WEB SITE QUALITY IN THE UK AIRLINE INDUSTRY: A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION

WEB SITE QUALITY IN THE UK AIRLINE INDUSTRY: A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION ZHOU CHENG XIE University of East Anglia Norwich NR 7TJ UK STUART J. BARNES University of East Anglia Norwich NR 7TJ UK ABSTRACT Web site quality is now considered a critical factor to attract customers' attention and build loyalty. Based on a review of the literature, this study focuses on five dimensions of Web quality usability, web site design, service quality, information quality, and enjoyment. The aim of this research is to identify the development of Web site quality in four UK airlines based on the research dimensions during the period from 999 to 00. For this purpose, the survey utilised the Web archive (www.archive. dig) for retrospective analysis (n= 0). According to the findings, the four airlines have improved their Web site quality on the four dimensions in quite different ways during the period from 999 to 00. One of the main conclusions of this study is that the airlines have specific advantages from their particular mix of Web site attributes. The paper rounds off with conclusions and implications for research and practice. Keywords: Web site: quality; airline industry; longitudinal INTRODUCTION The globalization of economic activities and widespread availability of the Internet across the world has led multinational firms to use their corporate Web sites to communicate and transact extensively with visitors from different parts of the world [7]. The airline industry is no exception to the e-commerce phenomenon []. Most airlines have established their own Web sites in order to 'bypass' travel agent intermediaries, becoming increasingly focused on online communication, information and transactions. As the airlines have increasingly utilised e-commerce as part of their competitive strategies, so too has the importance of Web site quality risen to the fore. Web site quality plays an important role in attracting and retaining customers underpinning Web site effectiveness []. Web site quality is a relatively illdefined concept [lj. The existing scientific research discusses the meaning of Web site quality in terms of a variety of different aspects. For example, Bames and Vidgen ( examine Web site quality in terms of usability, site design, information quality, tmst and empathy; Yoo and Donthu [6) identify ease of use, aesthetic design, processing speed and security: Wolfinbarger and Gilly [[ examine Web site design, reliability, privacy / security and customer service; Parasuraman et al. [ ] include efficiency, system availability, fulfilment and privacy; and Flavian et al. 0[ utilise usability, trust and user satisfaction. Clearly, it is necessary for airlines to grasp many aspects of customer perceptions of Web site quality in order to increase visitors and thus sales. In this paper, we attempt to answer the question "What are the key dimensions of Web site quality for airlines and how do these differ between airlines and over time?" To this end, we will ereate a measure, i.e. an instrument, of airline Web site quality in order to evaluate and test the results of Web site change over time. Specifically, we examine four airlines operated in the UK British Airways. Virgin Atlantic, easyjet, and Ryanair to identify the improvement in their Web site quality over time on aspects of usability. Web site design, service quality, information quality, and enjoyment. The research is retrospective and utilises the Web archive or 'WayBack Machine" at www.archive.org in onier to access pages for evaluative purposes in the years 999, 00 and 00. The research approach is largely descriptive, but with some statistical testing for significant changes over time. We hope to obtain some insight into the competitiveness between the examined airlines with regards to the quality of their respective Web sites. The paper is organised as follows, In the next section we provide a literature review, including an overview of Web site quality, relevant theories and concepts related to the research area. Next, we describe the methodology, including the instrument. data collection and analysis. In section. the findings of this research are presented and then discussed in section. Finally, in the last section, the paper provides conclusions from this research, including implications for future research and practice. LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, we briefly review some earlier research related to Web site quality instruments. Following a summary of previous work in this area, we provide an integrative model for our research. Web site quality instruments Various instruments have been developed for evaluating the different aspects of Web site quality. A number of these are shown in Table and described briefly below. Liu and Amett [7[ surveyed Webmasters for Fortune 000 companies to ascertain the factors critical to Web site success with consumers. The result was five factors: quality of information (which refers to relevant, accurate, timely, customized and complete information); service (measured by quick response, assurance, empathy, and follow-up); system use (including security, correct transactions, customer control over transactions, ordertracking, and privacy); playfulness (typically enjoyment, interactivity, presence of attractive features, and flow or concentration): and design of the Web site (in terms of hyperlinks, customized search functions, speed of access, and ease of correcting errors). WebQual. Loiacono et at. I8 designed an instrument to evaluate retail Web site quality. The instrument assessed components of retail Web quality: informational lit-to-task, interactivity, trust, response time. 0 Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 008-009

