentions through eTrust was .213,
which came from ˇ12 *ˇ23 .
5. Discussion and implications
Hotel websites have been developed along a marketing con-
tinuum of informational, transactional, and relational roles (Tse,
2013). The ubiquitous tool of the Internet provides a convenient
way for consumers to acquire information of products and ser-
vices offered by a company and it is also an electronic platform
for profitability because of its capability of real-time transactions
(Chung and Law, 2003). There is also a general agreement among
researchers that the Internet creates an ideal environment for
customer relationships management as it facilitates two-way com-
munications between hotels and their customers (Schmidt et al.,
2008). A bunch of past studies have examined contents and fea-
tures of hotel websites (e.g., Law and Hsu, 2006; Chung and Law,
2003). However, little research has been conducted to examine
how perceived website quality would influence the relationship
marketing concept of online consumer trust (eTrust). The current
study intends to fill in this research gap by conducting a large-scale
empirical study.
Statistical results suggested that hotel website quality has three
underlying dimensions, namely usability, functionality, as well as
security and privacy. This finding is consist with Bai et al. (2008)
in that system quality and information quality played an impor-
tant role in measuring perceived website quality. As such, this
study suggests hotel practitioners to work to improve the navi-
gational structure of their websites, quickly and easily directing
web browsers to their intended destinations to increase perceived
eTrust levels. The saying that “content is king” also applies here.
Functionality, or information quality, constitutes an important
dimension of website quality. This dimension is more critical in
selling service products on the Internet because consumers cannot
touch and feel items for sale and therefore need to rely on detailed
and clear information to make purchase decisions. Accordingly,
more resources should be devoted to the provision of accurate, cur-
rent, and complete information on their official websites to increase
consumer trust in online transactions.
An interesting discovery comes from the variable of privacy and
security, which has been widely studied in main stream market-
ing literature. For instance, in retailing marketing, Ranganathan
and Ganapathy (2002) concluded privacy and security were crucial
elements which could lead to online sales. However, such a con-
clusion may not to be applicable to the hotel industry as Schmidt
et al. (2008) found that privacy and security do not correlate with
website effectiveness, which was likely attributed to the low uti-
lization of hotel websites as a point-of-sale channel. Nonetheless,
this study found that privacy and security are also important in
influencing consumers’ decision making. Such a discovery implies
that the existence of a wide gap in website exploitation by hotels
113
Standardized path coefficients t-value Results
.577 10.717 Supported
.369 6.455 Supported
.190 3.559 Supported
and firms from other industries. Also, it reinforced the repeatedly
identified evolving nature of website development. Hotel websites
at present have gone beyond for merely being a promotional chan-
nel. They become tools for real-time transactions and customer
retentions. Therefore, elements of privacy and security are equally
important and relevant as those of functionality and usability.
The wide adoption of Internet technologies by hotels has
attracted much attention from scholars, as evidenced by myr-
iad extant studies (Hashim et al., 2010). Connecting theories to
operations, these studies have investigated the effects of hotel
websites on consumer decision making and benefits of such
online presence to hoteliers (Noone and Mattila, 2009). This study
reaffirmed the clearly established relationship and found a sig-
nificantly strong influence from website quality upon consumers’
purchase intentions. This study also found the relationship between
perceived website quality and online purchase intention could
be mediated by eTrust, suggesting that website features arousing
consumers’ trust has a strong influence on consumers’ decisions.
This indicates the need for hotels to incorporate relational fea-
tures to form and maintain a trusting relationship with Internet
users.
As expected, eTrust positively influences the online booking
intentions. The results are consistent with similar studies in other
sectors of tourism and hospitality. For example, Wu and Chang
(2006) found that transaction trust leads to mutual transaction
intention between travel wholesalers and retailers. Kim et al.
