Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

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Journal of Business Research

Understanding service quality in a virtual travel community environment

Statia Elliot a, 1, Guoxin Li b,, Chris Choi a, 2
a
b

School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada N1G 2W1
School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, 13 Fayuan Street, Nangang District, Harbin, 150006, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received November 2012
Accepted April 2013
Available online 15 May 2012
Keywords:
Virtual travel community
Consumer behavior model
Online travel agent
Service quality

a b s t r a c t
Technological innovations in the tourism industry have signicantly inuenced the communication channels
between service providers and potential travelers. Virtual travel communities (VTCs) are now popular and
inuential venues for tourism information sharing, yet little is known about membership behavior. The purpose of this study is to test a new model of VTC beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors using structural equation
modeling. The model integrates measures proven in traditional consumer behavior theory, such as satisfaction, trust, and brand attitude, with behavioral measures unique to the virtual domain, such as stickiness.
The results of an online survey of members of C-Trip, a Chinese VTC, indicate that the quality of the community signicantly inuences member satisfaction and trust. However, trust does not directly inuence site
stickiness or intention to transact. Member satisfaction signicantly inuences site stickiness, whereas
trust inuences brand attitude, which in turn inuences intention to transact. These relationships suggest a
service blueprint for site owners to ultimately stimulate online transactions.
2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Technological innovations in the tourism sector have signicantly
inuenced the communication channels between service providers
and potential travelers, yet supporting research is lacking in comparison
to its availability in other sectors, notably consumer retail goods
sectors (Matzler, Grabner-Krauter, & Bidmon, 2008). Tourism is an
information-rich industry, and more travelers rely heavily on the Internet as their single most important source of travel information to make
their trip decision (Arsal, Backman, & Baldwin, 2008; Fodness & Murray,
1998). The advent of virtual travel communities (VTCs) provides a
unique platform for both tourism service providers and travelers to
exchange travel information (Kim, Lee, & Hiemstra, 2004) by making
it easier for people to obtain information, maintain connections, develop relationships, and ultimately make travel-related decisions (Jiang,
Mills, & Stepchenkova, 2008). Although the importance of VTCs is recognized, few studies examine the behavior of these communities, and
the understanding of the members' needs remains fragmented (Illum,
Ivanov, & Lian, 2010; Wang, Yu, & Fesenmaier, 2002). Yet, their power
and popularity suggest that VTCs have the potential to play an important role in customer relationship management and e-business strategy.

Corresponding author at: School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology,

Box 1222, No. 13 Fayuan Street, Nangang District, Harbin, 150006, China. Tel.: + 86
451 86414042.
E-mail addresses: statia@uoguelph.ca (S. Elliot), lisappleheart@gmail.com,
liguoxin@hit.edu.cn (G. Li), hwchoi@uoguelph.ca (C. Choi).
1
Tel.: + 1 519 824 4120x53970.
2
Tel.: + 1 519 824 4120x53370.
0148-2963/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.03.011

The relationship between technology and service performance, when

measured, indicates that technological capabilities positively impact performance, particularly if complementary to environmental contexts and
marketing capabilities, which can be effectively leveraged (Song, Droge,
Hanvanich, & Calantone, 2005). To improve the success rate of service
innovations, Song, Di Benedetto, and Song (2009) demonstrate the
importance of service quality to improve customer satisfaction and performance. Customer evaluations of service quality in the e-commerce
environment, given its perceived uncertainties, are also inuenced by
trust, in both B2B marketplaces (Pavlou, 2002) and B2C (Pavlou, 2003).
Ultimately, consumer beliefs about site quality, and attitudes of trust
and satisfaction, inuence behavior, and determine whether consumers
stick to VC sites and transact online or not.
This study tests a new model of VTC beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors
and explores the relationships between these important elements of
consumer behavior. The objectives are threefold: (i) to empirically
test a VTC model that integrates measures of beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors; (ii) to consider traditional and nontraditional consumer
behavior relationships within a virtual domain; and (iii) to better
understand the impact of these relationships, on intentions to transact
as a measure of revenue generation.

