Servicescape in Digital Environment

SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES MSC IN LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Servicescape in Digital environment

Impact of e-servicescape dimensions on perception of website service quality, customer overall satisfaction, customer return intention and customer loyalty: Application in lodging website

Konstantia Kechagia March, 2018

Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES ...... 3 LIST OF FIGURES ...... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 5 ABSTRACT ...... 6 CHAPTER 1-INTRODUCTION ...... 7 1.2 The concept of Intangibility in services ...... 8 1.3 Perceived risk related with intangible nature of services ...... 10 1.4 Internet presence-The emergence of Internet in the Hotel industry ...... 11 1.5 Greek hotels ...... 13 1.6 E-commerce on a hotel website: Benefits-Consequences ...... 14 1.7 Website design and Marketing ...... 15 1.8 Hotel website management and Marketing ...... 16 1.9 Online booking channels ...... 18 CHAPTER 2-LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 20 2.1 Physical representation: Serviscape-Definition-Dimensions ...... 20 2.2 E-Servicescape: Definition-Role ...... 22 2.2.1 E- Servicescape dimensions ...... 23 2.3 Classic Servicescape concept vs. e-Servicescape ...... 26 2.4 Website elements ...... 27 2.4.1 Content & Design of Websites ...... 27 2.4.3 Website personality ...... 30 2.4.4 First impression of a website ...... 30 2.5 Website quality- Definition- Dimensions ...... 31 2.5.1 Online decision making ...... 33 2.5.2 Measurement of service quality delivery through websites ...... 35 2.5.3 Aesthetics ...... 36 2.5.4 Usability ...... 41 2.5.5 Interactivity ...... 42 2.5.6 Useful information ...... 43 2.5.7 Personalization/ Customization ...... 44 2.5.8 Accessibility ...... 45 2.5.9 Privacy/ Security ...... 45 2.6 Customer satisfaction ...... 48

2.7 Customer Intention to Return-Retention ...... 50 2.8 Customer Loyalty ...... 51 2.9 Interrelationships ...... 53 2.9.1 Website service quality-customer satisfaction...... 53 2.9.2 Customer satisfaction-customer loyalty ...... 54 2.10 A Conceptual Framework ...... 55 2.11 Georgalas Sun Beach Resort: subject of research application ...... 56 CHAPTER 3-RESEARCH ...... 59 3.1 Methodology ...... 59 3.2 Sample ...... 59 3.3 Validity and reliability of research ...... 60 3.4 Survey Instrument Development ...... 61 3.5 Data collection ...... 66 3.6 Data Analysis...... 67 CHAPTER 4-RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...... 79 4.1 Discussion of results ...... 79 4.2 Implications of the study ...... 81 4.3 Limitations of the study ...... 82 4.4 Future Research ...... 83 REFERENCES ...... 84 Appendix A-The Web based Survey Questionnaire ...... 104 Appendix B-Cronbach‘s alpha tests ...... 108

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Colors and attributed meanings, Kyrning 2007...... 39 Table 2: Hypotheses of conceptual theoretical framework ...... 55 Table 3: Demographic characteristics of the population...... 62 Table 4: Travelling habits and online booking experiences of participants ...... 63 Table 5: Measurement of items of the survey ...... 65 Table 6: Correlation coefficient matrix of variables ...... 69 Table 7: Results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis ...... 72 Table 8: E-servicescape dimensions are positively associated with perceived website service quality of a hotel owned website...... 73 Table 9: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer‘s overall satisfaction...... 74 Table 10: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website...... 75 Table 11: Overall customer satisfaction of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website...... 75 Table 12: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website...... 76 Table 13: Customer return intention to a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website...... 77 Table 14: Hotel website service quality is positively influencing the customer‘s overall satisfaction...... 77 Table 15: Customer overall satisfaction of the use of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty...... 78 Table 16: Hypotheses test results...... 78

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Major changes in servicescape design by David Ballantyne & Elin Nilsson, Journal of Services Marketing, 2017 ...... 27 Figure 2: The research framework that identifies the relevant aspects of the content and the design of Web sites, Huizingh, 2000...... 29 Figure 3: Operational definitions of user criteria for site design, Abels et al, 1999...... 32 Figure 4: A framework of e-servicescape dimensions affecting customer loyalty...... 56

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It certainly has been a very difficult but undoubtedly a blessed journey for me to complete my dissertation. I have to confess that this paper would not have been finished without help from the people around me and their enormous support during the course of my postgraduate program and working on the dissertation. I am grateful to the God, who allows these wonderful people being healthy and bringing joy in my days and nights. I send my love and many thanks to my mother, my father and my brother who always trust me and support me in whatever decisions I make. I want to thank also my old friends who have been supportive to me in this trip and my new friends that I gained in class and Ι was lucky to share our thoughts, concerns and hard work together. I want to thank my boyfriend who stood by me all this time with warmness, moral support and his sincere prayers for me. I sincerely thank Ms. Christina Boutsouki who has guided me with clear directions and wise advice, always in a calm and stable manner. Every time I had knocked on Ms. Boutsouki‘s door looking for mentoring, I was able to find solutions when I walked out of her door. I also appreciate Ms. Kostoula‘s Margariti help for her warm smiling attitude towards me and her guidance in my research part, without which the results would never be the same. In addition, I would be thankful to all the teachers of the program, Mr. Mantas, Mr. Zikopoulos, Mr. Diamantidis, Mr. Andronikidis, Mr. Christou- Varsakelis, Ms. Manthou, Mr. Papaggelou and Mr. Tsadiras who all taught me precious lessons not only academically but they also tried to see all the good in me.

ABSTRACT This study rigorously reviewed previously reported research in the e- servicescape to conclude with six major attributes. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between e-servicescape dimensions and constructs of perception of website quality, customer satisfaction, return intention, and customer loyalty. The associations between the aforementioned dimensions and constructs were examined and accordingly, eight hypotheses established these associations.

In summary, the findings of this study provided evidence that e-servicescape dimensions were directly associated with customer perceived website service quality dimensions, customer retention, customer overall satisfaction and customer loyalty of a hotel owned website. These findings may enable hospitality management to establish and implement customer-oriented marketing strategies to increase customer perceived service quality on a website, which will enhance their overall satisfaction, return intentions and customer loyalty. Hospitality management should put considerable efforts to determine what practices of a hotel website will be useful for customers to make them return to the website. Based upon these findings, it is believed that hospitality management can design its website to accommodate its customers‘ expectations.

CHAPTER 1-INTRODUCTION

Customers for many years now used to purchase products and services in shops or by telephone ordering. By the end of the last century shopping over the Internet was added as a new important distribution channel for commerce settings. As a result, organizations noticed the importance of attracting customers on the Internet; the interface is one part of it. From Marketing‘s perspective, the field named servicescape is highly related with the e-servicescape as a key concept affecting customers‘ experience. According to the growing commerce of goods and services offered over the Internet, the concept of e-servicescape has been developed and has gained interest.

A servicescape is a ‗‗built environment,‘‘ as opposed to a natural one, which impacts both customers and employees and their interactions with the way it is designed to enhance or inhibit the flow of different activities in service settings. Websites are also built environments that affect customers and their interaction with the firm through its features and design; as a result, framing the website as an e- servicescape the characteristics that depict the traditional servicescape may have meaningful application in an online context.

Successful in using e-commerce firms have already realized that the key determinants of success or failure are not merely website presence and low price but also include the website service quality. Many researchers concluded that e-serviscape dimensions are of critical importance in achieving the overall website service quality, customer satisfaction, customer‘s return intention and customer loyalty. Without customer loyalty, even the best-designed e-business model will soon fall apart. In their quest to develop a loyal customer base, most companies try their best to continually satisfy their customers and develop long-run relationships with them.

Hospitality corporations have also responded to the opportunities offered by e- commerce by developing websites to take full advantage of the practical and creative business uses of the Internet. The use of websites in hospitality organizations goes beyond simply promoting and selling products to customers. The adoption of websites also provides the hospitality organizations with important business opportunities and competitive edges.

1.1 Service context

Since today much of research has been conducted in order to define the term ―service‖ and explain the significant role of services in economies. ―A service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature that normally, but not necessarily, take place in interactions between customers and service employees and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to customers‘ problems‖ (Gronroos, 1990). On account of the intangible aspect of services -as services are defined as ―performances, deeds and efforts that cannot been seen, tasted or touched in the same manner as tangible goods‖ (Hoffman & Bateson, 2010)-the orientation of development of Service Dominant Logic theory can show the importance of the service provision that must be followed by companies in order to be driven in success. Service Dominant Logic represents a ―shift from an emphasis on the exchange of operand resources, usually tangible, inert resources, to an emphasis on operant resources, dynamic resources that act upon other resources. Goods involved in the exchange of services are viewed only as mechanisms for the service provision‖. This radical view points out that products are valued for the service they provide and that value perceived is the value of the service and not the good itself (Lusch & Vargo, 2008). ―Thus, it is imperative to recognize that services are not peripheral activities but rather integral parts of society. They are central to a functioning and healthy economy and lie at the heart of that economy. Finally, the service sector not only facilitates but also makes possible the goods-producing activities of the manufacturing sectors. Services are the crucial force for today‘s change towards a global economy‖ (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2011).

1.2 The concept of Intangibility in services

According to Klein and Lewis (1985), intangibility is the only characteristic common to all services and in fact shows clearly the differentiation of services and material goods. Kotler and Bloom (1984) argue that ―services are intangible. They cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard or smelled before being bought‖ and according to this argument intangibility refers to the total lack of perception of the service's characteristics before it is performed. Few years later (1990), Kotler defines that ―a service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially

intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything‖. Services differ from products also in other ways: they are intangible, perishable; they lack of consistency, and need participation of a service recipient to obtain the service. Pertaining to these characteristics, service marketers face great challenges as they may be creative in the development of new service packages or adjust and refresh the existing ones in promoting, pricing, and distributing these services. The essential need for these actions, of course is the need for differentiating the services from competitors (Reddy et al, 1993; Gilmore, 2003).

Conforming to a cursory review in previous researches about quality of services leading to the opinion that tangible environmental cues are relatively unimportant; tangible service environment had no effect on customers‘ overall quality perceptions of a telephone company, two insurance companies, and two banks (Parasuraman et al., 1991); tangible aspects of the service environment had no effect on customers‘ quality perceptions of pest control and dry-cleaning services, and had only limited influence on quality perceptions for banks and fast-food restaurants (Cronin & Taylor, 1992); tangible cues of department stores do influence customers‘ service quality perceptions, although to a lesser degree than do the intangible service factors (Dabholkar et al., 1996). The reason why researchers came up with these results mainly is: research was focused on service encounters of short duration (i.e. banking, assurance, dry cleaning, fast food restaurants and public utilities) which are used mainly for utilitarian reasons and customers perception of service quality derives basically from intangible factors as reliability responsiveness, assurance, empathy and less on tangible cues of physical surrounding.

Within the hotel industry, hotel visitors evaluate the service quality based on a variety of elements that they meet during their stay (Pizam & Ellis, 1999; Wilkins et al., 2007). It is proven that customer satisfaction is affected by both tangible and intangible attributes of service quality (Ekinci et al., 2008; Torres & Kline, 2013), with intangible cues such as assurance, customer service and empathy to be related with the service performance whereas tangible elements (e.g. appearance of hotel personnel and room cleanliness of rooms) to be related with physical service environment of hotels (Ramanathan & Ramanathan, 2011).

Service failure is asserted to influence the customers‘ satisfaction, their perception of service quality and their future behavioral intentions (Tarn, 1999; Han & Back, 2007); hence, the recognition of both tangible and intangible aspects that may enhance customer satisfaction and ensure customer loyalty is important for hotels (Berezina et al, 2016).

1.3 Perceived risk related with intangible nature of services

The outcome of the characteristic of intangibility drives consumer's perception of quality, as it is often based on tangible evidence and price rather than the core service (Zeithaml, 1981). Services, then, are associated with higher risk and uncertainty for consumers. In his research, Zeithaml (1981) assigned that perceived risks may originate from the lack of information for the service in the pre-purchase phase, the uncertainty of the outcome and consequences of the service purchased (non-standardized) and the lack of guaranties and warranties. In order to keep the perceived risk in low levels, providing knowledge to consumers and increase their involvement in the service provision moderates the association of intangibility and perceived risk (Laroche et al, 2003). Among others, the strength of the brand (brand loyalty), salesperson‘s advice, celebrity endorsement, using special offers, providing guarantees and warranties are considered to be perceived risk relievers according to Mitchell & Greatorex (1993).

Furthermore, the perception of customers for the service quality offered may be formed and the risks perceived may be eliminated by ―tangibilising the intangibles‖. The service customer is exposed only in a limited number of cues because of the intangible nature of services. In numerous cases, the only existing cues available are the service‘s price and the physical facilities (Zeithaml, 1981). Tarn (2005) has discussed the issue of tangibilization extensively. He proposed that tangibilization refers to conducting a set of marketing-based activities or using tangible cues or generalizing a corporate image to enhance a consumer‘s sense of tangibility i.e. persuading customers appreciatively towards the firm via improving service quality and establishing the image of the improved quality in the customer's mind. By separating the tangibilization into two categories namely physical tangibility and mental tangibility, he resulted in the following inference: When realizing physical

tangibility consumers pay more attention to physical representation than they do to process visibility and encounter performance, while when perceiving mental tangibility consumers pay more attention to word-of-mouth effect and information frequency than they do to ranking.

1.4 Internet presence-The emergence of Internet in the Hotel industry

According to United Nations and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of United Nations, the Internet statistics demonstrate the expansion of global population using the Internet measured until the end December, 2017; within the past two decades internet users all over the world grew 1,052%, as 54.4% of people in all world regions use it; particularly in Europe, 85.2% of the population are internet users and specifically in 2016, 58.3% of them had purchased products online. In 2019, this figure is expected to grow to 63%.

During the last decade, the use of the Internet has become a thoroughgoing part of daily life as it has grown exponentially while using the Internet people may communicate in a global level, get access to information and be entertained (Anderson et al, 2017); Internet contains many network services, most apparently mobile apps such as social media apps, the World Wide Web, electronic mail, multiplayer online games, Internet telephony, and file sharing services. The Internet embraces the business world for many years now, adopted by firms from all the industries (computer manufacture, retailing, pharmaceutical, food, publishing, academic, finance and banking, hospitality, etc.) adjusted to their capabilities and needs (Soh et al, 1997). Reich (2000) argued that that technology is driving globalization. Lituchy et al (2008) discussed that in near future all companies will be e-commerce or they won‘t be in business anymore, though this may be a harsh statement; once Internet made all companies global looking at e-commerce opportunities firms, customers and suppliers are connected in a virtual invisible world.

Particularly in the Tourism and Hotel industry, the entry of new technologies have influenced the way tourism organizations conduct their business, compete among others and distribute their service offerings in the marketplace (Buhalis & Licata, 2002). The World Wide Web (WWW) arises due to the interconnections

between businesses and individuals via Electronic Data Interchange systems and soon becomes a powerful search engine while the birth of websites turned the Web into a rich information resource (Chu et al, 2007). Progressively, people nowadays search and book online, thus they desire easiness in access to firms‘ services, flexibility and specialization in their purchases and interaction and direct communication with tourism organizations instantly and inexpensively. As a result, companies need to adopt innovative methods for enhancing their competitiveness. Websites can facilitate two major functions: first, as a source of information for customers in order to decide for the purchase and second, as a marketing tool to facilitate online transactions (Garces et al, 2004).