(2009b) incorporated eTrust as an external variable into the tech-
nology acceptance model and found that eTrust was positively
associated with consumer intention to accept and reuse airline
B2C eCommerce websites. Recently, Lee and Wu (2011) found con-
sumers’ perceived trust would positively moderate relationships
among online service quality, value, and satisfaction.
More importantly, this study contributes to the literature body
by validating the propose that hotel websites could be used as a
relationship marketing tool. It complements past studies like Bai
et al. (2006) and Gan et al. (2006) in considering consumers whose
views are critical to website effectiveness (Law and Leung, 2000).
It extends two studies of Wang et al. (2014a) and Wang et al.
(2014b), the former comprehensively reviewed extant studies of
consumer trust in the tourism and hospitality industries while the
latter solved the operational problem of eTrust in a novel way
by empirically formulating a measurement scale. This study sur-
veyed Internet users, statistical results of which suggested that
perceived website quality is a strong predictor of eTrust, indicat-
ing a trusting relationship with customers could be established by
investing in website development. The verification of the media-
tion effect of eTrust in the relationship between website quality
and consumers’ online booking intentions further supported such
statement.
Effective hotel websites, as an increasingly important distri-
bution channel, offer unprecedented advantages to hotels’ online
businesses (Zafiropoulos and Vrana, 2006). Based on the results
of 20 individual interviews among leisure and business travelers,
HawkPartners (2012) found that among all online channels for trav-
elers researching and booking rooms, hotel websites are the most
often cited source. However, Bai et al. (2006) and Gan et al. (2006)
found that hotels have yet to fully utilize their website as a rela-
tionship marketing platform as features presented on the websites
114 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115
are still at the basic level. As consumers become more technologi-
cally savvy, they partake more in online purchase and have higher
requirements for hotels’ online presence. Therefore, to capture the
lucrative online business, hoteliers should allocate more resources
to develop websites into multifunctional platforms that would
meet consumer needs for information, design, and relationship.
6. Limitations and future research directions
Although this study has provided relevant and interesting
insights into online relationship marketing in the hotel industry,
additional research could be conducted to advance the results of
this study as some limitations remain. First, cross-sectional data
were used in this study. As a consequence, the influences of time
sequence upon the interrelationships discussed in this study are not
considered. The development process of eTrust could be dynamic as
consumers’ past experience with an entity like a hotel brand could
change the perceived trust level (McKnight et al., 1998; Kim and
Mattila, 2011). Therefore, the verified causal and mediating rela-
tionships in this study could be interpreted as a prior framework
for continuing research on this important issue of online relation-
ship marketing. This limitation could be overcome by a diachronic
study, which is to develop a time-series framework and to examine
the dynamic evolution of the causal relationships.
Second, a convenience sampling process was used for data col-
lection through an online agent whose database covered almost
the whole China. Some bias associated with the geographical struc-
ture of the samples could be unavoidable as Internet penetration
is closely related to economic development (Lu and Lu, 2004).
While the sampling was adequately suited to the present study’s
purpose, more in-depth information can be obtained if future
researchers collect data from more focused populations. Therefore,
future researchers should target a specific website or differentiate
between existing and potential customers to strengthen practical
implications. Another limitation also relates to sampling method
adopted in this study. As the same group of people who answered
questions of antecedent also responded items of consequence vari-
ables, the issue of common method variance may exist. To decrease
such effect, future researchers could use different formatted scale
to measure antecedent and consequent variables respectively.
Last but not least, the sample used for analysis was drawn
only from Mainland China, a growing popular tourist destination
in the world. However, interpretation of consumer trust should
also consider cultural contexts. In China, business environment is
significantly influenced by the culture of Confucianism, which has
resulted in a special management environment (Miao et al., 2011).
Therefore, the generalizability of the obtained findings could be
limited. Further research can thus expand this study by collecting
data from others countries with different business environments.
