The use of mobile applications for travel booking: impacts of application quality and brand trust

Abstract

The increasing use of mobile applications by travellers and the high adaption of tourism companies into this new contact and sales platform, made it necessary to comprehensively investigate the mobile application users’ behaviours. This research combines the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to develop a theoretical background in examining travel booking behaviour of mobile application users. The conceptual model suggests that mobile application quality (MAQ) directly affects perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) which influence the intention to use (IU) mobile applications. Moreover, the offline brand trust (BT) has been hypothesised as a moderator between PEOU and PU’s impacts on IU mobile applications. Analyses results indicated that system and service quality dimensions of MAQ significantly affect IU mobile application via PEOU and PU. Moreover, offline BT had both direct and moderator influences on the formation of IU mobile application. The study findings contributed to the theory in understanding mobile application users’ behaviours and suggested valuable managerial strategies in the m-commerce context.