The hotel industry has adopted the use of the web and numerous of hotels have canonized their internet presence with websites with the aim to provide information and promote their offerings to customers globally and finally gain a share in the online market by minimizing cost and time searching for them (Zafiropoulos et al, 2006). Internet as an alternative distribution channel that can be compatible with existing channels (Rayman-Bacchus & Molina, 2001) forced hospitality corporations to respond in new opportunities offered by e-commerce by creating and developing websites to take full advantage of the Internet. The website presence of a hospitality company goes beyond simply promoting and selling products to customers; business opportunities and competitive edges are being provided to hospitality firms. Online reservation methods can be beneficial both for hospitality firms and customers as reduced costs and real-time information provision are the results for both parties (Kim & Kim, 2004). Cobanoglu (2001) suggested that business travelers still use travel agents as their favorite hotel reservation resource followed by toll free reservation numbers, and then calling the hotel directly.

Notwithstanding, as Wan (2003) pointed out, the advantages of adopting the online aspect is illusory as ―doing business on the Internet does not necessarily mean competitive advantage‖. Thus, a business website should be carefully designed and easy to navigate with the aim of practice marketing and advertising techniques in an inexpensive and effective way and increase their competitiveness in the marketplace irrespective of the size of the company (Baloglu & Pekcan, 2006).

1.5 Greek hotels

Tourism is a vital industry for the countries in the Mediterranean (Falzon, 2003). Several countries in the region have relied primarily on tourism to foster the level of their economic growth and development. According to annual Conde Nast Traveller awards, that is widely regarded as the ―Oscars‖ of the tourism industry, for the year 2017 Greece was rated to has the number one best islands destination in the world and is second best country in the world for tourists among the best tourist destinations.

Research pertaining to the information richness in Greek hotel websites is crucial because of the great importance of tourism activities in Greece as well as the potential of the Internet as a moderator for additional and advantageous marketing tool and distribution channel which facilitates the empowerment of hotel operators (Sigala, 2003b). The results that Sigala (2003b) formed after conducting her research are that most hotels could do much more for exploiting the Internet as they simply use the Internet as a publishing medium; many hotels and were simply transferring their existing business models in the Internet; only those hotels that have an extended, as well as sophisticated Internet marketing mix gain the advantages of the Internet.

Zafiropoulos et al in their research made in 2006 among 798 hotel websites concluded with the view that provision of facilities and contact information is the main use of hotel websites in Greece, thus websites are used as advertisements. They have proved that although the online booking and reservations are the main features provided by hotel websites, only very few of total hotel webpages participated in their study proved to provide these functions; Greek hoteliers lack of knowledge in use of Internet full potential and sophisticated techniques and as a result they do not take full advantage of online reservation capabilities and hotel complementary facilities information. As a result, they do not meet in ultimate levels the customers‘ needs and demands, and the overall efficiency of websites is not being elevated. As a result, only if strategic plans with the collaboration of state organizations, hotel companies and technical collaborating companies under is required to promote hotel presence on the web.

1.6 E-commerce on a hotel website: Benefits-Consequences

Kalakota and Whinston (1997) defined e-commerce from different perspectives. Among different facets they discussed, they broadly described e-commerce as the new form of business execution that generates new opportunities promoting business value. Improvements occurred from e-commerce via interconnected networks are higher performance effectiveness (higher quality provided, higher customer satisfaction and greater management decision making), eminent economic efficiency (lower costs) and greater rapidity in exchange (higher speed, actual time interactions). The expansion of e-commerce is based on the fact that nowadays more and more businesses are using networks and perform their transactions electronically with new, more cost effective and time-efficient ways for working with customers, suppliers, and development partners (Gunasekaran et al., 2002). At this point it is essential to present the definition of the website as came from Lee and Koubek in 2010: ―A website can be defined as a group of interface and functional attributes that are connected to each other to serve high levels of usability, performance, and beauty to users, to satisfy users‘ wants, and to obtain their satisfaction in a competitive market of online and offline sales and information-services‖.

Introducing their Internet presence, firms are benefited as much as customers do. Using a website is beneficial for both parties at first, due to the direct relationship between them. On the one hand, hoteliers gain the opportunity of controlling the operational costs. This is performed as the main channel of distribution is the website, and there is no intervention of intermediaries (i.e. travel agents and tour operators) to be involved in the transaction. As a result, hotels succeed in providing to their customers lower rates and also in enjoying higher profits (O‘Connor & Frew, 2002). Additionally, according to Jeong and Lambert (2001) lodging websites can be used as a tool for direct communication between customers and firms, providing interactivity with management and other customers and as a consequence customer trust can be built. Few years later, Jeong and Jeon (2008) argued about the advantage of the collection of customers‘ questions, inquiries or even complaints that can be found in the websites‘ forms and mailboxes referring that customers‘ expressions give to hoteliers the chance to review and if needed reevaluate their strategies depending on customers‘ opinions. Furthermore, hotels and lodges can be greater advertised though

Internet with richer representation with images, sounds and other media than through the use of traditional brochures, leaflets, etc. (Garces et al, 2004). In addition, for hoteliers e-commerce reduces administrative and communication costs as the paperwork is reduced as well. Finally, the use of the Internet facilitates also the selection of personnel and online training as many organizations advertise candidate job openings on their own websites, and curriculums‘ information is automatically relocated in human resource databases (Garces et al, 2004).

On the other hand, customers are favored by the use of the Web, with the main benefit be the time and cost reduction of purchase of their desired service and the possibility of comparing the candidate services before purchase, with the simple example of hotel online booking with several clicks. A great advantage of online navigation in websites is the variety of detailed information they can find easily, for example through a basic search or by their questions being answered by intelligent agents and human expert systems (Garces et al, 2004).

1.7 Website design and Marketing

The Web presence generated a brand new dimensional opportunity for marketing managers as it rives the physical limitations of classic layout and places the firms to an advanced marketplace. As the cofounder of Microsoft, Bill Gates describes this new arena as ―friction-free capitalism‖, where buyers and sellers are directly connected (Gates et al, 1995). The Web is changing the business environment and market scenarios differ according to market environment in terms of user profiles, interactivity of websites, information or entertainment, and information content. These market statuses suggest alternative opportunities for product and service branding, interactivity, and information manipulation in website design. In general, firms have to recognize that website design is determined by the interaction between the firms‘ marketing functions and technological characteristics (Palmer et al, 1998). Pertaining to e-marketing mix, the traditional marketing practices of 4 Ps (i.e. product, price, place and promotion) has to be adjusted to the differences brought by the digital marketing environment and it can be still valid and applicable (Dominici, 2009).

1.8 Hotel website management and Marketing

Many hotel managers and operators are trying to use Internet as a powerful marketing and management tool. According to the initial objectives set by each firm, the successful management of a website should greatly consider of five important basic targets: definition of the mission of the website creation, forecast of the margins, establishing the website, planning of the marketing and maintenance of the website. For a website to be successful, some really careful planning has to be made as it is well said that a previous bad or good experience of a company depends on the research done before proceeding to the online presence and additionally to the willingness of preserving the existence and quality of the website (Murthy et al, 1996). Forester few years earlier stated some questions to be answered that upon these answers managers may find the way and the means of performing the website creation: the management team should acquire the skills and knowledge to support the website; the margins should be calculated beforehand; the fixed and variable costs for creation and maintenance of the website should be forecasted as well as the expected cost savings or increase in sales; the mechanics should be studied and for the design of the website should include the initial objectives; the design will need computer skills either from internal personnel or from external suppliers; the maintenance should be pre-scheduled, etc.

Forester (1992) also proposed a three-step process that should be followed in case that a manager wishes to enter the hotel in the online world: define the mission- set objectives-execute the process. In detail, the marketing‘s checklist of the objectives is formed as following: increase the communication with meeting planners, incentive markets, corporate business travelers and travel agents and thus, improve sales; widen public relations and publicity; illustrate special promotions to customers (either frequent of seasonal guests); manifest the newsletter, brochures or online forum for travel discussions.

Complementary, the management‘s objectives: improve internal communication within the firm (use of internal memos and follow-ups to personal conversations); transfer data (i.e. financial reports or purchasing information in a timely and inexpensive manner); increase the accuracy and speed of the purchasing of supplies;

broadcast human resource issues and announce of the employee of the month and other quality members; acquaint the management team with security issues (Forester, 1992).

Nowadays, hotel sites vary excessively although some common available functions can be found in the majority of the hotel webpages as travel information, reservations and payment, links to partners, special offers (promotions), employment opportunities, audio or video advertisement, newsletters, direct customer feedback forms, list of certificates, information for stakeholders and list of frequently asked questions. In detail, in the first impression of the website, typically, the opening screen of a website demonstrates all the features available at that site. Along with these features, usually the opening screen someone can find the e-mail address of the hotel, which can be further used by hotel customers or any cyber guest for more direct communication with the hotel. Moreover, at the top of the webpage, always appears the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address which may usually contain the company‘s name or some other specific identifier. At this point it is essential to refer to the definition of the URL address by Saare and Tran (2009) as ―generally, a uniform resource locator (URL) is an address for a resource on a network. For example, URLs are utilized by web browsers to locate resource on the Internet. A URL specifies the protocol to be used in accessing a particular resource, and the IP address or domain name where the resource is located‖. As suggested by Murthy et al (1996), since the Internet emerge, it is a challenge for firms to preserve their brand identity, to retain the brand‘s competitive advantage and suggest an easy- to- remember e-mail address and as follows in the webpage development the marketing approach makes it fundamental to require an address with a registered domain name; a domain is a unique address that identifies a computer or network that is connected to the internet. While any domain name not already registered can be used, the logical approach is to reinforce a company's brand name as the domain.

Furthermore, among the previously mentioned common features in many websites is also the means of making reservations over the internet (i.e. functioning reservation systems or suggestions on how to make the payment for purchasing the service as secure encrypted methods for paying directly via the website). It is proved that there is a huge chasm between getting informed for the reservations and

completing the purchasing of them and as a fact, independent hotels often succeed in encouraging their potential customers to complete the transactions by simply suggest further communication via e-mail or call for necessary billing information. Another feature presented in the webpage is the existence of promotions (to seasonal or special customers, reservations for groups or conferences, frequent clients, family or children discounts, business travelers, etc.). Last but not least, the presence of links to click and get further information or the region or other online partner-hotels‘ webpages is also one of the most helpful functions (Murthy et al, 1996).

1.9 Online booking channels

As occurred by participants answers, only 24.2% of them have booked a hotel room directly through hotel website as well as 75.8% of them answered that performed the online booking of their accommodation via intermediate online travel agent (e.g. Booking.com). Online customer‘s intention for selecting the channel to purchase hospitality products is a dependent variable; many factors may influence their purchase decision. At first, website quality attributes affect channel choice: information quality, as ―the more information about the product is available, the simpler it is to make a reservation‖ (Jarvelainen, 2003); service quality, the system may ―effectively and efficiently fulfill relevant customer needs‖ (Fassnacht and Koese, 2006); trust, affects the overall experience of using a website as consumers tend to purchase from firms or register with a website which clearly displayed privacy policy in online shopping interface and protect their privacy (Tsai et al., 2011); findability, as search engine is the number one source used for travel plan (IPSOS, 2012) and it is proved that online travel agents are better located by search ―travel‖ than hotel owned websites (Miller, 2004).

Secondly, payment methods influence purchase intention (Wong and Law, 2005) and particularly, the variety of payment methods enforces these intentions (Chen et al., 2010). In general, hotels ask for credit card details without finally charging the customer‘s cards in contrast with online travel agents that offer a variety of payment methods. With regards to the ways of payment, transactions often require sensitive personal information and customers need to feel confident sharing these with the existence of security statements (Kim et al., 2010; Wen, 2012).

Last but not least, customer relationship is a crucial factor affecting purchase intentions. After-sale services, efficiency of transactions, convenience, security, cost savings are all attributes influencing the repurchase intentions as well as forming the overall previous customers‘ experiences that drives customers to select the online booking channel (Khalifa & Liu, 2007). Additionally, online travel agents are benefited from adopting loyalty programs; it costs three times as much to acquire a new customer than it costs to retain an existing customer and loyal customers will generally have repeated purchase and bring new customers as well (Vinod, 2011).

CHAPTER 2-LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the related research on the physical servicescape settings, e-servicescape concept with its dimensions, the differences in traditional and online servicescape concepts, the website elements, the website quality definition and attributes, the customer retention-satisfaction-loyalty concepts and the interrelations among them.

2.1 Physical representation: Serviscape-Definition-Dimensions

Since 1992, many authors refer to the physical facilities, i.e. the servicescape. The famous term servicescape is broadly used in order to describe the physical surroundings of a service company, including the special layout such that interior and exterior design, furnishings, equipment, the ambient conditions such as temperature, light, noise, music, air quality, odor, as well as signs, symbols and artifacts i.e. tangible parts of the service such as signage, style of decor, personal artifacts, business cards, brochures, and other communication material (Bitner, 1992; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996).

Services are generally produced and consumed simultaneously; the customers enter the service facilities and have to be within the servicescape before making the purchase decision. Therefore, the servicescape offers a multitude of accessible cues to customers seeking for information (Baker, 1998). The serviscape have a strong impact on customers' perceptions of the service experience and the cues may be very influential in communicating the firm's image and purpose to its customers. Research suggests that the physical setting may also influence the customer's ultimate satisfaction of the service (Bitner 1990; Harrell et al., 1980). Thus, except from customer perceptions of a ﬁrm‘s value propositions, service functions and service quality, servicescapes also inﬂuence the meaning a customer draws from the many intangible, contextual signs and symbols of service (Ballantyne & Nilsson, 2017).

Based on environmental psychology of Merhabian and Russell‘s (1974) suggestion that individuals may react to places with two opposite behavioral modes – approach or avoidance- Bitner extended the formulation of servicescape theory

according to these behaviors. As Bitner (1992) reported, a servicescape environment consists of three physically and symbolically applications of these behaviors:

Ambient conditions such as temperature, lighting, noise, music and scent directly relate to the ﬁve human senses and perceptions of human responses to the environment. For example, it has been illustrated that music tempo can affect pace of shopping, length of stay, and amount of money spent, employee performance and job satisfaction.

Spatial layout and functionality are significant factors in the service provision. Spatial layout is referring to the way in which machinery, furnishings and equipment are placed within the service encounter, their shape and size and the spatial relationships among them. Functionality is related to the ability of the same items to ease the service provision. Defining these two concepts reveals their efficiency in the service performance, especially when either customers (being served) or employees (completing tasks) are under time pressure.

Signs, symbols and artifacts constitute implicit or explicit signals denoting messages about the place to the visitors. Signs are imparters; as labels (e.g., name of the company), for directional purposes (e.g., entrances, exits) and communicators of rules of behavior (e.g., no smoking, children accompanied by an adult). Signage can communicate firm‘s image and form the perceived experience. Additionally, the quality of materials, the artwork and photographs on the walls, the presence of certificates and personal objects have a symbolic meaning and create an aesthetic impression. In general, signs symbols and artifacts form impressions of the overall firm, the perception of the firm to customers‘ eyes in contrast with competitors and may facilitate the familiarizing customer with new service concepts or changes in existing services (Bitner, 1992).

Hence, physical environments influence the human actions and reactions (Bitner, 1992). Therefore, servicescape helps in understanding the potential customer responses to the objective and subjective stimuli of physical spatial setting and objects as well as their own personal and cultural meanings. In addition, people tend to communicate others‘ actions symbolically, instead of prescribing them to others objectively, showing the importance of the word of mouth (Ballantyne & Nilsson

2017). In conclusion, the findings of years of research indicate that servicescapes are not only indicators for the expected service quality, but also affects the evaluation of the intangible dimensions. Thus the servicescapes directly and indirectly influence the perception and the evaluation of service quality. Hence, servicescapes should be carefully considered from service providers, developing unique servicescapes that accordingly visualize the intangible competencies and the overall quality offered (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005).

2.2 E-Servicescape: Definition-Role

Currently, people all over the world are spending more time in digital environments in different fields as entertainment, shopping, learning, socialize, working –especially, young people are absorbed in the new world of technology. It turns out that the internet is a new market space that has thoroughly extended the servicescape models based on shopping habits and behavioral patterns in physical stores.