In addition to those research efforts to address limitations men-
tioned above, researchers could also integrate different website
evaluation tools into the proposed conceptual models like fuzzy
computing with words (Herrera-Viedma et al., 2006, 2007). Sim-
ilar to the website quality scale in this study, the method of
fuzzy computing with words is also user-centered. Differently,
this methodology is qualitative and more technical. Therefore, it
is anticipated that the means of linguistic evaluation judgments
would offer new perspectives for understanding how website cues
would influence the trusting relationship development.
References
Ajzen, I., Fishbein, M., 1980. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social
Behaviour. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., 1988. Structural equation modeling in practice: a
review and recommended two-step approach. Psychol. Bull. 103 (3), 411–423.
Ang, L., Dubelaar, C., Lee, B.C., 2001. To trust or not to trust? A model of Internet
trust from the customer’s point of view. Paper presented on the 14th Bled
E-Commerce Bled, Slovenia, Full text retrieved from: https://domino.fov.
uni-mb.si/proceedings.nsf/0/66085b27dfc836d6c1256e9f002e9c64/$FILE/03
Ang.pdf
Au Yeung, T., Law, R., 2004. Extending the modified heuristic usability evaluation
technique to chain and independent hotel websites. IJHM 23 (3), 307–313.
Ba, S., Pavlou, P.A., 2002. Evidence of the effect of trust building technology in elec-
tronic markets: price premiums and buyer behavior. MIS Q. 26 (3), 243–268.
Bai, B., Law, R., Wen, I., 2008. The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction
and purchase intentions: evidence from Chinese online visitors. IJHM 27 (3),
391–402.
Bai, B., Wu, C., Jang, S., 2006. Examining e-relationship marketing feature on hotel
websites. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 21 (2/3), 33–48.
Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y., 1988. On the evaluation of structural equation models. J. Acad.
Market. Sci. 16 (1), 74–94.
Barber, N., Taylor, D.C., Deale, C.S., 2010. Wine tourism, environmental concerns,
and purchase intention. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 27 (2), 146–165.
Baron, R.M., Kenny, D.A., 1986. The moderator–mediator variable distinction in
social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical consider-
ations. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 51 (6), 1173–1182.
Bart, Y., Shankar, V., Sultan, F., Urban, G.L., 2005. Are the drivers and role of online
trust the same for all web sites and consumers? A large-scale exploratory empir-
ical study. J. Mark. 69 (4), 133–152.
Brown, M., Pope, N., Voges, K., 2003. Buying or browsing? An exploration of shopping
orientations and online purchase intention. Eur. J. Mark. 37 (11/12), 1666–1684.
Caruana, A., 2004. The impact of switching costs on customer loyalty: a study among
corporate customers of mobile telephony. J. Target. Meas. Anal. Mark. 12 (3),
256–268.
Casaló, L., Flavián, C., Guinalíu, M., 2008. The role of perceived usability, reputation,
satisfaction and consumer familiarity on the website loyalty formation process.
CHB 24 (2), 325–345.
Chandon, P., Morwitz, V.G., Reinartz, W.J., 2005. Do intentions really predict
behavior? Self-generated validity effects in survey research. J. Mark. 69 (2),
1–14.
Chang, H.C., Chen, S.W., 2008. The impact of online store environment cues on pur-
chase intention: trust and perceived risk as a mediator. Online Inf. Rev. 32 (6),
818–841.
Chen, Y.H., Barnes, S., 2007. Initial trust and online buyer behavior. Ind. Manag. Data
Syst. 107 (1), 21–36.
Chung, T., Law, R., 2003. Developing a performance indicator for hotel websites. IJHM
22 (1), 119–125.
Corbitt, B.J., Thanasankit, T., Yi, H., 2003. Trust and e-commerce: a study of consumer
perceptions. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl. 2 (3), 203–215.
