Analysing the importance of online trust on intention to use Airbnb by consumer groups

111 Pages·2017·0.9 MB·English

Analysing theimportance ofonlinetrust onintention touseAirbnbby consumer
groupsdifferentiated byrisk propensityand priorexperience
SiyuChen
Adissertationsubmitted to Auckland University ofTechnology
inpartial fulfilment of therequirements for thedegree of
Master inInternational Hospitality Management(MIHM)
2017
SchoolofHospitality andTourism
Primary Supervisor: Dr. BartNeuts
Secondary Supervisor: MoniqueBrocx
Table of Contents
ListofFigures..................................................................................................................v
ListofTables....................................................................................................................v
ListofAbbreviations......................................................................................................vi
Attestation ofAuthorship.............................................................................................vii
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................viii
Abstract...........................................................................................................................ix
Chapter1: Introduction..................................................................................................1
1.1Research Background..............................................................................................1
1.1.1Commercial homes as tourismaccommodations..............................................1
1.1.2New onlinetransactioneconomies....................................................................2
1.1.3Airbnb: supply and demand perspectives.........................................................3
1.2Studyaim.................................................................................................................6
1.3Structureofresearch................................................................................................7
Chapter2: Literature Review........................................................................................9
2.1Intentionto use.........................................................................................................9
2.2Onlinetrustresearch..............................................................................................11
2.2.1Trust conceptualisation andmultidimensional trust.......................................11
2.2.2Multidimensional trust in different markets....................................................14
2.2.3Multidimensional trust in Airbnb platform and Airbnb hosts.........................16
2.2.4Hypotheses 1,2,and 3....................................................................................19
2.3PriorAirbnb experience.........................................................................................20
2.3.1Familiarity-predictability within trustprocess................................................20
2.3.2Hypothesis 4....................................................................................................22
2.4Riskpropensity......................................................................................................22
2.4.1Onlinetrust and perceived risk.......................................................................22
2.4.2Risk avoiders and risk takers...........................................................................24
2.4.3Hypothesis 5....................................................................................................25
2.5Summary................................................................................................................26
Chapter3: Methodology...............................................................................................28
3.1Research Paradigm................................................................................................28
3.2Research Instruments.............................................................................................29
3.2.1Survey Method................................................................................................29
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3.2.2Instrument Development.................................................................................30
3.3Samplingmethod...................................................................................................33
3.4Datacollection.......................................................................................................34
3.5Ethical issues..........................................................................................................36
3.6Dataanalysis..........................................................................................................36
3.6.1Preliminary data analysis................................................................................37
3.6.2.Factor Analysis...............................................................................................38
3.7Summary................................................................................................................43
Chapter4: Results.........................................................................................................45
4.1Characteristics ofsurvey participants....................................................................45
4.1.1Demographiccharacteristics ofthe respondents.............................................46
4.1.2Behavioural demographics oftherespondents...............................................49
4.1.3Characteristics ofprior Airbnb experiences (of 152respondents)..................50
4.2Descriptivestatistics forthemodel constructs (of152respondents)....................51
4.3Factoranalysis.......................................................................................................53
4.3.1Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)..................................................................53
4.3.2Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).............................................................55
4.4Identifying theeffects ofbeliefbeliefs ontheintention touse: Answering
Hypotheses 1,2,and 3.................................................................................................58
4.5Identifying variations inthebase model:The influence ofmodel groups............60
4.5.1Exploratory ANOVA tests ontheeffects of risk propensity andprior
experience................................................................................................................60