Along with Hopkins et al. (2009), websites may be considered as servicescapes. By using a web site, customers barely face cues and overcrowding which is the most distinct asset of the new virtual environment. The physical servicescape is a built environment that impact customers and employees interactions and ―can enhance or inhibit the efficient flow of activities in the service setting‖ like Zeithaml and Bitner proposed in 2000, exactly as a website is also a built environment that affects customers and their interaction with the firm through its features and design. Hence, as Hopkins et al (2009) stated ―the website as an e-servicescape the characteristics that depict the traditional servicescape may have a meaningful application in a cyberspace context‖. Mummalaneni (2005) argues that the virtual servicescape "…as the environment of the virtual storefronts created through webpage design is not unlike the atmosphere of the brick-and-mortar stores with their emphasis on layout, merchandise-displays, lighting, and signage and so on".

In the new online service environments, e-servicescapes or virtual servicescape (Mummalaneni, 2005; Vilnai-Yavets & Rafaeli, 2006), or cyberscape (Williams & Dargel, 2004), customers can often gain unique service and be benefited from reaching global suppliers and access in more technically advanced platforms.

Additionally, in the new digital environment the customers become more of a co- creator of value than was generally possible in a physical store (Ballantyne & Nilsson, 2017). In order for firms to create a servicescape which satisfy customers' needs for comfort, convenience, safety, security, privacy and support, the providers need to understand which servicescape features impact customer satisfaction and behavior (Lee, 2011).

E-commerce shares with traditional commerce settings ultimately many service characteristics irrespective of offering products or services (Williams & Dargel, 2004). Customers‘ feelings towards an organization are possibly affected by the atmospherics of a website as when customers purchase products/services through a website, the e-servicescape is the representation of the company to them (Rafaeli & Pratt, 2005). Online presence of firms provide customer with a wide range of products/services, information about them and their attributes and the possibility of searching, comparing and contrasting the features of different offers as well as their prices on different websites (Williams & Dargel, 2004). Vilnai-Yavets & Rafaeli (2006) in their study on virtual servicescape proved that professionalism affect customer satisfaction while found significant effects of aesthetics on customer pleasantness, satisfaction and attitude towards the firm. Moreover, Williams and Dargel (2004) argued about the savings in time, the convenience and the lower customer perceived risk deriving from the variety of information as the benefits from e-servicescape offerings.

2.2.1 E- Servicescape dimensions

Bitner in 1992 presented the three physical servicescape dimensions: ambient conditions; the spatial layout and functionality; and the signs, symbols, and artifacts. Whether a website is an extension of a firm‘s physical store or an independent service portal, it is clear that the servicescape dimensions are present in firm‘s cyber settings (Hopkins et al, 2009). Some years later and because of Internet has dramatically changed the nature of services and the way customers interact with firms, Bitner (2000) had broadened the dimensions of servicescape were as the built environments of ambience, function, and design. All these dimensions appear in every service setting and play significant role subject to the nature of service provided. According to Harris and Goode (2010), they expanded the classic servicescape dimensions to

aesthetic appeal, online layout and functionality, and financial security. Among these three dimensions, visual appeal, entertainment value, design and usability of the website, information provided on the website, and the perceived security of the website are typical of elements present in the digital environment (Harris and Goode, 2010). These are:

Aesthetic appeal: Aesthetic appeal is related with the level up to which customers find a website serviscape attractive and alluring and speaks for the overall impressiveness of the website that influences consumers‘ purchasing behaviors (Wang et al, 2010; Harris & Goode, 2010). In addition, aesthetic appeal targets to affect the pleasure experienced by the customer during online interaction with a firm through a website (Lavie & Tractinsky, 2003; Vilnai-yavetz & Rafaeli, 2006). According to Harris and Goode (2010), aesthetic appeal contains three sub-dimensions, namely visual appeal, originality of design and entertainment value. A visually appealing website, apart from being pleasing to website visitors‘ eyes and affect both customers‘ enjoyment and usage of the website, also provokes customers to explore further the website (Van der Heijden, 2002; Lindgard et al., 2011). It is suggested that the originality of the website design reinforces the visual appeal (through the use of creative logos, right colors, use of suitable backgrounds and appropriate typography present on the website) as well it seems to be very helpful for online customers the variation of colors concerning different functions (Fink & Laupse 2000; Koo & Ju, 2009). From her side, entertainment value (amusing customers through the creation of an appealing, exciting and fun environment) of the website also facilitates in strengthening of visual appeal (Eroglu et al., 2001). Concluding, experienced e- consumers also perceive the modernity of the website design as a very crucial constituent of the online environment and further the aesthetic appeal form the final service quality perception and customers‘ satisfaction as well as are much related with the ―e-trust‖. In general, evaluations of online visual appeal are positively related to consumers‘ trust of a web site (Harris & Goode 2010).

Layout and Functionality: Online layout refers to the arrangement, organization, structure, and adaptability of web sites while functionality refers to the range to which such items facilitate service goals (Bitner, 1992; Koo & Ju, 2009; Harris & Goode, 2010). Thus, whereas online visual appeal focuses on aesthetics, online layout

concentrates on organization and functionality. Layout and functionality is a significant dimension of e-serviscape as they affect customers‘ online selection, use and purchase behavior (Eroglu et al., 2003; Richard, 2005).

Since a website is often the only contact point for customers and firms in e- service provision, organizations need to incorporate customer needs, wants and preferences into the layout, functionality and design of the website in order for the web site to be usable, informative, customized/ personalized and interactive and in this way to be competitive among other firms (Surjadjaja et al., 2003; Harris & Goode, 2010). The sub-dimensions of this category are: usability, which refers to the easiness with which the customer can learn to use if he is a first- time buyer, or actually use, a website efficiently and effectively, containing useful navigational aids, links in their intent and destination, navigation intuitively logical (Osterbauer et al., 1999; Harris & Goode, 2010; Li & Yeh, 2010); relevance of information (communication material), pertains to the availability of relevant to customer needs information, the absence of irrelevant information, illustration of the expectations of the findings in the particular webpage and technical details about products or services (Zeithaml et al., 2002; Harris & Goode, 2010); customization/ personalization, refers to the customers‘ perceptions on their ability of the site adjustment to their needs, their match with the design of the website or the compatibility of purchase recommendations with customers‘ tastes (Grewal et al., 2003; Harris & Goode, 2010); interactivity, the ability of the customers to interact with the firm, i.e. the existence of tools of customers‘ requests, comparison of product/ services‘ features and prices, (Bauer et al., 2002; Harris & Goode 2010).

Online Financial security: Perceived security is an imperative aspect of online service environments. Online financial security refers to a customer‘s perception of safety in payment procedures and general website policies (Harris & Goode, 2010). Consequently, improved online procedures for enhancing customers‘ perceptions of the website‘s online financial security are required from website designs. The sub dimensions of online financial security are: ease of payment, meaning efﬁcient payment procedures which are fast and obtaining payment facilities which are ease in use; perceived security is the way online customers perceive the security of their information required in order to perform online transactions. Websites must contain

precise security systems so as to eliminate customers‘ concerns buying products or services via websites. The security systems have to be strict and dissociate the customer doubts of whether making a transaction or not. Therefore, firms should target on creating friendly websites with easy and secure payment operations (Casalo et al., 2007; Ramayah & Ignatius, 2005; Harris & Goode, 2010).

2.3 Classic Servicescape concept vs. e-Servicescape

Apart from traditional distribution channels and physical environments, Internet allows to customers convenient ways to find products and compare their features and prices. Therefore, Internet allows consumers to navigate in the market easily, an attribute hard to gain within physical channels. Digital servicescapes are not recognized from the classic servicescape concept. The more recent digital spaces and technologic platforms that are constructed as visual spaces for service provisions are not acknowledged from the particular literature. Nilsson and Ballantyne (2014) argue that servicescape concepts can easily be adapted to digital media to deal with customer interactions and consider the symbolic meanings of website design. When discussing about customer-provider interactions and service provision, sensory attributes of servicescape concept pertaining to physical characteristics may be held up metaphorically. Thus, words, pictures and physical objects are used to refer metaphorically to serviscape aspects that can similarly be compared. In order to explain this idea, Nilsson and Ballantyne (2014) give examples: In websites of stores the common use of a ―shopping-cart‖ metaphor demonstrate that customers in a specific point of time can easily aggregate their purchases. Décor of a physical surrounding can be portrayed by use of color, music and sound. Moreover, from the providers‘ point of view the servicescape is an operand resource, part of a resource in the integration process with the customers involved in and may have dominant power in forming the providers‘ value proposition and the customer‘s service experience. Servicescape concept logic can be implemented in either physical places or virtual spaces, i.e. when shopping in a retail store or on a website. From literature, the servicescape in these virtual spaces can be referred as online servicescapes, e- servicescapes, virtual servicescapes or cyberscapes. At this point it is essential to quote the following study of Nilsson and Ballantyne 2014, in which they summarize the major changes needed when shifting from classic physical servicescape concept to

digital servicescape design, noted that the changes with asterisk convey more advanced and still evolving aspects of virtual servicescape design.

Figure 1: Major changes in servicescape design by David Ballantyne & Elin Nilsson, Journal of Services Marketing, 2017

2.4 Website elements

Serving as a company's virtual front door, webpage is generally responsible for drawing in a majority of website's traffic. And despite its prominence, many businesses struggle to optimize it properly. Website elements may vary from industry to industry, but there are basic elements that every website homepage needs to have across the board.

2.4.1 Content & Design of Websites

Internet is a valuable tool for organizations in terms of commercial purposes. Thus, in order to maximize profits, the Websites must be designed in a suitable manner. For the evaluation of a website and testing whether it can accomplish the goals set by the organizations, we have to define the two basic characteristics of Website design: content and structure (Huizingh, 2000).

At first, content of a website includes the two types of information existing on websites: commercial and non-commercial information. Commercial information provide to current or potential customers and stakeholders an insight into the background of the company suggesting firms‘ statements of their mission, financial

situation, important clientele, brief presentation of past projects, etc. In this category, product information is in, aiming to support the sales function with useful product data such as prices, specifications, terms of delivery or even guidelines for use. Non- commercial information contains general cues for the firm as sponsored events and new technologies, or about the industry or geographical location. Secondly, transaction features are involved within the content, meaning the way that the transaction for purchasing the product or the service offered is conducted (direct ordering, requesting proposal). Entertainment is the third feature, according to which organizations should both provide information and simultaneously entertain their Web visitors through entertainment elements i.e. jokes, cartoons, pictures, games, and video clips. Additionally, the advance of the site can be determined from the number of functions available on a website (all the six above mentioned features). The more functions found in a website, it is characterized as more progressive. At last, the perception of the content, the level on which the content can be judged as informative, is the last feature of the content and shows whether the promise of information provision is fulfilled or not (Huizingh, 2000).

Secondly, pertaining to the design of websites, a website can be viewed as a number of content elements (pages) that are linked to each other. The first feature of the website design is the navigation structure: by adding or skipping links between pages web designers prescribe a structure and forms that can influence the search. These structures can be either hierarchical or tree structures –when one page can be linked to another and furthermore to another page and so on- or network structures – complex structure that one webpage is linked with numerous pages. According to Huizingh (2000), there are four different navigation structure types: a tree, a tree with a return-to-home page button, a tree with a few horizontal links, and an extensive network. The second feature is the search function, preventing customers being confused from shifting from one page to the other and leading them directly to requested information. Protected content as the third feature distinguishes the information provided to different groups of people requesting for them, i.e. different cues to current or past customers and suppliers or competitors. This may be easily achieved with the use of password. Last but not least, the perception of the design, addressing the quality of the structure, the image and the presentation style should be

measured and further analyzed by website designers to gain crucial information for adjusting the website design to customers‘ needs (Huizingh, 2000).

Figure 2: The research framework that identifies the relevant aspects of the content and the design of Web sites, Huizingh, 2000.

2.4.1.1 Website design attributes

Lee and Koubek in 2010 studied the relative impacts of website design attributes on users‘ preferences with regards to the psychological aspects on users‘ evaluation for the particular websites. They have proven that there are strong interrelationships between interface characteristics and the users‘ preferences; they gave their list with the website design attributes, explaining their importance: content organization, meaning the organizing of the contents users can find more easily and effectively items which they are searching for; visual organization, meaning that the way a website look help users better understand the structure of the webpage and the visual arrangement of the content; navigation system, making easily understandable for users to handle the positions in a website and decide their actions for the next steps until the procedure is completed; color, referring to the aesthetic aspects and suits or not the users‘ feelings and also make them identify easily the functions of icons and buttons; and typography, includes readable texts within the webpage interface and

whether seems attractive or not facilitates engagement of users attention. Ultimately, the first three attributes (content and visual organization and navigation system) are more associated with organizational structure and layout to improve usability, while the other two (color and typography) are more related to aesthetic quality (Lee & Koubek, 2010).

2.4.3 Website personality

Aeker (1997) first introduced the concept of ―brand personality‖ defined as ―set of human characteristics associated with the brand‖ while some years after D'Astous and Levesque (2003), argued that brand personality concept does not fully apply to a store/service environment and suggested ―store personality‖ as ―the mental representation of a store on dimensions that typically capture an individuals' personality‖. In online context, ―website personality‖ refers to the mental representation of a Web site store on dimensions that are similar to and reflect the dimensions of human personality. Website personality construct comes from store personality construct and so, borrows the dimensions of store personality, namely, enthusiasm, sophistication, genuineness, solidity, and unpleasantness (Poddar et al., 2009). Interfaces of inspired-personality websites signify reliability; website personality traits are thought to be enduring and stable in nature (Azoulay & Kapferer, 2003) personality traits cannot be expected to change just because the store moves online instead of offline. If customers feel the website as friendly, lively, welcoming resulting from the structure, colors choices and overall layout, then the website may be characterized as a website with an enthusiastic personality or follow the scale of sophisticated, elegant, high-class or upscale. Contrariwise, layout, themes, colors and purchasing function that are falsely chosen may cause unpleasant emotional results accompanied with annoying or irritated behavior and thus, this unpleasant website personality may turn away customers (Poddar et al., 2009).

2.4.4 First impression of a website

Bar et al in 2006 proved that people form the first impression of other people personalities using the visual appearance of their faces or generally based on any information available within 39 milliseconds, people compose consistent first impressions. The fact that the first impression affects the mid-term and long-term

human behaviors, it is worth it to truly understand the way of their creation and the factors which can influence this creation (Plous, 1993). Concerning the human judgment of visual appearance on a website‘s first impression has been further studied by Lingaard et al in 2006. Specifically, the authors stated that the first impression is crucial to catch the surfers‘ interest within a friction of time (50 milliseconds) as people usually built their first opinion upon which they are based for deciding whether they will stay and further purchase the product/service or not. Thus, it is very useful to web designers to be aware of this emotional procedure as they may shape the website design and structure in order to influence the first impressions.

2.5 Website quality- Definition- Dimensions

Chang and Chen (2008) gave a definition if website quality: ―users‘ evaluation of whether a web site‘s features meet users‘ needs and reflect the overall excellence of the website‖. As reported by Jarvenpaa et al (2000) a website could be considered as a company‘s online store and defines the atmosphere of online shopping. Analogous to the traditional servicescape where customers need traditional cues (e.g. brand and reputation of the firm) in order to decide whether to purchase the firm‘s offerings or not, Internet users base their judgments of potential gains or losses on website attributes. In order for a website to be effective it should eliminate the boundaries to online transactions like anonymity, lack of personal communication and electronic payment (Chang & Chen, 2008). Additionally, effective websites should have the right content and may be easy to use i.e. should be characterized by functionality and usability (Yeung & Law, 2004). Other researchers pointed out that security and privacy are crucial dimensions for an effective website (Wang et al., 2004). Elliot and Bjorn-Andersen (2002) proposed the following dimensions of website quality: Company information and structure, product/service, ease of use, information and promotion, transaction processing, customer services, innovation in services and technology.