Cummins, R.A., Gullone, E. 2000. Why we should not use 5-point Likert scales:
The case for subjective quality of life measurement. Accessed on June 26, 2014
via www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/iwbg/correspondence/2002/Cummins
Gullone 2000 Likert Scales.doc
Das, T.K., Teng, B.S., 1998. Between trust and control: developing confidence in
partner cooperation in alliances. Acad. Manage. Rev. 23 (3), 491–512.
Davidow, M., 2000. The bottom line impact of organizational responses to customer
complaints. J. Hosp. Tour. Res. 24 (4), 473–490.
Day, G.S., 1969. A two dimensional concept of brand loyalty. J. Advert. Res. 9 (3),
29–35.
Dimoka, A., 2010. What does the brain tell us about trust and distrust? Evidence
from a functional neuroimaging study. MIS Quarterly 34 (2), 373–396.
Doney, P.M., Cannon, J.P., 1997. An examination of the nature of trust in buyer–seller
relationships. J. Mark. 61 (2), 35–51.
Fam, K.S., Foscht, T., Collins, R.D., 2004. Trust and the online relationship – an
exploratory study from New Zealand. Tour. Manag. 25 (2), 195–207.
Gan, L., Sim, C.J., Tan, H.L., Tan, J., 2006. Online relationship marketing by Singapore
hotel websites. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 20 (3/4), 1–18.
Gefen, D., 2002. Reflections on the dimensions of trust and trustworthiness among
online consumers. ACM Sigmis Database 33 (3), 38–53.
Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., Straub, D.W., 2003. Trust and TAM in online shopping: an
integrated model. MIS Q. 27 (1), 51–90.
Gilbert, D., Powell-Perry, J., 2001. Exploring developments in web based relationship
marketing within the hotel industry. J. Hosp. Leis. Mark. 9 (3–4), 141–159.
Golmohammadi, A.R., Jahandideh, B., Gorman, K.D.O., 2012. Booking online or not:
a decision rule approach. Tour. Manag. Perspect. 1 (2/3), 85–88.
Gupta, H., Jones, E., Coleman, P., 2004. How do Welsh tourism-SME websites
approach customer relationship management? In: Frew, A. (Ed.), Information
and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 2004. Springer-Wien, New York,
pp. 525–536.
Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., 2010. Multivariate data analysis, 7th
ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Hashim, N.H., Murphy, J., Purchase, S., O’Connor, P., 2010. Website and email adop-
tion by Malaysian hotels. IJHM 29 (1), 194–196.
Hausman, A.V., Siekpe, J.S., 2009. The effect of web interface features on consumer
online purchase intentions. J. Bus. Res. 62 (1), 5–13.
HawkPartners, 2012. HawkPartners, 2012 Hotel Channel Usage Study, Retrieved
from: http://www.hawkpartners.com/perspectives/hawkpartners-2012-hotel-
channel-usage-study/ (accessed 25.02.13).
Herrera-Viedma, E., Pasi, G., Lopez-Herrera, A.G., Porcel, C., 2006. Evaluating the
information quality of web sites: a methodology based on fuzzy computing with
words. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 57 (4), 538–549.
 L. Wang et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 108–115
Herrera-Viedma, E., Peis, E., Morales-del-Castillo, J.M., Alonso, S., Anaya, K., 2007.
A fuzzy linguistic model to evaluate the quality of web sites that store xml
documents. Int. J. Approx. Reason. 46 (1), 226–253.
Hoffman, D.L., Novak, T.P., Peralta, M., 1999. Building consumer trust online. CACM
42 (4), 80–85.
Ip, C., Law, R., Lee, H.A., 2012. The evaluation of hotel website functionality by fuzzy
analytic hierarchy process. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 29 (3), 263–278.
Jarvenpaa, S.L., Tractinsky, J., Vitale, M., 2000. Consumer trust in an Internet store.
Inf. Technol. Manag. 1 (1–2), 45–71.
Jeong, M., Oh, H., Gregoire, M., 2003. Conceptualizing web site quality and its con-
sequences in the lodging industry. IJHM 22 (2), 161–175.
