| Summary: | 碩士 === 朝陽科技大學 === 休閒事業管理系 === 102 === This research aims to propose and test a theoretical model to articulate and delineate the search attributes that describe how smartphone users search for tourism information. Based on Ho, Lin and Chen (2012), a two-staged study was conducted by adopting a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first study focused on building a theory to demonstrate the flows of thoughts, activities, and decisions in terms of tourism information search. The second study sought to generalize the theory to population by a questionnaire survey.
In the first study, the grounded theory approach was employed and 21 subjects participated in the data collection process to supply the semi-structured in-depth interviewing data and their field observations. Ten tourism information search characteristics have been identified and they are not performed in isolation. In total, 20 propositions have been developed for future testing. Then, the second study was carried out to assess the validity of the conceptual model. The students from 3 universities in Taiwan were invited to participate in the survey. The data was collected using a convenience sampling method and in total 326 valid responses were obtained. The respondents were restricted to those who searched for tourism information via smartphones and made a domestic travel within the last 6 months. A partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used to identify the significant factors and the relationships in the proposed model.
The model indicates that tourism information search takes place internally, depending on memory, and also externally through the use of different sources from the external environment. Some search characteristics are identical to those involving the use of the PC Internet; however, a fundamental difference between both is that smartphone searching is rapid and shallow due to the limited space and screen size. The research findings reveal an ongoing process with a diversity of search patterns: using smartphones first, then PC Internet and other information sources. The search process includes a sequential information search, information processing and information integration; in addition, it is no longer individual but collaborative search behavior in the context of Web 2.0. This research contributes to the literature by providing a representative search model to highlight the individuals’ engagement in more complex search-related and collaborative tasks as a means of approaching their travel decision-making. In light of our findings and limitations, we draw managerial implications and offer suggestions for future research.
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