design appœal, intuitiveness. visual appeal, innovativeness, flow-emotional appeal, integrated communications, business process, and viable substitute. She used a 6-item scale to test 800 college students on Web sites selling books, music, airlines tickets and hotel reservations. Although the instrument possesses strong validity and reliability, students had not necessarily ever made a purchase at the site they evaluated. Therefore, they did not rate an actual purchase and the role of customer service and delivery in producing a quality experience could not be investigated []. SiteQual. This instrument was developed by asking students in two marketing classes to generate appropriate questions. Fifty-four unique items were generated, forming the basis for an instrument completed by 69 students for three self-selected sites [6]. Using a process of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis this was whittled down to 9 items measuring ease of use, design, processing speed, and security. A validation study with 7 subjects each, evaluating sites (n = 87), resulted in reliabilities in the range 0.69 to 0.8 and good fit indices. SiteQuaPs original set of items is narrowly based and thus possibly excludes some key factors [8], and the authors did not investigate customer service or delivery issues []. equal.0. cqua!.0 (previously called WebQual.0) has been iteratively developed over time. The authors have used the instrument on student and customer samples to assess the quality of a number of different types of Web sites. In Barnes and Vidgen [], a total of 80 student respondents evaluated online bookstores, using an instrument with questions. Based on exploratory factor analysis, five dimensions emerged: usability, design, information quality, trust and empathy..comq. Wolfinbarger and Gilly [ used focus groups, sorting and a customer panel to develop the.comq instrument. Using concepts and attributes from both the service quality and retailing literatures, their scale contains attributes in four factors: Web site design (including personalization), reliability (including accurate product description, on-time delivery, and order accuracy), privacy/security, and customer service (referring to solving problems, willingness to help and prompt answers to queries). Using concepts and attributes from both the service quality and retailing literatures, their scale contains attributes in these four factors. Kim and Stoel [ 6], in their more simplified instrument, include three of the factors of Loiacono [8] plus three slightly different factors entertainment, web appearance and transaction capability. The instrument is tested with a large sample and demonstrates good reliability and validity. E-S-Qual and E-RecS-Qual. These two scales were developed for assessing the full cycle of service quality for online BC e-commerce Web sites. The E-S-Qual scale developed in a -item scale of four dimensions: Instrument Not named WebQual Authors Liuand Arnett [7] Loiacono et ah [8] TABLE : Instruments for measuring Web site quality Dimensions. Quality of Infomiatioii, Playfulness perceived by cnnsumcrs. Service. Design of the Website. System use I. Informational fit-to-task 7. Visual appeal. Interactivity 8. Innovativeness. Trust 9. Flow (emotional appeal) A. Response Time 0. Integrated Communication. Design Appeal. Business Process 6. Intuitiveness. Substitutability SiteQual.comQ equal.0 (previously WebQual.0) Not named E-S-Qual / E-RecS-Qual Yoo and Donthu [6] Wotfinbarger and Gilly [] Barnes and Vidgen [] Kim and Stoel [6] Parasuraman, et al. []. Easy of use. PrtKessing speed. Aesthetic design. Security. Web site design. Privacy / security. Reliability. Customer service. Web site usability. Information quality. Service interaction. Web appearance. Transaction capability. Entertainment. Response time. Informational fit-to-task 6. Trust Core e-sq Recovery e-sq. Efficiency '. Responsiveness. System availability. Compensation. Fulfilhnent. Contact. Privacy Winter 008-009 Journal of Computer Information Systems

efficiency, fulfilment, system availability, and privacy. Tbe second E-RecS-QUAL scale contained three dimensions {responsiveness, compensation, contact) with an -item scale. Tbe scales were empirically tested by using questionnaires distributed to sample of users of the most visited Web sites in the USA amazon.com (n=6) and walmart.com (n=0) []. Research framework and propositions Looking across instruments and the literature, there are clearly a number of core features that a good quality Web site should possess [6] [] [] []. First, an effective Web site should serve as a major source of information; provide complete information on the products and services; and allow for quick access to information through tools like search engines. Customers also demand appropriate levels of service interaction including customer service, personalisation and ease of contact in the event of a problem. Furthermore, a Web site should incorporate appropriate security measures and adopt privacy practices in order to develop customers" trust. In addition, a Web site should be easy to navigate and typically have aesthetic appeal and an appearance that is appropriate for the organisation. Such features also contribute to enjoyment or emotional appeal, which beip to create flow [8] and retain tbe customer. In summary, the core features described above can be divided into dimensions: usability. Web site design, service quality, information quaiity and enjoyment (see Figure I ). In order to formaüy determine changes in Web site quaüties over time, this research adopted a numl)er of propositions for statistica! testing. We refer to these as propositions rather than hypotheses due to the nature of samphng and testing in this study; a!tbough the overall sample is 0, only 0 respondents were available in each time period. The propositions tested are as fouows: Proposition : The usability of aidine Web sites will tend to increase over tbe period of study. Proposition : TTie Web site design quality of airline Web sites will tend to increase over the period of study. UsabiUty Website Design Service Quality in format iod Quality PUyfulim» or Enjoyment Website Quality FIGURE : Framework for evaluating Web site quality Proposition : The service quality of airline Web sites will tend to increase over the period of study. Proposition : The information quality of airiine Web sites will tend to increase over the period of study. Proposition : Tbe playfulness or enjoyment of airline Web sites will tend to increase over tbe period of study. METHODOLOGY Tbis section briefly details bow tbe research was designed and conducted. Instrument development Based on the literature review and Figure, this research focuses on five constructs for survey development: Usability () is related to human-computer interaction and is concerned with how the user perceives and interacts with a Web site. It is derived from the equal.0 []. In tbis study, there are items measuring usability. Web site design () is based on tbe user-perceived Web quality instrument of Aladwani and Palvia [ ] and Kim and StoeKs [6] analysis, which contain items for Web site content and Web site appearance. There are 8 items used to measure this research construct. Service quality () is emphasized by Bames and Vidgen [] and Liu and Amett [7] In their research instruments to measure Web site quality, n this study, service quality is measured by a 7-item instrument. Information quality () is also emphasized by Bamcs and Vidgen [] and Liu and Amett [7] in their research instruments. In tbis study, information quality is again measured by 7 items. Playfulness or enjoyment () comes from the Liu and Amett"s [7] framework, Ethier's [9] emotion system in using a Web site, and Kim and Stoel" s [6] research, which involves tbe context of consumer behaviour. In this study, we use three items to measure this factor. Each questionnaire consisted of two sections. In the first section of tbe survey, respondents were asked to evaluate various aspects of Web site quality for an airline company in a time period. It consisted of 9 items measuring user's perceptions of the dimensions of Web site quality. The second section solicited demographic information such as age, gender and occupation. Respondents were also asked about: () tbe number of years they had been using the Intemet; and () how many times they typically use the Internet each week or day. Experienced onüne users are perhaps more likely to point out their perceptions about multip!e attributes of a Web site, so tbis technique allowed us to ensure that respondents possessed sufficient experience to answer questions about their perceptions of attributes [!6]. Background on the airlines examined The research focuses on the four major airünes operating in the UK in the air travel market: Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 008-009

British Airways (http://www.britishairways.com/ travel/home/public/en gb). British Airways is the largest airiine in the United Kingdom. It is also the third largest airline in Europe, with more flights from Europe across the Atlantic than any other operator. Its main hubs are London Heathrow and London Gatwick. British Airways' worldwide route network covers some destinations in 96 countries. The company has succeeded in growing revenues faster than costs: total revenue rose 9.6% to 8. billion in the tax year to March 006 []. Virgin Atiantic Airways fhttp://www.virgin-atlantic. com/en/gb/index.jsp) is part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Virgin Group owns % of the airline, and Singapore Airiincs owns the other 9% stake. It is the UK's second largest operator of long-haul scheduled flights, with an ever-increasing network of flights branching out to four different continents from their main hubs at Heathrow and Gatwick airports in London [. Virgin Atlantic reported revenues of.9 billion in the tax year to 006 [9]. easyjet (http://www.easyjet.com) is Europe's leading low-cost airiine. It provides high frequency services on short-haul and medium-haul point-to-point routes within Europe from its three airport bases at London Luton, Liverpool and Geneva. The airline operates frequent scheduled services for leisure and business passengers and serves more than 00 routes between more than 7 European airports. Revenues in 006 were.8 billion [8]- Ryanair thttp://www.ryanair.com) is an Irish airline headquartered in Dublin, although its biggest operational base is at London Stansted Airport. It is one of Europe's largest low-cost-carriers, operating more than 00 routes between 0 airports in Europiean countries. Its main hub is London Stansted Airport, with 88 routes. Over the years it has evolved into a profitable airiine because online booking has increasingly contributed to the aim of cutting flight prices by selling direct to passengers. Gurrently, the Web site