2. Theoretical background
The Internet explosion of the mid 1990s facilitated the emergence of
virtual communities (VCs), which have developed at a rapid pace over
the past two decades. While several denitions of VCs exist within
this relatively new eld (Komito, 1998; Turban, King, Viehland, & Lee,

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S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

2006), one of the most common is by Rheingold (1994), who denes an

online community as a
social aggregation that emerge[s] from the Net when enough
people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufcient human feelings, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. A virtual community (VC) is a group of people who may
or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange
words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin
boards and networks (pp. 5758).
In the travel industry, VTCs have changed the nature of
communication between businesses and consumers. Within VTCs,
large numbers of people can communicate with others as peers, without restrictions of time and distance, for travel-related purposes such
as obtaining travel information, maintaining connections, nding travel
companions, providing travel suggestions, or simply having fun by telling each other interesting stories of travel experiences (Wang et al.,
2002). Members can join discussion forums and chat rooms for information sharing and communication and build their own travel pages
to showcase personal travel proles, share travel tips, and create personal travelogues (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004).
In response to the emergence of VTCs, a number of large travel companies have integrated community functionalities into their websites
(e.g., IgoUgo, BootsnAll, Travellerspoint, and Virtualtourist.com). These
VTCs have revolutionized the way participants behave and interact
with each other in terms of the forms of communication, ways of accessing resources, and the rules for conducting business (Dellaert, 2000).
Quite simply, VTCs have transformed the tourism industry (Kim et al.,
2004). As one of the most popular forms of user-generated content
(UGC), VTCs could be the most inuential source for travel decision
making (Arsal et al., 2008; Chung & Buhalis, 2008).
Although the importance of VTCs has long been recognized, few
studies have examined their business value. Understanding both the social and business functions of VCs is extremely valuable for Internet
vendors enthusiastic about better understanding market trends and
consumer preferences (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997). VCs as valuable business media have been more extensively researched in the general business literature outside of the tourism eld (Wu, Chen, & Chung, 2010).
The relatively small numbers of researchers who focus on the business
value specically of VTCs identify factors that inuence members to
purchase products in a virtual domain (Kim et al., 2004). Wang and
Fesenmaier (2004) empirically test a conceptual framework of online
travel community member needs and propose that an understanding
of member participation is vital to tourism marketing organizations,
which are increasingly incorporating VTCs into their operations. Osti's
(2009) study of VTC success factors found information reliability, navigational ease, frequency of posts, member respect, and user homogeneity to be most important.
The majority of existing research focuses on Western customers
and cultures, specically American VC members, and less is known
about Asian VC members (Kim, Ma, & Kim, 2005). Yet, social networking has become a global phenomenon, and China now has the
largest number of Internet users in the world. VTCs are transforming
how the travel industry and the traveler function, and focused research is needed to better understand their role in tourism marketing and management. To this end, this study explores VTC member
beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors through a broad review of tourism,
technology, and marketing-related literature and general theories of
consumer behavior. The study proposes and tests a new model
within the context of a Chinese VTC.
3. Model development and hypothesis
To understand the nature and inuence of relationships within
VTCs, key behavioral factors are modeled based on the review of

tourism, technology, marketing, and consumer behavior literature.