4.5.2The influenceof priorAirbnb experience: Answering Hypothesis 4.............61
4.5.3The influenceof risk propensity: Answering Hypothesis 5............................63
4.5.4Combiningrisk propensity and priorAirbnb experience................................61
4.6Summary................................................................................................................65
Chapter5: Discussion....................................................................................................67
5.1Airbnb and theNew Zealand context:Current and future use..............................67
5.2Onlinetrustbeliefs towards usingAirbnb.............................................................69
5.3ModelConstructs and relevant measures..............................................................70
5.3.1Identifying the effects of trustbeliefs onintentionto use...............................70
5.3.2Identifying variations in thebase model:Theinfluence ofpriorAirbnb
experience................................................................................................................71
5.3.3Identifying variations in thebase model:Theinfluence ofrisk propensity....71
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5.3.4The combined influence ofrisk propensity and priorAirbnb experience......72
5.4Summary................................................................................................................73
Chapter6: Conclusionandstudyimplications...........................................................74
6.1Theoretical implication..........................................................................................74
6.2Managerial implications........................................................................................75
6.3Limitations.............................................................................................................78
6.4Further research.....................................................................................................80
6.5Summary................................................................................................................81
References......................................................................................................................82
Appendices.....................................................................................................................92
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Listof Figures
Figure 2.1Web trustmodel.............................................................................................12
Figure 2.2Research model with path coefficients..........................................................21
Figure 2.3Research Proposed Model..............................................................................26
Figure 4.1Revised CFAModel.......................................................................................56
Figure 4.2Test results for constructed data.....................................................................60
Figure 4.3Test results for users......................................................................................62
Figure 4.4Test results for non-users...............................................................................62
Figure 4.5Test results for risk avoiders..........................................................................64
Figure 4.6Test results for risk takers..............................................................................64
Listof Tables
Table2.1Comparison of trustin thevendor and peer underdifferent fields.................16
Table3.1Constructs measurement..................................................................................31
Table3.2Recommended criteria for reliability and validity..........................................41
Table3.3Recommended criteria for goodness offit indices inSEM.............................42
Table4.1Demographic characteristics oftotal sampleand constructed subsample......47
Table4.2Chi-square test for agegroup..........................................................................48
Table4.3Chi-square test for singleethnic group............................................................48
Table4.4Behavioural characteristics oftotal sampleand constructed subsample.........49
Table4.5PriorAirbnb experience oftotal valid respondents.........................................51
Table4.6Descriptivestatistics for latent variables and dependent variables.................53
Table4.7Communalities and rotated component matrix in EFA...................................54
Table4.8Construct reliability and convergent validityofrevised CFA model.............57
Table4.9Bivariate Correlations Between Constructs and square root of AVE.............58
Table4.10Goodness offit statisticsof revised CFA model...........................................58
Table4.11Significance ofregression coefficients: Constructed data............................59
Table4.12Significant patterns tointention to useAirbnb..............................................61
Table4.13Significant patterns toonlinetrust beliefs regarding model groups..............61
Table4.14Significance ofregression coefficients: Users versus non-users...................62
Table4.15Significance ofregression coefficients: Riskavoiders and risk takers.........63
Table4.16Significance ofregression coefficients: Riskpropensity and priorexperience
.........................................................................................................................................65
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ListofAbbreviations
AMOS: analysis ofmoment structures
ANOVA: analysis ofvariance
AVE: average variance extracted
B2B: business-to-business
B2C: business-to-customer
B&B: bedand breakfast
C2C:customer-to-customer
CFA: confirmatory factoranalysis
CR:compositereliability
EFA: explanatory factor analysis
P2P:peer-to-peer
SPSS:statistical packagefor thesocial sciences
SSM:snowball samplingmethod
VC: virtualcommunity
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Attestation ofAuthorship
“Ihereby declare that thissubmissionis myown work and that, to thebest of my
knowledge andbelief, it contains nomaterial previously published orwritten byanother
person (except where explicitlydefined in theacknowledgements), normaterial which
toa substantial extent has been submittedfor theaward ofanyother degree or diploma
ofauniversity or otherinstitution ofhigherlearning.”
Signature
Date
vii
Acknowledgments
Taking thisopportunity, Iwould liketo express mysincere appreciation tomany people
fortheir kindhelp and encouragement.