In particular, given the expanding importance of online presence in hotel industry ―website quality is a complex multi-dimensional construct, proposed to assess websites‘ design‖ (Ahn et al, 2007) and this is the reason why so many researchers have been occupied with this issue. In 1998, Joerchel et al proposed that

website visitors pay attention to information content, convenience, ease of use, price, printable pages and good pictures. Also in 1998, Dholakia and Rego pointed out 5 attributes for effectiveness of websites; the frequency of changes in the webpage, the number of links to the commercial home page from other webpages, the number of clickable pictures, enhancements (e.g. gif animations), and number of advertising banners of other firms. Abels et al (1999) proposed six operational criteria of users for website design, presented in the following table:

Figure 3: Operational definitions of user criteria for site design, Abels et al, 1999.

Parasuraman et al (2005) distinguished four main categories of website quality dimensions. These are information breadth and depth (reliability, price knowledge), the structure of the website (responsiveness, access, flexibility, ease of navigation, efficiency), the aesthetic dimension of the interface (site aesthetics), and the option for interaction that enhances flow (customization/personalization). According to Liang et al (2015), the hotel website quality has three dimensions namely functionality, usability, security and privacy.

A useful and alluring website design is also a prerequisite of high e-service quality and also reflects the level of customers‘ satisfaction (Santos, 2003). Affective responses are considered a mediator for satisfaction, with emotions and mood to be the basic two attributes of the affective responses; emotions are intentional and their response to service atmospherics is direct in contrast with moods which are less

intense, can be spread out and they are not intentional (Dube & Menon, 2000; Peter & Olson, 2005). The emotional responses are called up during the consumption phase within the service environment, and follow three states: pleasure, arousal and dominance (PAD). Thus, emotional responses should be a significant variable for calculating the website quality and further the customer satisfaction- loyalty (Yu and Dean, 2001). Wong (2004) found out in his research that service quality is positively related to emotional satisfaction, and emotional satisfaction is positively associated with customer loyalty and relationship quality. In his study, Bjork (2010) tried to identify the website features that trigger emotional response (atmospherics) and he organized them into four categories: classic website quality attributes (i.e. information content and structure), pictures (which enhance motives to travel, make the visitors be hopeful and happy or even exited), interactivity (in order for the visitor to feel that he participates) and finally the last category is constituted by features that help an online customer to move towards the website with a pleasant flow and it is about the impressions of the visitors of their surfing experience within a particular website.

Dedicated to website quality topic and its dimensions, among the aforementioned, numerous studies were conducted (Francis & White, 2002a; Ho & Lee, 2007; Jeong & Lambert, 2001; Kaynama & Black, 2000; Kim & Lee, 2004; Loiacono et al., 2002; Madu & Madu, 2002; Sanchez Franco & Roldan, 2005; Yang et al., 2005; Yang & Jun, 2002; Yoo & Donthu, 2001; Zeithaml et al., 2002).

2.5.1 Online decision making

In order to provide the best service possible to customers, it is incredibly useful to know how customers think, how they make their decisions. Initially, consumer decision making processes are made by the decision makers themselves (Bettman et al., 1998) and furthermore by the effects of external environments within which the decisions are made (i.e. the presentation of the desirable information, time management) (Coupey, 1994). The review of the literature revealed online customer decision-making is an important area of study for the hospitality industry and, furthermore, that a body of knowledge exists in the area of consumer online decision- making. Researchers have studied what current and potential online customers like to see from hospitality and travel web sites. Murthy et al (1996) suggested 32 common features in the hotel reservation sites found through search engines; those features

were then divided into four categories: promotion, service, interactivity, and management. Jarvenpaa and Todd (1997) identified the factors that influence online customers before the purchasing; the shopping factors identified by online customers were compiled into four categories: product perceptions, shopping experience, customer service, and consumer risks. Chu (2001) via interviews in focus groups identified the Internet users‘ needs and expectations toward airline/travel web sites; the results revealed that consumers were more willing to purchase low-involvement products via the Internet than high-involvement products. The results of his research: the respondents expected to see from an airline/travel website to be informative, interactive and attractive. Jeong et al (2001) examined the customer perceptions of hotel websites, detecting that color combination, information currency, accuracy, completeness, and navigation quality did have significant influences on customer‘s perception of the hotel product. Yoon (2002) investigated the antecedents and consequences of trust and satisfaction in online purchase decisions, including transaction security (i.e., security warranty phrases and clarity of refund policy), web site properties (i.e., adequacy of product description and width of product selections), navigation functionality (i.e., usefulness of help functions and overall operational efficiency) and personal variables (i.e., familiarity with e-commerce and previous satisfaction with ecommerce). Jeong and Lambert‘s (2001) resulted in the significance of customers‘ perceived quality of information about products/services as the most crucial in predicting their decision making (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived accessibility, and attitudes). In their study, Shim et al. (2001) proposed an Online Pre-purchase Intentions Model based on the Interaction Model of the pre-purchase consumer information search (Klein, 1998) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991), concluding that that consumers‘ intentions to use the Internet for purchasing were influenced by their attitudes (i.e., payment security, privacy, safety, etc.), perceived behavioral control, and Internet purchase experience. Liang and Huang (1998) investigated the ability of a transaction cost model to explain online consumers‘ purchasing decisions, including search, comparison, examination, negotiation, order and payment, delivery, and post-service into the online transaction process. They demonstrated that transaction costs determined the consumer‘s acceptance toward Internet shopping. Eventually, Szymanski and Hise (2000) pointed out that consumer‘s perceptions of online

convenience, product information, site design, and ﬁnancial security were the key factors in customer assessments of satisfaction.

2.5.2 Measurement of service quality delivery through websites

Kaynama and Black (2000), grounded on the well-known instrument for measuring the five dimensions of service quality in brick and mortar settings ―SERVQUAL‖ (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988), they introduced E-QUAL with the aim of measuring the service delivery quality in online context and analyze the website quality via customers‘ eyes using online travel agencies as a case study. E-QUAL is comprised by seven dimensions involving content and purpose, accessibility, navigation, design and presentation, responsiveness, background, and personalization and customization.

In 2001, Yoo and Donthu promoted another instrument ―SITEQUAL‖ with main factors affecting the perceived quality to be the ease of use (easy navigation), aesthetic design (quality of photos and colors), processing speed and security; all these factors appeared to be highly connected with the over website quality. One year after (2002a) the ―PIRQUAL‖ model is introduced by Francis and White, signing the six dimensions of online customers‘ purchase experiences –web store functionality, product attribute description, ownership conditions, delivered products, customer service and security. In their study, Francis and White (2002b) after the practical implication of PIRQUAL model, they revised it into PIRQ model with five dimensions -website, transaction system, delivery, customer service and security. Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Malhotra (2002) developed e-SERVQUAL with four dimensions influencing e-service quality and them to be efficiency (ease of website use), fulfillment (accuracy of service promises), privacy (assurance of confidentiality of customers‘ data and credit card information), and reliability (technical functions).

Based upon all these previous studies and after identifying repletion in the website quality attributes among a numerous of studies, in this study nine attributes of website quality were determined as crucial to be analyzed in this research‘s context: aesthetics; atmospherics; music/color/video clips effect; personalization/customization; interactivity; accessibility; useful information; usability; privacy and security.

2.5.3 Aesthetics

Modern social science has demonstrated the value of aesthetics in everyday life. Dion et al (1972), exposed that a person‘s physical appearance guide other facets of social interaction while Nasar (1988a) talked about the affection of people from aesthetics in nature and architecture. Aesthetics seemed additionally to be involved in the new product development, retail environments and marketing strategies‘ formation (Russell, 1988; Whitney, 1988). Moreover, Bloch (1995) stated that ‗‗physical form or design of a product is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success‘‘. Researchers have also started studying the role of aesthetics in interaction design and its effects on the users and their perceptions.

Jennings (2000) defined website aesthetics as ―visual beauty or the study of natural and pleasing (aesthetic) computer-based environments‖ arguing that aesthetics in an broader sense which encloses more than a sensory experience, is a concept that allows mathematicians to talk about a beautiful equation and engineers about a delicate design result. Additionally, aesthetics is a customer‘s reactive appreciation to ―consonance/ unity of physical objects and their cadence, or performance‖ (Wu & Liang, 2009). Aesthetics estimates the immediate pleasure created for the customer who derives from the perception of the visual attractiveness and entertainment ingrained to a certain product or service or even to a physical environment (Mathwick et al, 2001). Suggested by Mathwick et al (2001), the aesthetic dimension of the experiential value is further enlisted into two elements, visual appeal and entertainment. The term visual appeal contains all the noticeable elements within shopping environments while the entertainment element captures the aesthetic response results i.e. the level up to the customers are entertained by their experience on the website (Keng et al, 2007).

Website aesthetics include features such as color, fonts, pictures, and the use of white space, and shapes/lines (Cober et al., 2004) and proved that website aesthetics provide vivid experiences and affect initial attitudes toward a website (Schenkman &Jonson, 2000; Tractinsky et al., 2000). In particular: colors are used in website design in order to generate depth (White, 2011), structure information and for making items to look different from each other as well as the choice of color palette and number of colors used may have psychological implications and influence the target

message the website tends to communicate (Cui, 1998; Nielsen, 2000); fonts are the design of characters unified by consistent visual properties in order to ensure readability (Cui, 1998), with text to be enough spaced and to have color contrast to the background displayed on for not overwhelming the user (White, 2011); pictures include logos, photos, illustrations, animations and icons surely relevant to the topic and attract user‘s interest, with the size of the photos to play an important role (large images should be cropped) and their presence to illustrate a reasonable detail level (Nielsen, 2000); shapes/lines, created with lines, textures, or colors (White, 2011) used to separate different areas of the website (such as menus or search boxes) and create its visual flow (Garrett, 2010).

In 2000, Schenkman and Jonsson reported two other dimensions of visual aesthetics of websites: aesthetic formality, related with the customer perception of organization and order of a website; and aesthetic appeal, related with the perceived novelty and meaningfulness of a website.

This research on the visual aesthetics of website context indicated that the overall impression of the website is estimated according to the level of beauty and that the visual attractiveness is highly associated with the entertainment of the user, the perceptions of easiness of use of the website and as a result the usefulness potentially gained from the website usage (Schenkman and Johnson, 2000). Considering simplicity as an aesthetic element, Karnoven in 2000 pointed out that simplicity is highly correlated with usability. Concluding, computer technology is not only a facilitator concerning usability, but adds another aspect –desirability- and this is the reason why issues as visual appeal and aesthetics becoming essential parts of the website design.

2.5.3.1 The effect of online atmosphere on customers’ emotional responses- Music & Color & Video clips

Organizations with Internet presence through websites focus on increasingly gain their market share through framing the atmospherics and the service environment with a view to impact on Internet customers‘ emotions and behaviors. Exactly like in physical stores and the response of customers in ambient factors (e.g. music and color), the website design in cyber context expresses the interdependences between

the website design (e.g. usability) and the proficiency of a web store (Cheng et al, 2009). Many previous researches have mostly concentrated on website design factors as usability, interactions of human-computer, layout of a webpage and little has been discussed for the effect of ambient conditions such as music and color on online customers‘ attitudes. As reported by Baker et al (2002) the importance of the separation between website design and ambient cues lays on the fact that ambient suggestions lean on a more subconscious aspect than subjective design cues. As stated by Kotler (1973-1974), in physical servicescapes, four sensory channels can facilitate the delivery of the atmosphere and these are the visual, aural, olfactory and tactile magnitudes whereas the fifth sense, the taste, does not refer to atmosphere. While shifting from physical to online dimension, the environmental issues are delivered only by two senses –visual (background screen color) and aural (background music) (Eroglu et al, 2003; Sautter et al, 2004).

According to Kyrning (2007), the categorization of basic meanings of different colors that can be applied in North American culture is the following: Cool colors tend to have a calming effect and although they are considered to be cold, impersonal, and antiseptics colors, they are also comforting and nurturing; warm colors, they provoke emotions from simple optimism to strong violence, the warmth of red, yellow, pink, or orange can create excitement or even anger; Mixed Warm and Cool Colors, they contain attributes from both the warm and cool colors which can calm and excite at the same time as well as these are colors derived from a mix of a cool and warm color such as blue and red or blue and yellow; neutral colors help to put the focus on the other colors or serve to tone down colors that might otherwise be overpowering on their own. The colors and their attributed meaning are presented in the following table:

Table 1: Colors and attributed meanings, Kyrning 2007. Gage (1999) talked about the colors and their meanings that are specifically applicable to western culture: Blue, Red, White and Grey for Stability, Power, Trustworthiness, and Conservatism; Yellow, Brown, Orange, Green for nature, earthiness, and warmth; Red, Orange, yellow for warmth and energy; Blues and Aqua for water and coolness; Primary colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow), they convey fun.

Concerning the effects of high color saturation, in their recent research Skulmowski et al (2016) proved that due to the fast manner in which the first impressions of website users are formed, negative effects of high color saturation of pictures are all the more important as well as saturation level should be chosen according to the content domain of websites (e.g. entertainment sites and communication sites, lower levels of saturation may strengthen users‘ trust).

In their research, Cheng et al in 2009 concerning the effects of music and background color on online customers‘ emotional responses, they produced significant results: Fast music succeed in higher level of arousal and pleasure than slow music while the use of cool color assists lower levels of arousal and pleasure than warm colors, showing us that these ambient attributes may create a desired

environment for enticing and retaining target customers successfully or moreover even reduce online buyers‘ risk perceptions, the perceived waiting time of page downloads and to facilitate decision making. Given that customers respond to the environments to which they are exposed holistically, all ambient cues are bonded together as a unity in manipulating consumers‘ actions.

Concerning the presence of video clips in a website, Kim & Mattila in their research conducted in 2011 proved that within the hotel industry, hotel operators use video clips to portray their products and services on the Internet. Customers reported that video clips are very important because they provide visual evidence of products/ services and the overall service quality as well as this visual representation facilitates the reduction of uncertainty in experiential services. At the same time, these video clips need to be easily accessed quickly and efficiently. In addition, Jeong and Choi (2004) suggest that well-designed websites are very important for hotels in order to interact with customers and to induce loyalty. Concluding, to successfully attract and retain customers, the virtual servicescape (e.g. video clips showing virtual human interaction) is particularly critical because it is the key artifact representing the firms‘ services to customers (Rafaeli and Pratt, 2005).

2.5.3.2 The impact of atmospherics in online shopping behavior

In 1974, Kotler defined atmospherics as the aware design of the store environment to affect the consumer in a positive way. Another research in atmospherics conducted by Fiore et al. in 2000 pointed out the effect of environmental stimuli on approach-avoidance responses such as behavioral intention, and behavior towards a product. Fiore and Kimle (1997) outlined that consumers evaluate the stimulation of senses, arousal or expression of their emotions and comprehension of symbolic content (e.g. creation of a fantasy image) deriving from sensory, affective and cognitive pleasure respectively. Other researches focused on the results of atmospheric cues as lightning, color and scent in a traditional brick and mortar environment.

Pertaining to the online store environment, Bjork (2010) stated that atmospherics are the website features that stimulate emotional responses. Furthermore, ―the shopping environment on a website is the venue for e-service

experiences. The virtual storefront perceived by the online shoppers is defined by identified website features, of which some are atmospherics stimulating emotional responses, which in turn influence shopping behavior and outcome‖ (Eroglu, 2001). Thus, web design is about building a functioning, rich in content, well organized, interactive and aesthetic website that stimulate positive emotional customers‘ responses. Websites are created for different purposes i.e. to sell, serve speak, save and/or sizzle (5 Ss), to gain customers and to retain customers. If the customers‘ experience of the use of a specific website is positive they will return to it, will become satisfied and this may lead to customer loyalty (Bjork, 2010).