The model incorporates three key elements: (i) the beliefs of community members, measured in terms of their assessment of VTC quality;
(ii) the attitudes of community members, measured in terms of their
satisfaction, trust, and brand attitude; and (iii) the behavior of community members, measured in terms of site stickiness and members' intentions to transact. Social-psychology researchers and practitioners
recognize the importance of understanding the relationship between
beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. In particular, the relationship between
attitude and behavior has been debated in the academic literature since
the 1930s. Early research indicates weak or no relationship between
attitude and behavior (see Wicker, 1969 for more details), whereas
Ajzen and Fishbein (1977) provide evidence of a strong relationship
between attitude and behavior when there is high correspondence between them, and appropriate measures are used. Social psychology focuses largely on exploring the formation of attitude, dened as a
personal disposition toward engaging in behavior. Numerous researchers proposed and tested models to explain attitude formation
(Allport, 1935; Thomas & Znaniecki, 1918). Fishbein (1963, 1965)
and Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) conducted
some of the most known studies on attitude, proposing a model of
attitude formation which suggests that the additive integration of individuals' beliefs and their simultaneous, affective evaluation of these
beliefs combine to determine attitudes toward actual behavior. According to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), and Fishbein and Ajzen (1975),
individuals' beliefs predict individuals' attitudes. Subsequently, the attitude affects individuals' intention to act, which has a direct inuence
on behavior. For the last four decades, based on the above assertions,
numerous studies have examined the relationship between beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977, 1980;
Bagozzi, 1981; Bentler & Speckhart, 1979, 1981; Fishbein & Ajzen,
1975).
One of the seminal works testing the interrelationship between
beliefs, attitudes, and behavior is the Theory of Planned Behavior
(TPB). As the extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975), TPB (Ajzen, 1985) is a compelling model that species salient beliefs that inuence given behavioral perceptions, subsequent attitudes, and actual behavior. Many researchers adopted
TPB, either all or some of its constructs, or an extended model to
better understand a wide range of human behavior related to customer satisfaction and retention (Guo, Xiao, & Tang, 2009), ecommerce adoption (Grandn, Nasco, & Mykytyn, 2011), international traveling (Martin, 2010), and e-purchasing behavior (Buttle
and Bok, 1996). Although TPB is considered a suitable model for
understanding individuals' actions, Ajzen (1991) criticizes his own
model, suggesting that its ability to accurately determine the relationship between the constructs is not as strong as desired. In this
regard, this study adopts the basic approach of TPB (Belief
Attitude Intention) to propose a model to examine the relationship between beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of virtual community
members based on previous studies (Chen & He, 2003; DeLone &
McLean, 2003; Liu, Marchewka, Lu, & Yu, 2004; Shang, Chen, &
Liao, 2006; Valck, Langerak, Verhoef, & Verlegh, 2007), applied
within a travel services context. Fig. 1 presents the resulting study
model.
3.1. VTC quality beliefs
Members' beliefs about the quality of a VTC can inuence individual
attitudes, such as satisfaction and trust, and thus the overall sustainability of a community. Social online interaction supported by technology, including content management and website functionality, is
crucial to the success of VCs (Lin, 2007; Preece, 2000; Wang et al.,
2002). Information quality refers to the quality of the information provided by online services. It includes dimensions such as information accuracy, completeness, and currency and information presentation

S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

H1a
System Quality

Satisfaction

H2a

H1b

Stickiness

H2b

H1c
Service Quality

H3a
Trust

H1d

H4a
H1e
Information
Quality

1155

H3b
H3c

Intention to
Transaction

Brand Attitude

H1f

Control Variables: age, income,

education, Internet usage
frequency , VC memberships

Fig. 1. A virtual travel community model of member behavior.