Kalwani, M.U., Silk, A.J., 1982. On the reliability and predictive validity of purchase
intention measures. Mark. Sci. 3 (1), 243–285.
Kim, M.J., Chung, N., Lee, C.K., 2011. The effect of perceived trust on electronic com-
merce: shopping online for tourism products and services in South Korea. Tour.
Manag. 32 (2), 256–265.
Kim, T.T., Kim, W.G., Kim, H.B., 2009a. The effects of perceived justice on recovery
satisfaction, trust, word-of-mouth, and revisit intention in upscale hotels. Tour.
Manag. 30 (1), 51–62.
Kim, H.B., Kim, T.T., Shin, S.W., 2009b. Modeling roles of subjective norms and eTrust
in customers’ acceptance of airline B2C eCommerce websites. Tour. Manag. 30
(2), 266–277.
Kim, S., Mattila, A.S., 2011. An examination of electronic video clips in the context
of hotel Websites. IJHM 30 (3), 612–618.
Kline, R.B., 2005. Principles and practice of structural equation modeling, 2nd ed.
The Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Kramer, R.M., 1999. Trust and distrust in organizations: emerging perspectives,
enduring questions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 50 (1), 569–598.
Kumar, N., Scheer, L.K., Steenkamp, J.B.E., 1995. The effects of perceived interdepen-
dence on dealer attitudes. J. Mark. Res. 32 (3), 348–356.
Law, R., Hsu, C.H., 2006. Importance of hotel website dimensions and attributes:
perceptions of online browsers and online purchasers. J. Hosp. Tour. Res. 30 (3),
295–312.
Law, R., Leung, R., 2000. A study of airlines’ online reservation services on the Inter-
net. J. Travel Res. 39 (2), 202–211.
Lee, F.H., Wu, W.Y., 2011. Moderating effects of technology acceptance perspectives
on e-service quality formation: evidence from airline websites in Taiwan. Expert
Syst. Appl. 38 (6), 7766–7773.
Liebermann, Y., Stashevsky, S., 2002. Perceived risks as barriers to Internet and e-
commerce usage. Qual. Market Res.: Int. J. 5 (4), 291–300.
Lu, J., Lu, Z., 2004. Development, distribution and evaluation of online tourism ser-
vices in China. Electron. Commer. Res. 4 (3), 221–239.
MacKay, K., Vogt, C., 2012. Information technology in everyday and vacation con-
texts. Ann. Tour. Res. 39 (3), 1380–1401.
Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H., Schoorman, F.D., 1995. An integrative model of organizational
trust. Acad. Manage. Rev. 20 (3), 709–734.
McKnight, D.H., Cummings, L.L., Chervany, N.L., 1998. Initial trust formation in new
organizational relationships. Acad. Manage. Rev. 23 (3), 473–490.
McKnight, D.H., Choudhury, V., Kacmar, C., 2002. Developing and validating trust
measures for e-commerce: an integrative typology. Inf. Syst. Res. 13 (3),
334–359.
Miao, L., Adler, H., Xu, X., 2011. A stakeholder approach to expatriate management:
perceptions of hotel expatriate managers in China. IJHM 30 (3), 530–541.
Moorman, C., Deshpande, R., Zaltman, G., 1993. Factors affecting trust in market
research relationships. J. Mark. 57 (1), 81–101.
Morgan, R.M., Hunt, S.D., 1994. The commitment-trust theory of relationship mar-
keting. J. Mark. 58 (3), 20–38.
Noone, B.M., Mattila, A.S., 2009. Hotel revenue management and the Internet: the
effect of price presentation strategies on customers’ willingness to book. IJHM
28 (2), 272–279.
115
Nunnally, J., 1978. Psychometric Methods. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Pavlou, P.A., 2003. Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: integrating trust
and risk with the technology acceptance model. Int. J. Electron. Commer. 7 (3),
69–103.