In their study on atmospherics in hotel industry, Sarkar & Loureiro (2012) argued that atmospherics are perceived as ―any component of websites created by the hotel industries to attract the tourists worldwide along with the individual‘s perceptual field and that stimulates its acoustic and visual senses‖. In order to increase responses from consumers, the responsible designing of web environments makes a hotel perfect to create the positive emotion of web users. Due to the fact that visual appeal is very crucial and website atmosphere helps the consumer to feel the internal and external environment of the hotel and this may create the positive emotional responses in users‘ mind and it helps to increase the consumer responses for longer time as well as purchase intention in the future or consumer revisit and browse of websites, the pictures or the design of web environment should be very consciously. Eroglu et al. (2003) demonstrated that site atmospherics have a positive impact on pleasure and arousal and both of which have a subsequent positive effect on satisfaction and approach/avoidance behaviors.

2.5.4 Usability

In general, Lee and Koubek (2010) argued that traditionally a good website is highly correlated with the user and usability with the websites with high usability retaining user-friendly and user-centered interface and other functions to gain great success. In 2002, Rosson and Carroll defined usability as ‗‗the quality of an interactive computer system with respect to ease of learning, ease-of-use, and user satisfaction‘‘ while Nielsen connected usability with learnability, memorability, efficiency, errors and satisfaction (Nielsen, 1993). As reported by International Standard Organization (ISO), usability is described as an outcome ―the extent to

which a product can be used by specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use‖. Effectiveness is the level of accuracy and completeness up to which users complete their objectives using a website, such as collection of information or purchase performance (ISO, 1998) and is analogous to the functionality that users gain during their visit in the particular website. Efficiency is related with the resources available to users for achieving their objectives without putting much effort, as for example more efficient are considered the websites containing simple design features which characterize the websites as easy to read and learn. Finally, satisfaction is ―the comfort and acceptability of a website to its users‖, with ―options to support the users as FAQ, real-time chatting with customer support personnel, and reliable, secure and privacy-guaranteed services, increasing the satisfaction‖ (Lee and Kozar, 2012). Thus, website usability is recognized as a multifaceted concept that combines effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction within the website design.

In order to measure in what extent online customers‘ perceptions and behaviors are affected by website usability, many researchers identified website usability factors. For example, Gehrke and Turban (1999) presented the following website usability measurement factors: page loading, navigation efficiency, download time, successful search rate, error rates, task completion time and frequency of the cursor movement. In the same year, Spool et al noted the ease of use, readability, content quality, fun, productivity, completeness, and relevance. Nielsen (2000) suggested navigation, response time, credibility and content.

Lee and Kozaz (2012) in their effort to identify common dimensions of website usability feature conducted an extensive literature review of previous academic documents and finally came up with the following list: consistency, supportability, learnability, simplicity, interactivity, telepresence and readability.

2.5.5 Interactivity

One of the most critical design elements in commercial websites may be their interactivity (Auger, 2005). Interactivity is defined as ―the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and content of a mediated environment in real time‖ (Steuer, 1992); and ―the extent to which the communicator and the audience respond

to or are willing to facilitate each other‘s communication needs‖, while ―the outcomes of interactivity are engagement in communication and relationship building between a company and its target consumers‖ (Ha and James, 1998). Spatler (1995) proposed that ―the key to interactivity rests in involving and capturing users‘ attention, by enabling them to control their own experience and communications‖.

As an important concept in computer assisted communications, interactivity of a website is said to be an impulsive element for the use of a website and a critical attribute that leads to high website quality. Wu (1999) referred to the positive effects of users‘ perceived satisfaction, effectiveness, efficiency, value and overall attitude towards the website deriving from an augmented level of interactivity.

The dimensions of interactivity are stated from the views of many researchers: Emerick (1995) concluded that dialogue, research, service, support, lead acquisition, and ordering are major dimensions of interactivity; Anderson (1996) gave five forms of interactivity: information flow, message availability, immediacy of feedback, type of perception, and customization of content; Ha and James (1998) proposed that interactivity consists of five dimensions capable of fulfilling different communication needs: playfulness, choice, connectedness, information collection, and reciprocal communication; Roehm and Haugtvedt (1999) suggested that interactivity has two dimensions: control and message.

Ghose and Dou (1998) proposed a list of functions of a website that are characterized by interactivity of customers with the firm encompassing software downloading, online problem diagnostics, electronic-form inquiry, order status tracking, comment, feedback, site survey, product survey, new product proposal, key word search, personal choice helper, virtual reality display, electronic coupons, user groups, online order, sweepstakes/prize, multimedia show, push media, interactive job placement, electronic postcard, surfer postings, and games.

2.5.6 Useful information

The quality of information is a topic for research since it is the introduction of websites into organizational structure and this is the reason why many researchers discussed about this quality and its dimensions (Ho & Lee, 2007; Kim & Lee, 2004;

Jeong & Lambert, 2001; Yang et al., 2005; Zeithaml, et al., 2002). Many of these studies underlined the importance of information quality as long as the information accuracy, timeliness and sufficiency (Delone & McLen, 1992; Doll & Torkzadeh, 1988; Yang et al., 2005). In a common sense, information always should be quickly updated and also be valid and as Spiliopoulou (2000) suggested the content of information directly influences current customers‘ or potential customers‘ perceptions and finally the evaluation of the usefulness of a website.

The purpose of information within a website is clear: helps in describing the firm‘s offering (characteristics of product/ service) in detail, presenting the prices offered and additionally for supplementary services, include contact information of the firm and in many cases hyperlinks to other relevant websites (Yang et al, 2005). Completeness, diversity, clarity, accuracy, timeliness and reliability are all attributes that facilitate the understanding of the importance of information in firms‘ websites (Jeong & Lambert, 2001; Madu & Madu, 2002, Yang et al., 2005).

Concluding, a conceptual framework for hotel website performance measurement developed by Chung & Law (2003) they came up with five categories of website information, namely facilities information, customer contact information, reservations information, surrounding area information, and management of website information.

2.5.7 Personalization/ Customization

Personalized/ customized websites can provide tailored services that fit individual customers‘ needs and meet their expectations, maximizing their conveniences save their time and increase the overall perceived quality of the websites (Ho & Lee, 2007; Madu & Madu, 2002). This can be succeeded by hotels using databases recording customers‘ activities, preferences and purchase history and store them in order to memorize these preferences and recognize customers upon their log-in. This is considered as a personalized service and facilitates customers‘ feeling of confidence and their will to return to the particular website for repeat the purchase (Ho & Lee, 2007; Madu & Madu, 2002; Kim & Lee, 2004; Yang et al, 2005). For Measuring this attribute of personalization/ customization, websites provide questions

to customers for their preferences as room types, proximity from the elevator, level of floor, crib, and wheelchair accessibility, and so on ( Ho & Lee, 2007).

2.5.8 Accessibility

Website accessibility is associated with the capability of online users to have access in resources of the website. The challenge that expert face is that not only they may provide information on a website but also information may be perceived from customers as accessible (Jeong and Lambert, 2001). In addition, Cox and Dale (2001) relate the concept of accessibility with the ease of connectivity and download speed. Accessibility refers also to the ease of linking to other relevant websites and the capability to facilitate customers‘ purchase decisions (Jeong & Lambert, 2001; Madu & Madu, 2002).

2.5.9 Privacy/ Security

Privacy and security concept is a sensitive concept for online customers due to the fact that a website collects and stores personal information of customers for using them in future transactions. Kim and Lee (2004) advised that privacy/ security include transactional functions with the aim of making the customers to feel that the use of the website is simple and user-friendly in performing the transactions. Since customers purchase the firms‘ offerings not traditionally with cash or credit cards but online, they consider the safety of the purchasing transaction (e.g. protected credit card information, possibility of resolving any transactional problem occurred) (Madu and Madu, 2002). As Madu and Madu (2002) proposed that online service should be offered in a reliable and dependable manner in order to help customers feel comfortable with the transaction and hence to have trust to the website; thus, privacy/ security are considered to be one of the most significant key dimensions of website overall quality and ultimately customer loyalty toward a website (Zeithaml et al, 2002).

2.5.9.1 E-trust

Trust is essential because customers need the feeling of control or at least to understand the social environment in which they live and interact (Gefen & Staub,

2003). According to Chen and Barnes (2007), trust is defined as the combination of ―a set of distinct beliefs consisting of integrity, benevolence, and ability‖ and ―feelings of conﬁdence and security in the caring response of the other party‖ (Chen and Barnes, 2007). In the discussion about trust or the customers‘ confidence in a firm‘s website reliability, findings show that customers who trust organizations are willing to accept vulnerability in their interactions as a consequence of honest fulfillment of firm‘s transactional commitment exactly as promised to the customers. Accordingly, the website trust concept relies on the level of positive impressions of the customer interactions with the firm, followed by vulnerability accepted by customers. Yoon in 2002 reported the six factors that form the online trust as following: Security assurance, firms install assurance attributes that follow the transactions for providing security sense to customers (i.e. Visa logos); Brand represents the credibility of a firm depending on the firm‘s reputation or past experience for purchasers; Search, gives convenience in exploration; Fulﬁllment, equips accurate information on processing orders and in cases that several issues occur how to resolve them; Presentation, how different attributes are displayed depicting quality and technology; Technology, technical synchronous excellence.

These factors mentioned above speak for the essence of trust and are related to personality attributes such as dependability, reliability, and honesty. When online potential customers notice these factors within a site, they perceive the authenticity and continuously lower the amount of new information needed in order to buy (Sung- Joon Yoon, 2002). At this point, it is important to mention that e-commerce may bring to online customers need the feeling of control or at least to understand the social environment in which they live and interact Therefore, in order to increase customers‘ website trust, the perceived risk must be eliminated by making them believing that the products or service offers are honest as promised and not firms only carrying of profits, and helping them with any problems occurred (Kuhn and Petzer, 2015). Moreover, Yoon in 2002 studied on how familiarity with electronic commerce and satisfaction with previous online transactions affected the web user‘s website trust and satisfaction. The ﬁndings of this research pointed out that firms which wish to build online trust to their websites and therefore motivate higher usage and familiarity, have to provide a satisfying online individually positive experience that stimulates memory-resident positive imagery of the ﬁrm. Yoon (2002) illustrated the

three dimensions of online trust, explaining in each of these categories the mechanisms of online trust as sub-categories: Technical-based, i.e. web searching, technology and presentation; Uncertainty of transactions and security, i.e. security assurance; Competency-based, i.e. reputation, fulﬁllment and interactions.

In their research Harris and Goode (2010) concluded that ―there are strong links between online consumers‘ evaluations of servicescape, trust of a web site, and purchase intentions and what we call ―e-servicescape‖, is not only an important factor in the dynamics of online exchange, but also (ultimately) a strong determinant of online shoppers‘ purchase intentions‖. The same opinion was stated also by Yoon (2002) proposing that website trust and satisfaction are highly correlated with each other and together with online purchase intention. Last but not least attribute highly connected with online trust in e- services is online customers‘ loyalty which is going to be further analyzed in our review.

Hence, trust reduces anxiety feelings of customers while they are to make a decision and enables long term relationships with them (Kumar et al, 1995). In online transactions, potential customers spend precious time in thinking about money losses and abuse of their personal information (Bart et al, 2005). In particular, in hospitality industry customers are confronted with the uncertainty and risks of the high-value purchases of hotel rooms. Wang et al (2014a) conducted a research pertaining to hospitality sector and determined that e-trust has three dimensions; integrity, ability and benevolence. In detail, integrity deals with online customers perceptions of the level up to which hotel website will fulfill their expectations; ability is about the customers‘ perceptions of whether a hotel website acquire the essential skill and knowledge in order to perform the services with responsibility; and benevolence refers to ―trust as an expectation which is a result of goodwill—that firms will not act opportunistically, even given the chance‖ (Ganesan, 1994).

After looking through the relative literature, concerning certain attributes of website service quality (i.e. usefulness of information, website usability, accessibility, privacy security, aesthetics/design, and personalization/customization), it was detected that further concur with e-servicescape basic dimensions. The aforementioned attributes were selected to be examined in terms of their correlation

with website service quality. Hence, the first hypothesis of the study is constructed as following:

H1: E-servicescape dimensions are positively associated with perceived website service quality of a hotel owned website.

2.6 Customer satisfaction

―To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business‖ was stated by Peter Drucker (1973). The concept of customer satisfaction becomes an integral part of Marketing thought and practice as in line with Churchill and Surprenant (1982) satisfaction is ―a major outcome of marketing activity and serves to link processes culminating in purchase and consumption with post purchase phenomena such as attitude change, repeat purchase, and brand loyalty‖. A company who desires achieving customer satisfaction has better first to recognize and foresee the customers‘ needs and being required to fulfill them (Barsky & Nash, 2003). Firms‘ key to success and long-run competitiveness is often based on customer satisfaction with a company‘s products or services (Hennig-Thurau & Klee, 1997).

The formulation of customer satisfaction as an evaluation of emotion (Hunt, 1977), has been systematically used since today. Rust and Oliver (1994) further suggest that customer satisfaction mirror the level up to which a customer believes that the possession or use of a service evokes positive feelings. Barsky & Nash (2003) define customer satisfaction as ―the outcome of customer‘s perception of the value received in a transaction or relationship, where value equals perceived service quality, compared to the value expected from transactions or relationships with competing vendors‖. According to Oliver (1997) customer satisfaction in general means customer reaction to the state of fulfillment, and customer judgment of the fulfilled state. Kotler (2000) describes satisfaction as the result of customers‘ feeling of disappointment or pleasure derives from the comparison between the perception of product/ service provision and their expectations of this provision. Meantime, customer satisfaction is defined as an overall positive or negative feeling about the clean value of services offered by firms (Barnes et al, 2004).

An important note at this point is that customer satisfaction can be further viewed in two different broad senses: On the one hand, satisfaction may be seen as an emotional response to performance on specific attributes of a service encounter, and thus it is a transaction specific satisfaction while, on the other hand, when satisfaction occurs after more than one repeated transactions it seems to be a cumulative result or otherwise an overall satisfaction (Shankar et al., 2003). Accordingly, within the online context, when customer purchases for the first time from a new service provider, such as making a hotel reservation, website satisfaction is likely to be transaction specific; whereas, in the case of repeating customers who have been buying from the same online service provider, satisfaction is likely to be a cumulative outcome.

Anderson et al. (1994) proposed that the overall satisfaction lies basically on the experience and satisfaction while purchasing products or services; ―it is an emotional evaluation and process of comparison between a pre-consumption expectation and the post-consumption perceived performance‖.

Many researchers so far examined the customer satisfaction to be initially a function of the perceived overall service quality (Cronin & Taylor, 1994; Chang, 2005). According to the previously mentioned two categories of customer satisfaction as transactional satisfaction and overall satisfaction, the customers‘ overall satisfaction reflects the cumulative impression of the service providers‘ performance and further may be a predictor of customer loyalty.

Anderson and Srinivasan (2003) searched about the impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in the context of e-commerce, and defined e- satisfaction as the pleasure of the customer regarding his or her prior purchasing experience with a given e-commerce firm. Wangenheim (2003) also has the similar definition of customer satisfaction, defining it as the outcome of a comparison between expected and perceived performance throughout the customer relationship. Anderson and Srinivasan (2003) gave their definition of e-satisfaction ―as the contentment of the customer with respect to his or her prior purchasing experience with a given electronic commerce firm‖ adding the opinion that displeased customers are more likely to go for alternative information, or redefine the relationship with the service provider than is a satisfied customer. Oliver (1997) and Taylor & Baker (1994) explained that customer satisfaction and service quality are two different

constructs but they are highly inter-connected. Many marketing researchers also seem to accept a theoretical framework in which quality leads to satisfaction (Chang, 2006a; Dabholkar et al, 2000), which in turn influences purchasing behavior (Chiu et al, 2005; Johnson & Gustafsson, 2000; Oliver, 1999). These arguments suggest that e- service quality is likely to affect customer satisfaction.