format (Nelson, Todd, & Wixom, 2005). System quality in a web-based

information system measures the functionality of a website. System reliability, convenience of access, response time, and system exibility
are examples of qualities users value (DeLone & McLean, 2003;
Nelson et al., 2005).
DeLone and McLean (2003) argue that service quality is a signicant dimension of information system success in the e-commerce environment, where customer service is crucial. Service quality is important
in the VC context because online communication lacks face-to-face contact. Kuo (2003) notes that website usability and service quality are key
factors that predict members' intentions to use VCs. Service quality
measures the overall support delivered by the website and includes
trust, responsiveness, and personalization (Keating, Rugimband, &
Quzai, 2003; Lee & Lin, 2005). Leimeister and Krcmar (2004) argue
that the success of a VC relies on management and service quality
such as offering up-to-date content, focusing on the needs of the members, involving members in activities, and handling member data seriously. Based on DeLone and McLean's (2003) classication of online
quality components, Lin (2007) examines the impact of information
quality, system quality, and service quality on the sustainability of
VCs, and conrms the inuence of online quality and service features.
In the context of VTCs, Jiang et al. (2008) dene the attitude construct as a psychological tendency to evaluate performance of the
community with some degree of favor or disfavor (p. 50). Member
attitude can be measured in terms of satisfaction and trust. While satisfaction has been extensively researched in the e-commerce context,
the exploration of members' satisfaction within the VTC context, and
the effect of satisfaction on future participation, is at a relatively nascent stage (Valck et al., 2007). Valck et al. (2007) view satisfaction
as an important indicator of a member's overall community evaluation and conceptualize different levels of member interactions with
their VC. On these grounds, the hypotheses are as follows:
VTC Quality:
H1a. VTC system quality positively inuences member satisfaction.
H1b. VTC system quality positively inuences member trust.
H1c. VTC service quality positively inuences member satisfaction.
H1d. VTC service quality positively inuences member trust.
H1e. VTC information quality positively inuences member satisfaction.
H1f. VTC information quality positively inuences member trust.

3.2. VTC site behavior

The existence of a VC is dependent upon the community popularity and members' stickiness, dened as the ability of a company to
keep a customer and to get customers to return (Paul, 1999). A website has stickiness when a user always visits the same website, spends
more than the average time browsing, and digs deeper into the site
(Brock, 1997). Indicators of a user's stickiness are duration, frequency,
and depth. Different levels of stickiness can lead to different intentions to exchange information, participate in online activities, and
make a transaction.
In the virtual domain, a sense of community is associated with
members' purchasing behavior (Kim et al., 2004). Shang et al.
(2006) created a VC of computer users to test a model of involvement,
trust, and attitude toward the brand within the community. They examined the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behavior in online consumer communities on brand loyalty and found that a
participant's stickiness in the community directly affects their future
intentions to transact online. The hypotheses are as follows:
Site Stickiness:
H2a. Member satisfaction positively inuences site stickiness.
H2b. Member trust positively inuences site stickiness.
Researchers also note relationships among brand, online search
action, and the intention to engage in online transactions (Chen &
He, 2003). A brand can be dened as a name, term, sign, symbol, or
design, or combination of them which is intended to identify the
goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competitors (Kotler, 1991, p. 396). The importance of brand knowledge to consumer decision making is well documented (Alba & Chattopadhyay, 1985). Brand knowledge can directly
impact consumers' intentions to adopt, or not adopt, a service (Chen
& He, 2003). As members tend to interact with each other and congregate in brand-based VCs, that means a brand virtual community
(BVC) can provide both social and business functions that are valuable for brand corporate and Internet vendors to capture market
trends and consumer preferences (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997). In
other words, a positive brand attitude facilitates customer relationship management and enables businesses to attract, engage, and retain customers. BVCs can be viewed as focal points for not only
attracting large numbers of customers, but also promoting products,
establishing website stickiness, and understanding customer needs
(Hagel & Armstrong, 1997; Wang et al., 2002). Although the

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S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