Pavlou, P.A., Liang, H., Xue, Y., 2007. Understanding and mitigate uncertainty in
online exchange relationships: a principal agent perspective. MIS Q. 31 (1),
105–136.
Peter, J.P., 1981. Construct validity: a review of basis issues and marketing practices.
J. Mark. Res. 18 (2), 133–145.
Preston, C.C., Colman, A.M., 2000. Optimal number of response categories in rating
scales: reliability, validity, discriminating power, and respondent preferences.
Acta Psychol. (Amst.) 104 (1), 1–15.
Ranganathan, C., Ganapathy, S., 2002. Key dimensions of business-to-consumer web
sites. Inf. Manag. 39 (6), 457–465.
Schmidt, S., Cantallops, A.S., dos Santo, C.P., 2008. The characteristics of hotel
websites and their implications for website effectiveness. IJHM 27 (4),
504–516.
Shelat, B., Egger, F.N., 2002. What makes people trust online gambling sites?
Proceedings of CHI 2002. ACM Press, Minneapolis, USA, pp. 852–853.
Southmoney.com, 2014. US dollar exchange rate to RMB, From: http://www.
southmoney.com/huilv/meiyuanhuilv/201308/590802.html (accessed
26.07.14).
Sparks, B.A., Browning, V., 2011. The impact of online reviews on hotel booking
intentions and perception of trust. Tour. Manag. 32 (6), 1310–1323.
Sultan, F., Urban, G., Shankar, V., Bart, Y., 2002. Determinants and role of trust in e-
business: a large scale empirical study, From: http://ssrn.com/abstract=380404
(accessed 30.06.14).
Tan, Y.H., Thoen, W., 2001. Toward a generic model of trust for electronic commerce.
Int. J. Electron. Commer. 5 (2), 61–74.
Tse, T.S., 2013. The marketing role of the Internet in launching a hotel: the case of
hotel ICON. J. Hosp. Mark. Manag. 22 (8), 895–908.
Van der Heijden, H., Verhagen, T., Creems, M., 2003. Understanding online purchase
intention: contribution from technology and trust perspective. Eur. J. Inf. Syst.
12 (1), 41–48.
Vitolins, M.Z., Rand, C.S., Rapp, S.R., Ribisl, P.M., Sevick, M.A., 2000. Measuring
adherence to behavioral and medical interventions. Control Clin. Trials 21 (5),
188–194.
Wang, S., Beatty, S., Foxx, W., 2004. Signaling the trustworthiness of small online
retailers. J. Interact. Mark. 18 (1), 53–69.
Wang, L., Law, R., Hung, K., Guillet, B.D., 2014a. Consumer trust in tourism
and hospitality: a review of the literature. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 21,
1–9.
Wang, L., Law, R., Hung, K., Guillet, B.D., 2014b. Scale development of perceived
eTrust in the hotel industry: the perspective of Internet users. IJHM 43, 35–46,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.08.005.
Wu, J.J., Chang, Y.S., 2006. Effect of transaction trust on e-commerce relationships
between travel agencies. Tour. Manag. 27 (6), 1253–1261.
Xie, H., Miao, L., Kuo, P.J., Lee, B.Y., 2011. Consumers’ responses to ambivalent online
hotel reviews: the role of perceived source credibility and pre-decisional dispo-
sition. IJHM 30 (1), 178–183.
Yoon, S.J., 2002. The antecedents and consequences of trust in online purchase deci-
sions. Interact. Mark. 16 (2), 47–63.
Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L., Parasuraman, A., 1996. The behavioral consequences of
service quality. J. Mark. 60 (2), 31–46.
Zucker, L.G., 1986. Production of trust: institutional sources of economic structure,
1840–1920. Res. Organ. Behav. 8, 53–111.
Zafiropoulos, C., Vrana, V., 2006. A framework for the evaluation of hotel websites:
the case of Greece. Inf. Technol. Tour. 8 (3–4), 239–254.