After defining customer‘s satisfaction, another hypothesis comes into view:

H2: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer‘s overall satisfaction.

2.7 Customer Intention to Return-Retention

In mature and highly competitive markets, especially in service industries such as banking, telecommunications, hotels and airlines, research has proved that the profitability of firms increases as customer retention increases (Fornell & Wernerfelt, 1987; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). High customer retention means customers of the product or business tend to return to, continue to buy or in some other way not defect to another product or business, or to non-use entirely. It was found that increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent, profits are increased by 25-95 percent (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). In online channels, where customer loyalty is even more significant because of the high costs of acquiring new customers, researchers have proposed that organizations should focus on using strategies for customer retention toward superior customer value delivery; customer value is the key antecedent of customer retention (Slater, 1997; Woodruff, 1997). The customer value concept proposes value is ―the trade-off between the qualities of benefits (consumers) perceive in a product relative to the sacrifice they perceive by paying the price‖ (Monroe, 1990). If the quality and price are considered as the keys for value perceptions, the service quality is the driver marketing component that facilitates the creation of customer satisfaction (Perrault & Frederick, 1974). In contrast with price comparisons on the internet, service quality (non-price competitive advantage) is more important in customer retention and attraction of new clientele (Liu & Arnett, 2000). Besides, the sense of loyalty to an internet firm‘s service package better that the competitors‘ is what makes customers come back (Hoff et al., 1998). It is

normally believed that e-serviscape dimensions are associated with customer retention; hence:

H3: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website.

H4: Overall customer satisfaction of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website.

2.8 Customer Loyalty

Apart from customer satisfaction that is found not to be enough since it is not certain that satisfied customers return purchase again ((Dube et al., 1994), customer loyalty is a broaden aspect of the simple customer satisfaction and a key-determinant for firms‘ success (Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998).

Being a dominant attribute of hotel firms‘ success, customer loyalty has become a newsworthy topic for research and practice. Due to changes in lifestyle during the last decades (i.e. changes in working patterns, eating habits, travel needs, expansion of a cosmopolitan community) the hotel service offerings are not anymore luxuries, but necessities. The competition for firms is intense while, at the same time, customers are provided with a great variety of choices, meaning that it is really difficult for organizations to maintain a loyal customer base (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2003).

Hence, hospitality companies investigate ways to differentiate themselves among competitors, with the less preferable strategy to be pricing; firms‘ image can be negatively affected by price in terms of medium-term and long-term profitability (Ernst &Young, 1996) as it does not facilitate in creating a long-term loyal audience ((Schultz & Bailey, 2000; Scott, 2001) but attracts new customers (Kandampully & Suhartano, 2003). Additionally, customers always mind of the switching costs related with finding a new service provider, avoiding them and they turn out to be loyal customers (Lee & Cunningham, 2001). Specifically, it is proved that attracting a new customer is five times more costly to firms rather than maintain the existing ones (Holmund & Kock, 1996) while in the other hand, the growth of the profitability of a

customer is succeeded in a long-term period (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Moreover, in his research, Gronroos (2000) stated that loyal customers save costs by purchase services from a familiar service provider as well as they are more willing to pay premium prices for their choices. Thus, practitioners find that the most advantaged strategy is to make your customers loyal in a long-term basis (Kandampully & Suhartano, 2003) with Cummesson (1999) to add the opinion that ―return on relationship‖ has positive long-term outcomes in financial context.

Many definitions of loyalty are encompassed in academic literature, among them there are some definitions reflecting the point of view of customers and others that state loyalty from service providers‘ part. The term ―service loyalty‖ was used by Gremler and Brown (1997) from customer‘s side and defined that ―Service loyalty is the degree to which a customer exhibits repeat purchasing behavior from a service provider, possesses a positive attitudinal disposition toward the provider, and considers using only this provider when a need for this service arises‖. In the same time, from provider‘s side, Kandampully and Duddy (1999) stated that service loyalty speak for ―an organization‘s commitment to its customers-to think, anticipate and innovate products and services in accordance with customers‘ evolving needs‖. Bloemer and Odekerken-Schroder (2002) illustrated the multidimensional nature of customer loyalty, comprised by purchase intention, recommendations, price tolerance, word-of-mouth, complain behavior and propensity to leave. Jones and Sasser (1995), proposed that customer loyalty is a customer‘s feeling of belonging or identification with the employees, products/ services of a firm, with these senses to have a direct impact on customer behavior. Hence, customer loyalty is a customer‘s sense of identification with a firm, with this sense to affect repurchases intentions, spending amount, the possibility of recommendation, and even the willingness to become part of a business (Cheng, Shih-I, 2011).

In online context, Anderson and Srinivasan (2003) identified the augmented interest of e-commerce companies in understanding, nurturing, and keeping their profitable existing customers and defined e-loyalty as ―the customer‘s favorable attitude toward an electronic business resulting in repeat buying behavior‖. Keller (1993) introduced the concept of loyalty as the repeated purchasing behavior for a period of time that is driven by favorable attitude toward the subject and additionally

he pointed the significance of both attitudinal and behavioral aspects. Both attitudinal and behavioral dimensions of loyalty are considered to be critical (Kumar and Shah, 2006; Lam et al, 2004; Fullerton, 2005; Bove et al, 2009); attitudinal loyalty pertains to consumers‘ identification with a certain service provider and their inclination of a product/ service over alternative choices as well as behavioral loyalty refers to customers who intend to repurchase the same brand and by that, maintain the relationship with a particular service provider (Jones & Taylor, 2007; Andreasen & Lindestad, 1998). Behaviorally loyal customers (substantial approach) have actual purchasing behavior while attitudinally loyal customers (psychological approach) is not sure that they will purchase themselves and bring direct profits, but they will help in creation of a favorable image of a firm to others, through word-of –mouth (Cheng Shih-I, 2011). Concluding, a true loyal customer is committed and attached towards the retailer and it is difficult to be distracted to another alternative offering (Shankar et al, 2003).

It is believed that e-servicescape dimensions may influence customer loyalty on a hotel owned website. Thus, it is posited:

H5: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website.

H6: Customer return intention to a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website.

2.9 Interrelationships

2.9.1 Website service quality-customer satisfaction

Most studies supported that customer satisfaction is chiefly based on service quality. Service quality is the antecedent of customer satisfaction (Bolton & Drew, 1991; Host & Knie-Anderson, 2004); indeed, the higher the service quality, the more satisfied the customers are based on their evaluation of the post-purchase experience (Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Anderson & Sullivan, 1993). Concerning the relationship between service quality and loyalty it is argued that service quality -of either core or peripheral services- does not affect directly customer loyalty, but only through

customer satisfaction (Ibanez et al., 2006). In the online context, it is hypothesized that:

H7: Hotel website service quality is positively influencing the customer‘s overall satisfaction.

2.9.2 Customer satisfaction-customer loyalty

In hospitality industry, much research has been conducted in order to analyze the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Getty & Thompson, 1994; Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2003) proving that their relationship is almost intuitive in the lodging experiences. In his recent study, Oliver (1999) proved that satisfaction brings loyalty; although as Jones and Sasser (1995) found that the structure of different industries is the reason why this relationship often varies. In online environments, firms are only a mouse click away from competitors‘ offers, so it is demanding that organizations identify the ways to build customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is the most widely discussed independent variable in studies on customer loyalty (Ibanez et al., 2006; Auh and Johnson, 2005; Host & Knie- Anderson, 2004; Hellier et al., 2003). Commonly, e-satisfaction is assumed to be a natural antecent to e-loyalty, with the effects of e-satisfaction to e-loyalty are depending on individual variables (i.e. inertia, convenience motivation, size of the purchase) as well as company variables (i.e. trust and perceived value) (Anderson & Srinivasan, 2003). Bei and Chiao (2001) conducted their research pointing out that the higher the customer satisfaction, the higher the loyalty to the company. Reichheld and Saser (1990) state that enhanced customer satisfaction will affect the probability of repeat purchases. Tailor and Baker (1994) specified that customer satisfaction is positively correlated to purchase intention while Fornell et al. (1996) also determined that the attitude of customer satisfaction is created right after customers purchase merchandise of services. Concluding, the higher is the satisfaction, the greater is the probability of repeat purchase and this leads to increased attitudinal loyalty and spread recommendations to other customers via word-of-mouth; hence customer satisfaction has a positive impact on both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty (Cheng, Shih-I, 2011). Therefore, it is posited:

H8: Customer overall satisfaction of the use of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty.

2.10 A Conceptual Framework

Based upon the frameworks of previous studies of loyalty, the conceptual framework of this study posits different influence of e-servicescape dimensions on perceived website quality and customer overall satisfaction, direct effect of perceived website service quality on customer overall satisfaction, direct effect of customer overall satisfaction on customer return intention and customer loyalty and finally the direct association of customer return intention with customer loyalty. E-serviscape dimensions are determined: useful information, usability, accessibility, privacy/security, aesthetics/design, and personalization/customization. In the following table the hypotheses setting according to literature review.

Table 2: Hypotheses of conceptual theoretical framework

Additionally, the hypotheses correlation is presented in figure 4:

Figure 4: A framework of e-servicescape dimensions affecting customer loyalty

2.11 Georgalas Sun Beach Resort: subject of research application

The website that was chosen to be demonstrated in the research is the website of Georgalas Sun Beach Resort. Since 2001, Georgalas Sun Beach Resort is a major player in hotel services among regional competitors. Maintaining 27 rooms, the hotel is a very profitable company since its establishment. The coastal company is located three miles from the center of Nea Kallikrateia, Chalkidiki-Greece and 35 kilometers from Thessaloniki-Greece and 25 kilometers from Macedonia International Airport (SKG). The hotel is open only for summer season (from 1st of April to 31st of October) and occupies the total of 27 people as seasonal personnel, willing to host its visitors and provide them with comfortable rooms with the large verandas and the magnificent sea view, in combination with the numerous services provided by the modern hotel unit at the disposal of those who want to spend their holiday in one of the most tourist destinations of hotel Chalkidiki. Among the accommodation services, the company acquires a sea-side restaurant is open all day long and offers exquisite

traditional meals in a pleasant and friendly environment; it offers a wide variety of traditional Greek appetizers as well as fresh sea food and fish. Moreover, all summer long, situated on the sandy beach in front of the hotel, Beach Café offers its guests moments of relaxation and insouciance in combination with refreshing beverages and drinks.

Since the company has adopted the online presence according to the stream of the online context of business globally, owns a website for the representation of the services provided as well as the booking of rooms.

In the home page, the visitor of the website can find the representation of the company‘s offers included in different sections, each one for a different purpose. In ―Hotel Accommodation‖ tab the user of the website can find useful information of the different room types available and the equipment of each type of room as well as next to information, a tab of direct booking command is also available as ―Book Now‖. Additionally, with the second element of the menu ―Villa Accommodation‖, the owner of the website separates clearly the existence of quality upgraded types of rooms that are also available, the ―Villas‖, with the exact information of these facilities. Thirdly, in ―Location‖ sector, the website visitors can find all the appropriate information of the location of the hotel, even the coordinates of the hotel facilities. Within the ―Services‖ sector, all the services that are being provided are accessible in combination with colorful photographs (i.e. free Wi-Fi, printer & fax use, rent a car, credit cards, room cleaning, taxi services, wake-up call, satellite TV, restaurant, bar, beach bar, free parking facilities). Furthermore, the hotel manager presents the particular service of the Restaurant Georgalas and the beach bar ―Wet on the Beach‖ that are located in front of the hotel facilities; and a gallery of delightful photos accompany the information of these service provision details as well as the Greek Breakfast that the visitors can enjoy there. Moreover, visitors can find a contact form in ―Contact us‖ section, where customers can communicate directly with the Georgalas hotel personnel. In ―Online Booking‖ tab, the hotel website connects the visitors straight to the form of accommodation booking engine for immediate online bookings. The website provides the choices of two languages; Greek and English as well as a frame with the special offers at customer‘s disposal. At the bottom of the website what is also available is useful links with other traveller opinion webpages

(e.g. Trivago.gr, Tripadvisor.com, Holidaycheck.de, Halkidikitravel.gr, and Greekbreakfast.gr) and social media links.

CHAPTER 3-RESEARCH

3.1 Methodology

Chapter 2 provide the theoretical background of this research study focusing on e-servicescape attributes, customer perception of website service quality dimensions, overall customer satisfaction, customer retention and customer loyalty; with the aforementioned literature review the conceptualization of the model is supported. For the purpose of this study, the relationships among antecedents of perceived website service quality (useful information, usability, accessibility, privacy/security, aesthetics/design, personalization/customization) and their consequences (customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention) were examined in the context of the particular website of Georgalas Hotel. According to Burns and Bush (2014), ―Marketing research is the process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem‖. Hence, this chapter primarily discusses the characteristics of the sample, validity and reliability of research, survey instrument development, data collection and data analysis. The sample section describes the details of sample characteristics. The reliability and validity section illustrates these as characteristics of the research. In the instrument section, the measurement scales and internal consistency among measurement items were described. In the data collection section, the procedures of data collection were illustrated. An analytic procedure of data analysis was discussed in the last section of this chapter.

3.2 Sample

The kind of the sample is mainly a non-probability sample and specifically convenience sampling, as respondents were chosen because it was easily accessible, available and willing to take part. The target population (past users of Georgalas Hotel website) was hard to be identified because it was very specific and the availability of them being questioned was limited. On the contrary, this type of sample runs the risk of being biased (that is, not being representative of the target population), so it is dangerous to draw any strong inferences from them (Kitchenham & Pfleeger, 2002). Nevertheless, this kind of sampling is a commonly accepted technique as it is used in

numerous of studies so far. This is the reason why it is adopted in current research, always keeping in mind that the interpretation shall not be generalized. The population of the study was travel website users in Greece who are 18 years old and older. This study was based on a demonstration of the website of Georgalas hotel and participants acquirement of know how to use Internet and generally to travel and visit travel websites. The questionnaire was distributed in Greek language due to the Greek nationality of participants; the aim was to gain as much as of the attendance and to avoid losing a number of them because of their lack of English language skills. The distribution channel used was the email and social networks (i.e. Facebook). Participants were not offered compensation and they were assured that and their answers will remain confidential under anonymity.

According to Wiid & Diggines (2009), the sample size is often based on the researcher‘s individual judgment which in turn is based on elements such as intuition, industry standards, experience, the number of available resources and previous research studies. Additionally, in non-probability samples, sample size formulas are not applicable and the sample size decision is rather subjective and intuitive since it is based on previous studies and industry standards (Hair et al., 2013). Hence, in this study, the sample size equals to n=161 participants.

3.3 Validity and reliability of research

Before data is analyzed and interpreted, it is imperative to assess the validity and reliability of the measurement scales contained in the questionnaire of the research study (Malhotra, 2010). Accordingly:

Validity illustrates whether the questions truly measure accurately what they are supposed to measure; ultimate validity requires that there is no kind of measurement error (Malhotra & Birks, 2006). As Field and Hole (2003) suggested, validity is formed of content validity, criterion validity and factorial validity; content validity indicates that the questions must be related with the construct that researcher want to measure; criterion validity shows whether the survey is measuring the initial target set in the beginning; and factorial validity examines whether the questions including sub-dimensions could finally be merged as parts of the initial question. Errors occurred in validity are related to poorly formulation of the questions which do

not measure what was set and hence lying. Pertaining to this study, the validity is preserved as the questions were adopted based on earlier studies (Ho & Lee, 2007; Yang et al., 2005), because such questions have already been tested in use. Despite that fact, the correlation coefficient matrix illustrated in table 5 explains the content, construct and criterion validity.