accounts for 9% of total bookings []. Revenues in 006 were.7 billion. Operationaiization of the survey Due to time and resource constraints for this study, an online survey was used, offering rapid operation and low cost. Data for this study were collected via an Internet survey instrument (www.speedsurvey.com). The Internet survey web site, www. speedsurvey.com, provides easy and professional survey design and data collection facilities. The research was further complicated since there were versions of the questionnaire that needed to be completed; each airline Web site in each year was evaluated to collected 0 responses, i.e. 0 responses overall. The procedure was as follows. First, invitation emails were sent to 0 potential respondents, and each of these email messages had a link to a questionnaire embedded within it. Second a popup invitation letter with a hyperiink to the Web page with questionnaires was posted on the www.speedsurvey.com Web site. The letter explained the purpose of the study and encouraged the users to participate iti the survey to evaluate Web site quality. In total, 70 members of www.speedsurvey.com responded within two weeks. Since the research utilises small, longitudinal samples, it was not possible to examine the two populations for bias, e.g., using ANOVA. Each respondent was asked to evaluate an airiine Web site in one year. Respondents were asked to evaluate sites using a 7-point scale where the anchors are from 7 (= strongly agree) to (= strongly disagree), where is neutral. All responses were received within a two week period during August 006. The online questionnaire responses were received via email, filtered to check for duplicates and converted into Microsoft Excel and SPSS for analysis. The analysis included a mixture of descriptive and graphical procedures as well as statistical testing. FINDINGS In this section we briefly describe the sample and general trends before testing the propositions and examining reliability. Description of tiie sample In total 0 responses were received 0 responses for each airline company in each of the three years. Respondents consisted of (.8%) students. 8 (8.%) employed persons and 7 (.8%) unemployed persons. Also, (9.%) of respondents indicated that they had previously visited the Web site being evaluated before. Related to Internet use, 69 (7.%) respondents used the Internet more than once per day; 80 (66.7%) respondents had more than 7 years of Internet use experience and 9 (7.%) respondents had to 6 years of experience. Overall, the majority of respondents are frequent, experienced Internet users and likely to be relatively good judges of Web quality. General trends Table shows the changes over time in the five constructs for the individual and combined datasets for all four airlines. Let us first consider the combined datasel As we can see, there is a clear trend for improvement over time with means between.8 and.9 in 999, between.7 and.96 in 00 and between. and.6 in 00. However, this trend varies considerably by construct; for example, in the final time period, 00, information quality and playfulness both appear to buck the trend of previous years and move considerably ahead in the perceptions of users. Examining the changes in the rankings of the various constructs confirms this; while usability was ranked top in 999 and 00, it fell to second place in 00, being pushed out by information quality, which was only ranked th in previous years. Similarly, playfulness, ranked th in previous years was joint rd in 00, while service fell to rank. This trend is less easy to decipher between the three time periods, because of varying increases in constructs. However, if we look at the rankings for 999 and 00, where improvements are most marked, there are definitely some clear differences. Both B A and Ryanair bear out the trend in information quality. EasyJet and Ryanair, the budget airlines, bear oui their image and clear demonstrate the rise in the importance of playfulness (to nd place). British Airways clearly bucks the trend in the other three airlines away from service quality, which is firmly in joint second place. These trends in the qualities ofthe various Web sites are more clearly repre.sented in Figure. Winter 008-009 Journal of Computer Information Systems

TABLE : Trends in constructs over time Airline Construct 999 Rank 00 Rank 00 Rank British Airways.0.76.9.96.00.8.00.0.97.0....8.0 Virgin Atlantic.9.6.8.0.70.78.79.7..00.96.8.0.66.7 Easyjet...60.89.60..66...67.9...0. Ryanair..70..98..70.8.0..9.7..87..0 OVERALL.9.80.8.6.8.96.78.8.7.7.6.8..6.8 j s Key: time periods: {I)999; () 00: () 00: cases: () British Airways; () Virgin Atlantic; () easyjet; () Ryanair FIGURE : Summary of airline Web site evaluations in the three time periods Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 008-009