importance of brand attitude is recognized, few studies have examined its relationship to business service quality and members' intention to transact. The hypotheses are as follows:
Intention to Transact:
H3a. Site stickiness positively inuences intention to transact.
H3b. Member trust positively inuences intention to transact.
H3c. Member brand attitude positively inuences intention to
transact.
3.3. Attitudes toward VTC
Formation and expansion of a VC depend on the willingness of
members to share information and services. Researchers nd that
trust is a core component facilitating the anonymous interaction in
communities and e-commerce, and therefore trust building online is
a common research topic (Cox, Burgess, Sellitto, & Buultjens, 2009;
Hoffman, Novak, & Peralta, 1999; Luo, 2002; McKnight, Choudhury,
& Krcmar, 2002; Tan & Thoen, 2001; Urban, Sultan, & Qualls, 2000;
Ye & Emurian, 2005; Yoo & Gretzel, 2010). Observing that trust development is a complex process, researchers have investigated the formation of trust and its impact. McKnight et al. (2002) points out
that, when users develop trust in a website, they intend to continuously participate and conduct transactions with the content provider.
Liu et al. (2004) also suggests that trust can lead to repeat purchasing,
repeat website visiting, and website recommendation. Casalo, Flavian,
and Guinaliu (2007) conducted a web survey using members of several free software VCs and found a positive and signicant effect of
consumer trust on loyalty.
Cox et al. (2009) found that, when making travel plans, hospitality
and tourism consumers consider government-sponsored tourism
websites to be the most credible and trustworthy providers of UGC.
This suggests that, while UGC may be increasingly popular, trust has
an impact on its actual inuence. Yoo and Gretzel (2010) also found
trust to be inuenced by the source of UGC, with ofcial destination
and travel agency websites ranked as more credible than personal
and sharing websites such as YouTube. Notably, their study also
found that with greater trust comes greater perceived benets from
UGC use, suggesting the need for websites to make efforts to gain visitor trust (Yoo & Gretzel, 2010). To measure the relation between
trust and service provider, brand attitude is used as an indicator.
The hypothesis is:
Member Trust:
H4a. Member trust positively inuences member brand attitude.
4. Study method
The model test implements an online survey of C-Trip VC members. C-Trip is a mainland China travel agency that sells airline tickets
and accommodations and also runs a very large travel website
(Leung, Law, & Lee, 2011). The survey instrument is a structured
questionnaire comprising seven-item measurement scales for all latent variables. The measures for Quality, Trust, Satisfaction, and
Brand Attitude use bipolar adjective scales, and the measures for
Stickiness and Intention to Transact use Likert-type scales. The questionnaire has at least three items per latent variable to reduce factor
indeterminacy (Ferguson, Partyka, & Lester, 1974). The Englishlanguage questionnaire was translated into Chinese, then backtranslated into English to test for equivalency. The questionnaire
was pretested with a small sample of Chinese students before eld
implementation. The online questionnaire was uploaded on the website of Qualtrics.com and an invitation letter was posted to forums of
the C-Trip VTC. A total of 243 questionnaires were collected; this was

reduced to 204 usable questionnaires through an empirical process of

data cleaning.
Demographic characteristics indicate that the respondents are a
relatively representative sample of the Chinese online population
(Table 1). The majority of the respondents are married (56.7%),
with males representing 53.2% of the sample. The average age is
31.8 years, and respondents are highly educated (with 76.3% having
at least some university education), have relatively high income
(almost half earn over 5000 yuan per year), and are heavy Internet
users (well over half spend more than 30 h per week on the Internet).
The sample is split between those belonging to three or fewer VCs
(51%) and those belonging to more than three (49%).

5. Results
Following the two-step approach recommended by Anderson and
Gerbing (1988) to analyze structural equation modeling, conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) with AMOS 17.0 was performed to assess the
validity of all model latent constructs. Items of system quality, service
quality, information quality, trust, satisfaction, brand attitude, intention to transact, and stickiness were modeled as reective indicators
of latent constructs respectively. These constructs were allowed to
co-vary freely in the CFA model. The result suggests adequate model
t (2/df = 2.08, p b .001, CFI = 0.94, IFI = 0.94, NFI = 0.896, TLI = 0.93,
RMSEA= 0.07). Loadings for all variables are in an acceptable range,
being above 0.60. Thus, all measures are retained in the model. Composite reliability measures range from 0.77 to 0.94, indicating strong reliability of the constructs. To assess discriminant validity, the average
variance extracted (AVE) was computed for each construct. AVEs
range from 0.542 to 0.838, well above the conventional benchmark of
0.50. Table 2 presents mean, standard deviation, factor loadings, composite reliability, discriminant validity, and model t indices.
The VTC model test used structural equation modeling (SEM) to
simultaneously measure the hypothesized relationships between
constructs. The model produced 2 (520) = 1061.57, which equals a
CMIN/DF ratio of 2.04, within the acceptable range of 1 to 3, indicating a good t. The model also produced a CFI = 0.92, IFI = 0.93,
NFI = 0.86, TLI = 0.91; all these t indices close to 1 indicates a good
t, and an RMSEA = 0.07, within the acceptable range of 0.08 and
Table 1
Demographic characteristics of the C-Trip VTC sample.