Reliability, in turn, means the extent to which measures are free from random error; reliability estimates show the amount of measurement error in a test; reliability coefficient shows whether the test designer structured the collection of items correctly in order to get interpretable statements including individual differences (Cronbach, 1951). As a result of a few questions, poor interrelatedness between items or heterogeneous constructs the researcher may find a low value of alpha while a high value of alpha may suggest that some items are redundant as they are testing the same question but in a different guise; a maximum alpha value of 0.90 has been recommended (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). With the aim of improving reliability, more questions could be added for measuring the same attribute, the sample size may be increased and each question should be accurately defined (Field & Hole, 2003). In this study where the questionnaire was necessary to be as short as possible, reliability was assured by using Cronbach‘s alpha reliability test. A cutoff point of .70 for Cronbach‘s coefficient alpha recommended by Nunnally (1978) was used for the consistency of the measures. Cronbach‘s coefficient alpha of all the constructs in the particular reliability test ranged from .705 to .884. Table 4 presents the results (in detail the calculations of Cronbach‘s a tests are available in Appendix B).

3.4 Survey Instrument Development

Based upon the theoretical framework and the extensive literature review, a total of 35 questions were included in the survey. The questions were scored on different scales; the first 9 questions were scored on a multiple choice form while the rest 26 questions were constructed at a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree.

The preface of the questionnaire explains that the aim of the study is to obtain feedback regarding respondents‘ opinions as well as ensures respondents that the survey is voluntary and anonymous. Furthermore, it states that the questionnaire

consists of three sections, should take less than 10 minutes, and also explains how respondents should complete the questionnaire. It concludes with a ―Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire‖ and provides the researcher‘s contact details.

The questionnaire was formulated in three sections (see Appendix A). Section A contains four demographic questions: gender; age; level of education; and current occupation. Percentages were calculated to determine the sample profile and statistics are available in Table 2.

Table 3: Demographic characteristics of the population.

Section B included five screening questions about the participants‘ travel habits and online booking experiences: the reason of travelling (business or leisure); the frequency of travelling; whether the participants have ever made an online booking or

not (the participants who negatively answered were not eligible to take part in the survey); the channel participants chose in order to make their online hotel booking; the purposes of using the lodging website(s). The answers given are presented in the following table as percentages of habits and experiences‘ statistics:

Table 4: Travelling habits and online booking experiences of participants

In the third and final section, participants were asked to visit the link ―http://www.hotelgeorgalas.gr/‖ and navigate themselves to the particular hotel website and after the short visit to return back and complete the questions left. The question of Section C contained serviscape dimensions which are simultaneously website quality dimensions, consisting of seven attributes as well as the consequences of perceived service quality. Seven sub-dimensions include the usefulness of

information, usability, accessibility, customer‘s perception of privacy/security, aesthetics/design, and personalization/customization. Consequences of perceived website service quality include customer satisfaction, return intention and customer loyalty toward a website. In the process of developing the survey instrument in this study, service quality scales of websites were predominantly depended on previous empirical studies (Ho & Lee, 2007; Yang et al., 2005). Table 6 illustrates the measurement items used in the instrument and the internal consistencies among the measurement items.

Useful information (a=.808)a

1. The website described complete information about hotel services.

2. The website provided a wide range of information of the hotel and its services such as room amenities and availability, facility information, location, etc. 3. Information of the website was helpful to make my potential purchase decision. Usability (a=.834) 1. It was easy for me to navigate the website. 2. Information search functions on the website were easy to understand and use. Accessibility (a=.705) 1. The website is pulled out in no time. 2. I can access to this website quickly every time whenever I try. Perception of Privacy/security (a=.74) 1. This website has protection of my potential online transaction. 2. Payment would be submitted in a safe mode. 3. I did not have any problem with online payment on an equivalent website before. Aesthetics/design (a=.857) 1. This website used good color coordination. 2. The website showed quality pictures/ video clips of the hotel. 3. The website is comfortable to look at. Personalization/customization (a=.728) 1. I had choices of room types, view selection, or preferred payment method on website.

2. The website accommodated my special request such as quiet room, crib, cot, etc. 3. The website would recognize me when returning and my search preferences would be remembered. Perceived website service quality (a=.874) 1. Overall, the services on this website were excellent in quality. 2. The website provided the exact service quality that I expected or wanted. Overall Satisfaction (a=.864) 1. All in all, I was very satisfied with the website‘s services. 2. The website greatly fulfilled my needs at the time I used it. 3. I didn‘t feel I need to visit other lodging websites to search more information to book a room. Return Intention (a=.806) 1. I want to reuse this website for bookings of my next trip. 2. I want to revisit this website for searching hotel information. Loyalty (a=.884) 1. I would use such a lodging website again. 2. I would have been committed to a similar lodging website. 3. I would recommend this website to my family, friends and acquaintances. a indicates internal consistency among questions using Cronbach‘s alpha

Table 5: Measurement of items of the survey

In order to assess the information usefulness attribute, three questions were asked: whether a lodging website offered helpful, complete, wide range of information of the hotel and its services. The second sub-dimension, usability, was measured using two questions about ease of navigation and ease of information search function. Questions about quickness of accessibility to the website measured accessibility sub-dimension. Privacy/security attribute was assessed by questions whether the website provided protection of online transaction and safe payment methods. Aesthetics/design sub dimension was examined by questions whether the website used good color combination, quality pictures, and comfortable looking. Questions were asked to measure personalization/customization sub-dimension: whether customers‘ preferences were accommodated and whether the website would recognize customers and their preferences when returning to the websites.

Perceived service quality dimension was measured by measurement items asking about customers‘ overall perception of particular websites in terms of excellence in quality and service quality that is matching to the hotel‘s star rating. Overall satisfaction dimension was assessed by customers‘ overall satisfaction with the lodging website‘s services. To assess return intention dimension, questions were asked whether customers wanted to reuse the website to book or search for information in the future. Lastly, customer loyalty dimension was measured asking questions whether customers would use particular website frequently with commitment in this kind of website and attempted to recommend the website to people they know.

Finally, the questionnaire concludes with the postscript comprising of ―End of the survey. Thank you for your time!‖ as it conveys the gratitude of the researcher towards those respondents who took the time and made the effort to complete the questionnaire.

3.5 Data collection

An online field survey was conducted using a sample of Internet bookers. The Internet bookers were defined as those who have made the purchases with a lodging company in the past. The reason why the online distribution of questionnaires was selected was that a web based survey was more convenient for both researchers and respondents over mail survey, telephone, and personal interviews due to its advantages in saving time and costs of conducting a survey, and avoiding the errors in data entries (Solomon, 2001). Despite the fact that online survey has the drawback of low response rate, due to the number of marketing or junk emails which are send to recipients, it was cost effective, convenient, and quick in return (Crawford, Couper, & Lamias, 2001). Once respondents decide to respond the online survey, it can be completed with several clicks and returned to the researcher momentarily. Also, the online survey enabled researchers to design the survey process more convenient and quicker than other types of surveys by clicking simply the computer mouse. Computer literacy was not a critical issue in this survey, since the sample population was the Internet users to book their hotel rooms. After all, Internet participants appear to be no less motivated than their traditional peers (Gosling et al., 2004) while popular methods such as ―instructional manipulation checks‖ (e.g., Oppenheimer, Meyvis, &

Davidenko, 2009) strongly reserve that participants are focused while completing online surveys and tests. In addition, anonymity in online surveys appears to be more of a benefit than to harm (Joinson, 1999; Simsek & Viega, 2001; Joinson, Woodley, & Reips, 2007).

Pertaining to security of enough number of cases of data and according to researcher‘s available resources, the aim set was the collection of at least 150. Finally, 161 questionnaires were completed and are valid to be included in the study. The web-based survey was conducted for about three weeks as participants were invited in February 2nd were capable of completing the questionnaire until February 25th, 2018. After the first notification containing the questionnaire, the web-based survey link was notified again in order to remind that the survey remained open and to improve the response rate. Among these 161 respondents, all of them were eligible to participate because all of them had made an online reservation of their accommodation in the past and further, hence nobody was excluded and all of them had completed the survey. In total, the response rate was yielded as 100%. No incentives were offered for those who completed the online survey and they were assured that their responses will remain anonymous and confidential. The potential participants were called to take part in this survey hosted by Google as they were asked to click on the hyperlink of the survey website. As it was indicated in the invitation message, the survey was completely voluntary and respondents were able to withdraw from the online survey at any time when they felt like quitting. After respondents finished the questionnaire, they were asked to submit their answers by clicking on submit button. The answers were sent directly to the docs.google.com website, where the researcher had an access to retrieve the data. The researcher had received the complete data collected from the web administrator without records of respondents email address or personal information. The researcher had received only dates and time of the web survey completed and answers that respondents submitted.

3.6 Data Analysis

Data analysis‘ purpose is to prepare, understand and draw conclusions from the data collected from the respondents (Tustin et al., 2005).

Table 2 summarizes the demographic profile of the survey respondents in this study. Of the 161 respondents, 55.9% were male (n=90). Age groups 18-25 years, 26-35 years, 36-45 years, and 46-55 years accounted for approximately 91.4% of the respondents, followed by age group 55 years or older. For level of education, 53.4% of the respondents had completed college degree (n=86), followed by graduate degree (30.4%, n=49) and high school graduates (14.3%, n=23). Concerning their occupation, 34.1% of respondents are full time employees (n=55) followed by self- employed (26.1%, n=42) and part time employees in 14.9 % (n=24).

Table 3 summarizes the travel habits and past online purchase of accommodation services. More than half of the respondents traveled 2 to 4 times a year (59%, n=95) and 14.3% traveled 5 to 11 times a year (n=23) as well as respondents use to travel once a year in the percentage of 13.7% (n=22). All the respondents of the questionnaire had past online booking experience; this is the reason why their answers are accepted for the survey completion. The majority (75.8%) made an online booking through travel agent (n=122) in contrast with the online bookers using the hotel owned websites (24.2%, n=39). The primary purpose of visiting travel websites for most respondents was to check prices and availability (44.7%), right after with 29.7% to gather information, 13% of them for having fun by browsing hotel facility photos and 12.6% for direct intention to book a room.

Prior to analyzing the conceptual model, variables (useful information, usability, accessibility, perception of privacy/security, aesthetics/design, personalization/customization, perceived website service quality, overall satisfaction, return intention, and customer loyalty) were examined for accuracy of data entry, missing values, and outliers for reliability and validity of data distribution. Table 4 illustrates the alpha values for reliability confirmation; all the measurement scales measuring the constructs of this research study can be considered reliable, since they exhibit very good internal consistency reliability. The tool used for conducting the research is the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23.0 version). Concerning validity of data entry, the following table summarizes the correlations among variables:

Table 6: Correlation coefficient matrix of variables

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; correlation is practically significant when r > 0.10 (small effect), r > 0.30 (medium effect) and r > 0.50 (large effect) (Cohen, 1988).

It is evident from table 5 that information sub-dimension of e-servicescape correlates practically and statistically significant with usability sub-dimension (large effect; r=.526), accessibility sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.473), privacy/security sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.455), aesthetics design sub-dimension (large effect; r=.641), personalization/customization sub-dimension (large effect; r=.574), perception of website service quality construct (large effect; r=.654), overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r=.659), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.610), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.625).

Concerning usability sub-dimensions of e-servicescape correlates practically and statistically significant with accessibility sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.433), privacy/security sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.457), aesthetics/design sub-

dimension (large effect; r=.609), personalization/customization sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.427), perception of website service quality construct (large effect; r=.609), overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r=.563), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.611), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.653).

Pertaining to accessibility sub-dimension of e-servicescape correlates practically and statistically significant with privacy/security sub-dimension (small effect; r=.202), aesthetics/design sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.485), personalization/customization sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.430), perception of website service quality construct (medium effect; r=.436), overall customer satisfaction construct (medium effect; r=.469), customer return intention construct (medium effect; r=.388), customer loyalty construct (medium effect; r=.457).

Privacy/security sub-dimension of e-serviscape correlates practically and statistically significant with aesthetics/design sub-dimension (medium effect; r=.442), personalization/customization sub-dimension (large effect; r=.506), perception of website service quality construct (large effect; r=.536), overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r=.520), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.514), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.543).

Aesthetics/ design sub-dimension of e-serviscape correlates practically and statistically significant with personalization/customization sub-dimension (large effect; r=.549), perception of website service quality construct (large effect; r=.769), overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r=.737), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.740), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.815).

Personalization/customization sub-dimension of e-servicescape correlates practically and statistically significant with perception of website service quality construct (large effect; r=.650), overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r- .650), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.549), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.548).

Perception of website quality construct correlates practically and statistically significant with overall customer satisfaction construct (large effect; r=.810), customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.772), customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.805).

Overall customer satisfaction construct correlates practically and statistically significant with customer return intention construct (large effect; r=.794) and customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.812).

Lastly, customer return intention construct correlates practically and statistically significant with customer loyalty construct (large effect; r=.849).

Hence, all the measurement scales measuring the constructs of this research study can be considered valid since they all exhibit content, construct and criterion validity.

The type of analysis used in this research is the Factor analysis. According to literature, Factor analysis is a multivariate statistical approach commonly used in psychology, education, and more recently in the health-related professions; this multivariate statistical procedure that has many uses as reduces a large number of variables into a smaller set of variables, establishes underlying dimensions between measured variables and latent constructs, and provides construct validity evidence of self-reporting scales. Factor analysis has two types; Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor analysis (CFA). In EFA, the researcher does not expect the number or nature of the variables and as the title suggests as it is exploratory in nature allowing the researcher to explore the main dimensions to generate a theory, or model from a relatively large set of latent constructs often represented by a set of items. On the other hand, in CFA the researcher desires to test a proposed theory or model (CFA is a form of Structural Equation Modeling-SEM), and in contrast to EFA, the assumptions and expectations are set beforehand regarding the number of factors, and which factor theories or models best fit (Williams et al., 2010). In this research, for the evaluation of how well the observed data and measurement model fit the structural model SPSS software used provided us with the Factor analysis tool.

Resulting from Factor analysis in SPSS, the following table shows that the significance level of Bartlett‘s Test of the model is greatly accepted as approaching zero value according to Hoe (2008) as his recommended cut-off points are: <0.05=good fit; ≤0.08=acceptable fit; ≤0.10=average fit. For KMO value reaching .939 the fit is perfect as according to Blunch (2011) the recommended cut-off points are ≥ 0.95 or ≥ 0.90 = acceptable fit. These fit indices represent the overall model fit for this research study‘s data.

Table 7: Results of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis

At this point, it is important to illustrate the strength of the hypothesized linkages among variables and relationships between the constructs by referring to the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). An n-way ANOVA (with n being the number of independent variables) attempts to determine if there is a statistically significant difference among variables. A factorial ANOVA compares means across two or more independent variables; for some statisticians, the factorial ANOVA doesn‘t only compare differences but also assumes a cause-effect relationship, inferring that one or more independent, controlled variables (factors) cause the significant difference of one or more characteristics. The way this works is that the factors sort the data points into one of the groups, causing the difference in the mean value of the groups (Turner & Thayer, 2001).

The null hypothesis for an ANOVA is that there is no significant difference among the groups. The alternative hypothesis assumes that there is at least one significant difference among the groups. After cleaning the data, F-ratio was calculated and the associated probability value (p-value). In general, if the p-value associated with the F is smaller than .05, then the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is supported. If the null hypothesis is rejected, one concludes

that the means of all the groups are not equal. Post-hoc tests tell the researcher which groups are different from each other. To determine whether each main effect and the interaction effect are statistically significant, compare the p-value for each term to your significance level to assess the null hypothesis. Usually, a significance level (denoted as α or alpha) of 0.05 works well. If the p-value is less than or equal to the significance level selected, then the effect for the term is statistically significant. If the p-value is greater than the significance level selected, the effect is not statistically significant.