Iam greatly indebted to myprimary supervisor, Bart Neuts, for his constant guidance
and support, perceptiveadvice and suggestions,and patient encouragement throughout
mydissertation programme. Withouthis supervision, Icannot stay motivated in
completing thiswork. Iwould also liketo sincerely expressmy gratitude to mysecond
supervisor, MoniqueBrocx, forher constructive advice and critiques throughout my
research. And heartfelt appreciation to Warren Goodsirfor suggesting Bart and
Moniqueas my supervisors.
Iwould also liketo thank thelecturers and myclassmates who have assisted my study
inthe Masterprogramme in International Hospitality Management at AUT.And special
thanks to Daline’s proofreading company and Suzanne Hardy for proofreading my
dissertation writing.
Iwould liketo extendmy warmest thanks tomyfamily members who have supported
meemotionally and financially duringmy overseas study, and my friends that have
encouraged metostrive towards my goal all thetime. Myappreciation towards them is
indescribable bywords.
Lastly, Iwould liketo acknowledge therespondents who volunteered to complete the
survey and potential participants who were thoughtful toassist mewith questionnaire
propagation.Moreover, they provided useful advice forthecurrent research. Without
theirgenerous assistance, thisdissertation would notbe ableto makecontribution
academically and practically. Igenuinely hopethat they find thestudy’s findings
interesting and useful.
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Abstract
Airbnb is a peer-to-peer platform that enables hosts to provide private accommodation
to travellers. The development of Airbnb attracted this study to investigate the usage
intention of potential consumers, especially individuals who reside in New Zealand.
Moreover, given the particularities of the peer-to-peer economy, online trust has been
seen as a high potential driver – or barrier – of Airbnb use. Previous studies on online
trust have found that the construct consists of different dimensions, particularly the
ability belief, benevolence belief, and integrity belief. Adopting a three-dimension
online trust construct, it could further be hypothesised that prior Airbnb experience and
personal risk propensity couldhave an effect ontheentireonline-trust-belief construct.
The purpose of this research was thus to observe how multidimensional online trust
influences consumer intention to useAirbnb under individual risk propensities and prior
Airbnb experiences. By adopting a model tested in the business-to-customer
environment for many times, this dissertation attempted to fill a gap in the existing
literature onP2Ppeer-to-peer market.
Aquantitative methodology was adopted, delivering an online questionnaire through the
snowball sampling method with the direct environment of the research and the
supervisors as a starting point.Atotal of 184 responses were collected from people over
16 years old who reside in New Zealand. Since 32 respondents specified they had not
previously heard of Airbnb, 152 responses were ultimately used to test the constructed
model. SPSS 22.0 and AMOS were used for data analysis and hypotheses tests, using
frequency tables, descriptive statistics, ANOVA-tests, exploratory and confirmatory
factoranalysis,and linearregression.
The research findings firstly revealed the potential for Airbnb to further develop the
New Zealand travel market. Close to half of the 152 respondents in this study had
already used Airbnb and an additional number of people showed interest in using
Airbnb for future travels. The conceptual model, which was originally established in a
business-to-customer environment, was validated in the Airbnb context as well, with
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results revealing that ability, benevolence and integrity beliefs of online trust all
significantly impact the intention to use Airbnb, with benevolence being the strongest
predictor. These relationships between online trust beliefs and intention to use Airbnb
were influenced by prior experience and individual risk propensity,as was hypothesised.
Risk avoiders’intention to useAirbnb was affected by benevolence and integrity belief,
and this was true for both priorAirbnb users as respondents withoutAirbnb experience.
However, the situation was different for risk takers. Risk takers without prior experience
were only influenced by the ability belief, indicating that risk-taking individuals value
Airbnb accommodation’s functionalities instead of intangible trust aspects when
intending to use Airbnb. For risk takers with prior Airbnb experience, no trust-aspects
affected theirusage intentions.
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