Gender (n = 201)
Male
Female
Age (n = 198)
Marital status (n = 201)
Yes
No
Education (n = 203)
High school diploma
College graduate
Some university
University graduate
Income (n = 204)
Below 2000 yuan
20015000 yuan
Over 5000 yuan
Internet usage frequency (n = 204)
120 h per week
2140 h per week
Over 40 h per week
Number of VC memberships (n = 204)
13
Over 3
a
b

Range.
Mean (std. dev.).

Frequency

Percent (%)

107
94
1858a

53.2
46.8
31.8 (7.6)b

114
87

56.7
43.3

12
36
106
49

5.9
17.7
52.2
24.1

30
75
99

14.8
36.7
48.5

66
53
85

32.4
26.2
41.7

104
100

51.0
49.0

S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

1157

Table 2
Measurement model summary.
Online community quality
System quality
Easy to use
Convenient to access
Flexible
Reliable
Service quality
Visually appealing
Prompt service
Well-organized
Sincere in term of solving problems
Information quality
Timely
Complete
Accurate
Useful
Trust
Trustworthy
Believable
Does the job right
Satisfaction
Pleased
Satised
Contented
Brand attitude
Good
Pleasant
Like
Favorable
Positive
Intention to transact
Next time I book a trip
During the next 6 months
If they offer what I am looking for
Stickiness
Spend more time
Read more postings
Increase my visits
Continue to visit the site

Mean (std. dev.)

Factor loadings

Discriminant validity (AVE)

Composite reliability

5.6 (1.23)
5.6 (1.33)
5.4 (1.23)
5.4 (1.41)

.74
.88
.91
.84

0.54

0.83

4.5 (1.40)
4.9 (1.30)
5.1 (1.32)
5.4 (1.31)

.66
.83
.88
.85

0.60

0.77

5.1 (1.29)
5.0 (1.16)
5.3 (1.04)
5.6 (1.07)

.84
.88
.84
.85

0.61

0.86

5.8 (1.22)
5.8 (1.14)
4.9 (1.21)

.97
.99
.61

0.64

0.84

5.8 (1.04)
5.8 (1.03)
5.6 (1.08)

.93
.95
.91

0.84

0.94

6.0 (1.02)
6.0 (1.05)
6.0 (1.04)
6.0 (1.02)
5.9 (1.10)

.96
.97
.97
.93
.94

0.67

0.91

5.0 (1.42)
4.7 (1.42)
5.3 (1.53)

.97
.84
.80

0.84

0.94

5.0 (1.28)
5.3 (1.29)
5.1 (1.24)
5.4 (1.28)

.90
.94
.94
.87

0.71

0.91

0.1, with p = 0.000, further supports goodness of t. While alternative

models were considered, the original model was retained based on its
theoretical grounding and adequate measures of t (Song &
Montoya-Weiss, 2001) (Fig. 2).
The H1 relationships between VTC Quality, Satisfaction and Trust
are all supported with path estimates that are reasonable and statistically signicant, except for H1b, System Quality to Trust. Service
Quality signicantly (at the 0.01 level) inuences both Satisfaction
and Trust, as does Information Quality (at the 0.05 level); whereas
System Quality positively inuences Satisfaction (0.21), but not
Trust (0.02). It seems that service factors such as appeal and
promptness have a greater inuence on consumer attitudes than system factors such as exibility and reliability.
Of the H2 relationships, Satisfaction to Stickiness and Trust to
Stickiness, only the rst is statistically supported (0.55). Trust does
not positively inuence Stickiness (0.08), rejecting H2b, nor does
Trust inuence Intention to Transact ( 0.001), rejecting H3b. The
role of Trust in the VTC model is in its positive and strongly signicant
inuence on Brand Attitude (0.76), supporting H4a. It seems that the
path to transactions is an indirect one, either through the creation of a
sticky site (supporting H3a), or, through a positive brand attitude
(supporting H3c). Table 3 summarizes the results of the analysis of
hypothesized relationships.
6. Discussion
The results of the study partially support the hypothesized relationships between a member's perception of VTC quality and both their
satisfaction with, and trust of, the community. Service quality is