For this research‘s purpose, a Factorial ANOVA analysis was adopted to examine the entire causal linkages among variables using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23.0 version).

Concerning the relationship of H1 hypothesis about e-servicescape dimensions affecting positively the customers‘ perception of website service quality, From correlation coefficient matrix, perceived website service quality was highly correlated with e-servicescape dimensions noting high scores of r values (.436; .536; .609; .650; .654; .769). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of e-servicescape dimensions on perception of website service quality (p<.05). Particularly, it was demonstrated that e-servicescape dimensions positively affect the perception of website service quality.

Table 8: E-servicescape dimensions are positively associated with perceived website service quality of a hotel owned website. Concerning the relationship of H2 hypothesis about e-servicescape dimensions affecting positively the customers‘ overall satisfaction, from correlation coefficient

matrix, customers‘ overall satisfaction was highly correlated with e-servicescape dimensions noting high scores of r values (.469; .520; .563; .650; .659; .737). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of e-servicescape dimensions on overall satisfaction (p<000). Particularly, it was demonstrated that e-servicescape dimensions positively affect the overall customer satisfaction.

Table 9: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer’s overall satisfaction.

Concerning the relationship of H3 hypothesis about e-servicescape dimensions affecting positively the customers‘ return intention, from correlation coefficient matrix, customers‘ return intention was highly correlated with e-servicescape dimensions noting high scores of r values (.388; .524; .549; .610; .611; .740). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was demonstrated that there is a statistically significant effect of e-servicescape dimensions on return intention (p<.05). Particularly, it was indicated that e-servicescape dimensions positively affect the customer return intention.

Table 10: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website.

Concerning the relationship of H4 hypothesis about overall customer satisfaction construct affecting positively the customers‘ return intention, from correlation coefficient matrix, customers‘ return intention was highly correlated with overall customer satisfaction noting high score of r value (.794). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of overall customer satisfaction on customer return intention (p<.05). Particularly, it was demonstrated that customer overall satisfaction positively affect the customer return intention.

Table 11: Overall customer satisfaction of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer return intention to the particular website.

Concerning the relationship of H5 hypothesis about e-servicescape dimensions affecting positively the customer loyalty, from correlation coefficient matrix, customer loyalty was highly correlated with e-serviscape dimensions noting high scores of r values (.457; .543; .548; .625; .653; .815). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of e- servicescape dimensions on customer loyalty (p<.05). Particularly, it was demonstrated that e-servicescape dimensions positively affect customer loyalty.

Table 12: E-servicescape dimensions of a hotel owned website are positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website.

Concerning the relationship of H6 hypothesis about customer return intention affecting positively the customer loyalty, from correlation coefficient matrix, customer loyalty was highly correlated with customer return intention noting high score of r values (.849). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of return intention on customer loyalty (p<.05). Particularly, it was demonstrated that customer return intention positively affects customer loyalty.

Table 13: Customer return intention to a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty toward the particular website.

Concerning the relationship of H7 hypothesis about perceived website service quality affecting positively the customer overall satisfaction, from correlation coefficient matrix, customer overall satisfaction was highly correlated with perceived website service quality noting high score of r value (.810). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of perception of website service quality on customer overall satisfaction. Particularly, it was demonstrated that perceived website service quality positively affect customer overall satisfaction.

Table 14: Hotel website service quality is positively influencing the customer’s overall satisfaction.

Concerning the relationship of H8 hypothesis about customers‘ overall satisfaction affecting positively the customer loyalty, from correlation coefficient matrix, customer loyalty was highly correlated with customers‘ overall satisfaction noting high score of r value (.812). Additionally, according to ANOVA analysis it was indicated that there is a statistically significant effect of customer overall satisfaction on customer loyalty (p<.05). Particularly, it was demonstrated that customer overall satisfaction positively affect customer loyalty.

Table 15: Customer overall satisfaction of the use of a hotel owned website is positively associated with customer loyalty.

Thus, all the hypotheses set in the conceptual framework according to the review of literature are strongly supported as it is illustrated in the following table:

Table 16: Hypotheses test results.

CHAPTER 4-RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Discussion of results

Results of the data analyses are discussed in this chapter. First, the kind of sample chosen for the purposes of this study was mainly a non-probability and specifically convenience sampling as the respondents were easily reachable. In order to avoid bias by choosing this kind of sampling, generalizations for the population will be also avoided although this technique is commonly used in researches. In the particular study the sample size reaches 161 participants.

The survey instrument included the total of 35 questions scored in two different scales (i.e. multiple choice and Likert scale) to construct the questionnaire distributed online. The questionnaire was separated in three sections. In Section A, demographic questions for gender, age, level of education and occupation were answered. It was observed that the majority of respondents were men (55.9%) and the most of the participants were of the age of 26-35 years old with the most common level of education to be college graduation (53.4%) and full time employment as their current occupation (34.1%). Furthermore, Section B included questions on the reason participants travel with the overwhelming majority of 86.3% to travel for their pleasure/leisure at the level of 59% of them to travel 2-4 times a year. All participants had past experience in online hotel booking; otherwise their answer would not be accepted for this research‘s purposes. 75.8% of them have made reservations through intermediate travel agents and only 24.2% have booked their accommodation directly through hotel owned websites. The reasons of visiting a hotel owned website varied among checking availability (44.7%), collecting information before making a room reservation (29.7%), direct intention to book a room (12.6%) and lastly for fun (13%). Right after, participants requested to visit the link of Georgalas Sun Beach Resort in order to evaluate the particular website. Several more questions about e-servicescape dimensions namely useful information, usability, accessibility, perception of privacy/security, aesthetics/design, personalization/customization and perceived website service quality, customer overall satisfaction, return intention and customer loyalty were answered.

Based on the theoretical review of literature six dimensions of e-serviscape participating in the study as independent variables with the aim to investigate their relationship with the dependent variables: website service quality, customer overall satisfaction, customer retention and customer loyalty. It was hypothesized that the six aforementioned dimensions directly affected the four dependent variables in the context of a hotel owned website; scales of the six sub-dimensions of e-serviscape attributes were composited to generate a single variable in order to access the correlations with the other dependent variables. Secondly, the relationship of website service quality as an independent variable is examined in terms of overall customer satisfaction, which in turn is examined in correlation customer retention and customer loyalty. Lastly, the target is to search for the relationship of customer retention with customer loyalty.

After obtaining the answers, the data were tested for their validity and reliability. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23.0 version) was used in this study. Validity testing conducting in terms of variable correlations and finally the questions were assured to measure what was expected; in fact, from correlation coefficient matrix the results indicated large effects of certain variables (r>.5). Reliability of variables and constructs was accordingly assured with Cronbach‘s alpha reliability test.

The next step of the analysis contained the correlation coefficient matrix as a numerical measure of some type of correlation, meaning a statistical relationship between the variables resulting in the inference that all the measurement scales measuring the constructs of this research study can be considered valid since they all exhibit content, construct and criterion validity as well as strong correlations between variables judging from r values.

Finally, ANOVA analysis indicated statistically significant effects among independent and dependent variables pointing directly that all hypothesis of conceptual framework are strongly supported. In particular, the e-servicescape dimensions affect positively the perception of website service quality, customer overall satisfaction, customer return intention and finally customer loyalty. Furthermore, overall customer satisfaction positively influencing customer return intention and customer loyalty. Finally, customer return intention is proved to

positively influence customer loyalty as well as hotel website service quality positively affects overall customer satisfaction.

4.2 Implications of the study

Hospitality management needs to view and think from a customers‘ perspective so that it is helpful for management to meet or exceed customers‘ expectations of website service quality. Chung and Law (2003), however, addressed that many hospitality companies still did not have adequate knowledge to build a useful website to fulfill customer needs while Law and Leung (2000) emphasized the importance of customer needs fulfilled for hospitality websites to succeed and argued the ultimate rewards of the company by providing online customers with valuable services.

On the grounds of this research, findings may be helpful for hospitality practitioners to better understand the sources of customer perceived service quality, as well as customer behavior on their lodging websites. Research‘s discoveries reinforce the hospitality management to establish and implement customer-oriented marketing strategies to increase customer return intention that ultimately enhances customer loyalty. When a customer established return intention, it strongly affects customer loyalty on a hotel website. This means that return intention control customer loyalty more strongly and significantly than the perceived service quality or overall satisfaction does; hence, it is important to evoke customer return intention in order to develop customer loyalty. Hospitality management should put extensive efforts to determine what practices will help a customer evolve his/her return intention to customer loyalty. Based upon these findings, it is believed that hospitality management can design its website to accommodate its customers‘ expectations.

Overall, this study suggests that usefulness of information presented in a websites interface, the level up to online customers find the website usable, accessible, personalized/customized, nice to look at and trustful in had significant positively effects on website service quality, customer overall satisfaction, customer retention and finally customer loyalty. Website service quality influences positively customer overall satisfaction which in turn influences customer retention and customer loyalty. Hence, customer loyalty is also influenced in a positive manner of customer return intention and customer overall satisfaction.

Concluding, the findings of this study should be carefully interpreted from hotel managers, which in turn put their effort in designing efficient websites to communicate well websites‘ purposes. An efficient website design aims to benefit the firm in terms of providing the highest service quality to satisfy customers, making them to return in another purchase and finally the ultimate goal of all firms; to make customers loyal.

4.3 Limitations of the study

One potential limitation of this study involves the data collection. Non- probability samples are created when respondents are chosen because they are easily accessible or the researchers have some justification for believing that they are representative of the population. This type of sampling acquires the risk of being biased (that is, not being representative of the target population), so it is dangerous to draw any strong inferences from them. Certainly it is not possible to draw any statistical inferences from such samples. Convenience sampling used in this research does not represent the entire population of lodging website users and this might cause a generalization problem; thus interpretation and generalization of the findings should be taken with caution.

The second limitation concerns the ANOVA test which in general assumes that the samples used in the analysis are ―Simple random samples‖. This means that a sample of individuals (data points) is taken from a larger population (a larger data pool). The samples must also be independent -- that is, they do not affect each other. ANOVA is generally suitable for comparing means in controlled studies, but when the samples are not independent a repeated measures test must be used.

The third limitation is caused by the time of the season this research run. The website chosen to be demonstrated to participants of the study targets the summer season booking accommodation. During winter season online booking concerning the number of people travelling mainly in coastal resorts is weak. The seasonal nature of tourism is widely recognized in many different countries (Kemperman et al, 2000). Carraher and Parnell (2008) argued that decision making for vacation planning is little affected from hedonic consumption (such as nostalgia and daydreaming). In their research found that late generic decision making is triggered by attempt to eliminate

missed opportunities, waiting for a last-minute offer or more information on particular situational variables; they suggested that the first decisions usually are made at about January–February. Later on (March–April), destination, organization mode, and period are considered to a large extent, and finally, as the summertime approaches, more practical decisions are made, such as accommodation, activities, duration, and transportation. Hence, the respondents in this research may did not pay much of attention to the website features, as the seasonality did not awaken their desire for accommodation research.

4.4 Future Research

A future study should consider a careful and cautious design for the instrument, by including a non-applicable option for the questions to ensure accurate answers from the respondents. This would be helpful in avoiding incidents that respondents are compelled to answer those questions accurately when they do not have appropriate options to select and should reduce bias of the data. It may increase the number of missing values; however, it will be helpful to ensure accuracy in respondents‘ answers.

Additionally, future research might include additional dimensions to measure the moderating effects of all variables and constructs pointing out direct and indirect effects.

Furthermore, this research study can be repeated by incorporating a larger sample size in order to gain a more precise representation of the target population‘s demographic and geographic characteristics.

Finally, this research study may be conducted by using a longitudinal study in order to identify the fluctuation of customer satisfaction‘s levels, store loyalty, levels and repurchase intention levels over time.

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Appendix A-The Web based Survey Questionnaire This survey‘s intention is to see through the online customers‘ eyes their perceptions of important website features. All your voluntary answers will be given anonymously and will remain confidential. The completion of the questionnaire will not exceed 10 minutes. Thank you for taking part in our study!

SECTION A: Basic Demographic Information

About yourself:

1. What is your gender? : MALE/FEMALE?

2. How old are you? : 18-25 years, 26-35 years, 36-45 years, 46-55 years, 55 years or older.

3. What is your level of education? : High school, associate degree, college degree, graduates degree (master or doctoral).

4. What is your occupation? : Student, full time employee, part time employee, self- employed, unemployed, retired, other.

SECTION B: Habit and experiences’ Information

About your travel habits and online booking experiences:

5. for what reason do you travel most? (You can choose both): Business, Pleasure/ Leisure.

6. On average, how often do you travel? : Once a month or more, 5 - 11 times a year, 2 - 4 times a year, once a year, Less than once a year.

7. Have you ever made a hotel room reservation on the Internet in the past? : YES, NO (if this is the case, a respondent is not eligible for the survey).

8. Through which channel did you made your reservation? : Directly from a hotel owned website as for example makedoniapalace.com, through intermediate travel agent website as booking.com.

9. What are the purposes of using the lodging website(s)? (Please check all that applies): Collecting information to make a room reservation, Checking prices and

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availability, Intending to book a room, for fun (by browsing hotel facility photos), other.

SECTION C: Website quality characteristics

Please visit the following link and get an idea of the proposed website. After taking a look, please return to answer the following questions about the particular website! It will take only 3-5 minutes! http://www.hotelgeorgalas.gr/

Please indicate how you agree with each of the following statements when using the lodging website. Using a 5-point scale with 1 being ―Strongly disagree‖ and 5 being ―Strongly agree,‖ please click the appropriate number for your rating based on your experience with the website that you mentioned above. (1: Strongly disagree, 5: Strongly agree).

Useful information

10. The website described complete information about hotel services.

11. The website provided a wide range of information of the hotel and its services such as room amenities and availability, facility information, location, etc.

12. Information of the website was helpful to make my potential purchase decision.

Usability

13. It was easy for me to navigate the website.

14. Information search functions on the website were easy to understand and use.

Accessibility

15. The website is pulled out in no time.

16. I can access to this website quickly every time whenever I try.

Perception of Privacy/security

17. This website has protection of my potential online transaction.

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18. Payment would be submitted in a safe mode.

19. I did not have any problem with online payment on an equivalent website before.

Aesthetics/design

20. This website used good color coordination.

21. The website showed quality pictures/ video clips of the hotel.

22. The website is comfortable to look at.

Personalization/customization

23. I had choices of room types, view selection, or preferred payment method on website.

24. The website accommodated my special request such as quiet room, crib, cot, etc.

25. The website would recognize me when returning and my search preferences would be remembered.

Perceived service quality

26. Overall, the services on this website were excellent in quality.

27. The website provided the exact service quality that I expected or wanted.

Overall Satisfaction

28. All in all, I was very satisfied with the website‘s services.

29. The website greatly fulfilled my needs at the time I used it.

30. I didn‘t feel I need to visit other lodging websites to search more information to book a room.

Return Intention

31. I want to reuse this website for bookings of my next trip.

32. I want to revisit this website for searching hotel information.

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Loyalty

33. I would use such a lodging website again.

34. I would have been committed to a similar lodging website.

35. I would recommend this website to my family, friends and acquaintances.

End of survey! Thank you for your time!

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Appendix B-Cronbach’s alpha tests

Useful information:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,808 3

Usability:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,834 2

Accessibility:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,705 2

Perception of Privacy/Security

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,740 3

Aesthetics/Design

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,857 3

Personalization/Customization

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Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,728 3

Perceived service quality

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,874 2

Overall satisfaction

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,864 3

Return Intention

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,806 2

Loyalty

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

,884 3

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