Airline British Airways Virgin Atlantic EasyJet Ryanair OVERALL TABLE : T-tests for changes to constructs over time (significant results in bold) Construct TltoT 0. 0. 0.6 0. 0. 0.7 0.06 0.06 0.0 0.0 TtoT 0. 0.07 0.9 0,0 0.0 0.0 0.97 0..00 0.07 Tl to T 0.0 0. Proposition (Tl to T) Disconfirmed Test of propositions Now that we have established that there is a general trend towards quality improvement and towards emphasis on different patterns of qualities, both over time and for the different airlines, we tum our attention to a formal test of our propositions. We use the term proposition in preference to hypothesis due to the limited dataset. To formally examine the improvement in qualities over time, a t-test was conducted both for each airline and for the overall dataset over time. Table shows the significance levels resulting from t-tests for means between 999 (Tl ) and 00 (T), 00 and 00 (T). and 999 and 00 (for propositions). Table clearly demonstrates very significant changes (p<0.0) in the overall dataset both between individual time periods (999 to 00 and 00 to 00) and over the study period (999 to 00). This confirms each of the five propositions: the qualities of usability, design, service, information and playfulness have all improved over time. The same results are not apparent for the individual airlines. Indeed, Virgin Atlantic did not improve between 999 and 00, while BA improved only for three qualities between 999 and 00 and for the remaining two between 00 and 00. With one exception (a near-miss) easyjet consistently improved. However, Ryanair failed to improve on al! but one factor (usability) between 00 and 00; overall, and very interestingly, it had the only factor that did not improve over the entire study period service quality. Clearly this says something about the nature of the airline's offering. Research Construct Usability Design Service Information Playfulness OVERALL TABLE : Reliabifity analysis Questions - - -9 0-6 7-9 -9 Reliability of the scale and dimensions Cronbaches Alpha 0.76 0.87 0.7 The overall reliability of the scale is good, with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.9. The reliabilities of each of the subscales range from 0.69 to 0.87. Thus, all except one construct (service quality) meet the criteria of acceptability for reliability from Nunnally [0], and that construct is a very near miss. Unfortunately, the sample size is not large enough for factor analysis (i.e., it does not meet the minimum sample requirement Winter 008-009 Journal of Computer Information Systems

of five times the number of variables according to Hair et al. []). DISCUSSION Clearly the priorities of airline customers appears to be changing. As the self-service, no-frills and low-cost trend for air travel has grown in recent years in the UK. so consumers have been driven less by service quality and more by easy access to good information packaged in an entertaining and fun "wrapper'. This appears to be a trend in other areas of Web activity [], Ryanair rated particularly badly for service quality and it was the only quality from any airline that did not improve significantly during the study period. British Airways appears to be an exception and rates service quality in second place; BA is. of course, the only genuine premium airline in the cases and is more service-focused as a company. In terms of absolute scores. British Airways had the best achievement in service and information quality from its Web site in 00. Virgin Atlantic reached the highest level of Web site design and improved enjoyment more rapidly; easyjet had the best usability of any Web site based on user perceptions and improved service quality to the greatest extent. Clearly, overall, the airlines have pursued different strategies for their Web sites over the period of study. Tbis is also confirmed in other studies of airlines use of electronic commerce []. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This study aimed to identify whether UK airline Web sites have improved over the time period from 999 to 00. The development of an instrument consisted of a consolidation of related studies that had already developed and validated Web site quality instruments. Tbe assessed Web sites were British Airways. Virgin Atlantic. easyjet, and Ryanair. The findings of this study revealed that the quality of all four Web sites bas improved between tbe years of 999 and (X). Specifically, the findings confirm that different airline companies have pursued different paths in their approaches to Web site quality. This study is one ofthe first to utilise retrospective Web quality assessment by means ofthe Weh archive t www.archive.orgl. It is the only one in the area of airlines Web sites. The archive resource presents tremendous opportunities for longitudinal analyses that were previously unthinkable, although it also presents numerous opportunities for bias, as all retrospective research does. However, careftil management and selection of subjects can help to manage and reduce this bias to provide meaningful results. We believe that the Web archive is a valuable resource and deserves furtber attention for Web quality re.search. There are a number of limitations of this research which provide avenues for future research. A key limitation is the sample used. The sample of )0 persons is considered small and included only 0 responses for each airline web site in each year. Future work will attempt to collect a sufficiently large sample to perform factor analysis. Second, the instrument used might not be regarded as comprehensive; further research will help to further develop and validate the instrument, Since the study is based on a particular market, the UK. further research should be considered to compare airline Web sites for different countries from different continents such as China, Germany and the US. Other aspects of consumer behaviour might also be considered, such as the impact of branding, how the various dimensions affect consumers' behaviours on airline Web sites, and distinguishing between the behaviours of various types of consumers (e.g., goalfocused versus experiential shoppers). REFERENCES [ ] Aladwania A.M. and P.C. Palvia. "Developing and validating an instrument for measuring user-perceived Web quality." 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