Fit index
2 = 784.59
df = 377
2/df = 2.08
(p b .001)
CFI = 0.94
IFI = 0.94
NFI = 0.896
TLI = 0.93
RMSEA = 0.07

particularly inuential, suggesting that VTC operators pay great

attention to the visual appeal, prompt service, organization and problem solving sincerity of their sites, calling for ongoing investments of
time and money in order to satisfy members, and gain their trust. This
nding is in accord with previous studies. Member satisfaction is important as it directly inuences behavior, or member stickiness. The greater
the satisfaction with a VTC, the more time spent, the more postings
read, the more visits and continuation of visits to the site by a member.
These measures of stickiness are signicant inuencers on intention to
transact, as sticky members are more likely to book travel products/services online. Thus, sticky websites are highly valuable to marketers, as
they encourage users to become more deeply involved, spend more
time browsing, and increase the likelihood of transactions. The strong
relationship from VTC service quality, to member satisfaction, to stickiness, and to transaction, suggests a service blueprint for VTC operators
and site developers to follow. Indeed, it is an important strategy to implement as a means to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction. For instance, some online consumers are not comfortable with
making problem inquiries via email communication, while others complain about the slow response times of e-mail and online form queries.
To improve the speed and quality of such inquiries, some retailers
offer a live function (e.g. live chat, voice over Internet protocol
(VOIP)). This function can enable greater interactivity with customers and thus improve service quality. In addition, according to
Lindgaard (2007), if a website's visual appeal creates a positive
impression, then complaints against its system and usability shortcomings may be diminished.
Interestingly, trust did not have a signicant inuence on stickiness
or intention to transact, contrary to past ndings (Casalo et al., 2007; Liu

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S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

.23*

System
Quality

Satisfaction

.50***

-.02

Stickiness

.42***
Trust

Service
Quality

.08
.60***

.74***
.27***

Information
Quality

.84***

.20*

-.05

.14*
Income

Intention to
Transact

.24*

Brand
Attitude

-0.29

-.03

..05

Age

Education
.01

VC membership

Internet usage frequency

Fig. 2. Virtual travel community model with structural equation model path coefcients. *** Path coefcient estimate is signicant at p b 0.01. * Path coefcient estimate is signicant
at p b 0.05.

et al., 2004; McKnight et al., 2002) that as cognitive resources are very
limited in the decision making process, trust plays a critical role by mitigating the risks of uncertainty and reducing perceived risk in the online
shopping environment (Grabner-Kraeuter, 2002). The result may reect the particular parameters of this study, the nature of a travel virtual
community, and/or the inuence of culture. For instance, the study nding can be explained by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Malhorta (2002).
They argue that online consumers in a country with a large power distance tend to positively behave toward expertise and authority. In this
instance, a well-known online brand (i.e. C-Trip) is well received by
consumers in countries such as China, Korea and Japan. Accordingly,
trust may not be a key factor directly affecting transaction intention
and stickiness. In the study context, Trust positively inuences Brand
Attitude, which in turn positively inuences Intention to Transact.
This is an interesting nding, suggesting the fragility of consumer
trust, and perhaps reecting the extreme cautiousness of Chinese consumers to transact online, even with somewhat trusted sources. It
seems more likely that the consumers' trust will help to build a positive
attitude toward brand, or site rst (Chen, Wu, & Chung, 2008), then,
transactions may follow. Once consumers are experienced purchasers,
trust is gained. It is that rst transaction that is the challenge set before
VTC managers, and requires attention to quality, satisfaction and brand
to overcome.
A notable limitation of the study is the collection of data through the
VTC, whereby members self-select to participate. Also, it is difcult to
assess the potential bias of this method, or even estimate an accurate response rate. Both the advantages of convenience and reach of virtual
surveying, and the disadvantages of reliability and validity, have been
well documented (Illum et al., 2010). Given the goal of this study, to understand VTC member behavior, the methodology was deemed appropriate. A benet to the particular VTC selected, based on China's
popular C-Trip site, is the insight the ndings shed on this new yet
promising outbound market.
The VTC as a customer relationship management tool can enable
tourism businesses to build customer satisfaction, and even trust, in a
variety of ways. This new communication media can uniquely engage
customers through in-depth, focused, and member-generated content.

VCs can enable Internet travel agents to promote product, increase customer participation and interaction, leading to greater site stickiness,
and a better understanding of customer needs. VTCs may well be one
of the most effective business models in the technology age, providing
great opportunity for both providers and customers alike.
Finally, this study only tested the proposed model with a Chinese
sample. Based on previous research (Hofstede, Sternkamp, & Wedel,
1999), culture plays a signicant role in consumers' responses, from
decision making and purchase intention, to stickiness and loyalty.
However, few studies have focused on examining the impact of culture specically on purchase behaviors online. Thus, there is a need
for a better understanding of how culture affects online consumers'
trust and other key variables. To address this gap, future studies
could test cultural differences using not only national boundaries,
but also ethnic background and Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance
index.
7. Conclusion
This study contributes to the growing body of services marketing literature on VTCs, specically addressing gaps in the academic research
to date by integrating measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in
one model. For practitioners, the identication of factors, such as service
quality, that strongly inuence VTC member satisfaction can help to
focus technological resources in key areas. For academics, the results
provide additional insights into behavioral factors in a VTC environment, helping to sort out relationships between traditional measures
and relatively new measures. For example, the behavioral measure of
stickiness is unique to this domain and appears to work well as an outcome in VTC modeling. Trust, on the other hand, is a traditional measure
in behavioral models, yet its role in the VTC environment seems more
complex and warrants further study.
In addition, this study includes the attitude measures (satisfaction,
trust, and brand attitudes) and behavioral measures (stickiness and
intention to transact), partially conrming that some relationships
between behavioral measures and attitude measures can be used to
estimate the potential protability of VC membership. Also, marketers

S. Elliot et al. / Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 11531160

1159

Table 3
Results of hypothesis analysis.
Hypothesis
H1: online community quality
a. System quality
b. System quality
c. Service quality
d. Service quality
e. Information quality
f. Information quality

>
>
>
>
>
>

Satisfaction
Trust
Satisfaction
Trust
Satisfaction
Trust

H2: Stickiness
a. Satisfaction
b. Trust

>
>

Stickiness
Stickiness

H3: intention to transact

a. Stickiness
b. Trust
c. Brand attitude

>
>
>

Intention to transact
Intention to transact
Intention to transact

H4: trust
a. Trust

>

Brand attitude

Control variables
Age
Education
Income
Internet usage frequency
Number of VC memberships

>
>
>
>
>

Intention
Intention
Intention
Intention
Intention

to
to
to
to
to

transaction
transaction
transaction
transaction
transaction

can develop strategies directly targeting VTC members, such as special

discounts, more discounts for active community members, early adapter programs (new travel package testing), and so on. Future studies are
called for, as well as more sophisticated modeling, to expand the measurement of VTC member behavior and to conduct experiments across
industries, communities, and cultures. As consumers in general seek
more and more of their services online, a deeper understanding of the
VTC environment will help support continued innovation in the creation and management of quality service.
Acknowledgments
The rst and second authors contributed equally to this article.
The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 70803008) and China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (grant no. 201104426). The authors gratefully acknowledge the reading and revision suggestions by Michael Song from the
University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Rob Law from The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. The authors alone are responsible for
all limitations and errors that may be related to the paper.
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