WEB SITE QUALITY IN THE UK AIRLINE INDUSTRY: A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION
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WEB SITE QUALITY IN THE UK AIRLINE INDUSTRY:
A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION
ZHOU CHENG XIE STUART J. BARNES
University of East Anglia University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ UK Norwich NR4 7TJ UK
ABSTRACT time. Specifically, we examine four airlines operated in the UK
— British Airways. Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, and Ryanair — to
Web site quality is now considered a critical factor to attract identify the improvement in their Web site quality over time on
customers' attention and build loyalty. Based on a review of aspects of usability. Web site design, service quality, information
the literature, this study focuses on five dimensions of Web quality, and enjoyment. The research is retrospective and utilises
quality — usability, web site design, service quality, information the Web archive or 'WayBack Machine" at www.archive.org in
quality, and enjoyment. The aim of this research is to identify the onier to access pages for evaluative purposes in the years 1999,
development of Web site quality in four UK airlines based on the 2002 and 2005. The research approach is largely descriptive, but
research dimensions during the period from 1999 to 2005. For with some statistical testing for significant changes over time. We
this purpose, the survey utilised the Web archive (www.archive. hope to obtain some insight into the competitiveness between the
dig) for retrospective analysis (n= 120). According to the findings, examined airlines with regards to the quality of their respective
the four airlines have improved their Web site quality on the four Web sites.
dimensions in quite different ways during the period from 1999 The paper is organised as follows, In the next section we
to 2005. One of the main conclusions of this study is that the provide a literature review, including an overview of Web site
airlines have specific advantages from their particular mix of quality, relevant theories and concepts related to the research area.
Web site attributes. The paper rounds off with conclusions and Next, we describe the methodology, including the instrument.
implications for research and practice. data collection and analysis. In section 4. the findings of this
Keywords: Web site: quality; airline industry; longitudinal research are presented and then discussed in section 5. Finally, in
the last section, the paper provides conclusions from this research,
INTRODUCTION including implications for future research and practice.
The globalization of economic activities and widespread LITERATURE REVIEW
availability of the Internet across the world has led multinational
firms to use their corporate Web sites to communicate and transact In this section, we briefly review some earlier research
extensively with visitors from different parts of the world [7]. The related to Web site quality instruments. Following a summary of
airline industry is no exception to the e-commerce phenomenon previous work in this area, we provide an integrative model for
[22]. Most airlines have established their own Web sites in order our research.
to 'bypass' travel agent intermediaries, becoming increasingly
focused on online communication, information and transactions. Web site quality instruments
As the airlines have increasingly utilised e-commerce as part
of their competitive strategies, so too has the importance of Web Various instruments have been developed for evaluating the
site quality risen to the fore. Web site quality plays an important different aspects of Web site quality. A number of these are
role in attracting and retaining customers — underpinning shown in Table 1 and described briefly below.
Web site effectiveness [22]. Web site quality is a relatively ill-
defined concept [lj. The existing scientific research discusses the • Liu and Amett [17[ surveyed Webmasters for Fortune
meaning of Web site quality in terms of a variety of different 1000 companies to ascertain the factors critical to Web
aspects. For example, Bames and Vidgen (4| examine Web site site success with consumers. The result was five factors:
quality in terms of usability, site design, information quality, quality of information (which refers to relevant, accurate,
tmst and empathy; Yoo and Donthu [26) identify ease of use, timely, customized and complete information); service
aesthetic design, processing speed and security: Wolfinbarger and (measured by quick response, assurance, empathy, and
Gilly [25[ examine Web site design, reliability, privacy / security follow-up); system use (including security, correct
and customer service; Parasuraman et al. [21 ] include efficiency, transactions, customer control over transactions, order-
system availability, fulfilment and privacy; and Flavian et al. ¡ 10[ tracking, and privacy); playfulness (typically enjoyment,
utilise usability, trust and user satisfaction. Clearly, it is necessary interactivity, presence of attractive features, and flow
for airlines to grasp many aspects of customer perceptions of Web or concentration): and design of the Web site (in terms
site quality in order to increase visitors and thus sales. of hyperlinks, customized search functions, speed of
In this paper, we attempt to answer the question "What are access, and ease of correcting errors).
the key dimensions of Web site quality for airlines and how do • WebQual™. Loiacono et at. |I81 designed an instru-
these differ between airlines and over time?" To this end, we will ment to evaluate retail Web site quality. The instrument
ereate a measure, i.e. an instrument, of airline Web site quality assessed 12 components of retail Web quality: infor-
in order to evaluate and test the results of Web site change over mational lit-to-task, interactivity, trust, response time.
50 Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 2008-2009
design appœal, intuitiveness. visual appeal, innovative- types of Web sites. In Barnes and Vidgen [3], a total
ness,flow-emotionalappeal, integrated communications, of 380 student respondents evaluated online book-
business process, and viable substitute. She used a stores, using an instrument with 22 questions. Based on
36-item scale to test 800 college students on Web exploratory factor analysis, five dimensions emerged:
sites selling books, music, airlines tickets and hotel usability, design, information quality, trust and
reservations. Although the instrument possesses strong empathy.
validity and reliability, students had not necessarily ever • .comQ. Wolfinbarger and Gilly [24| used focus groups,
made a purchase at the site they evaluated. Therefore, sorting and a customer panel to develop the .comQ
they did not rate an actual purchase and the role of instrument. Using concepts and attributes from both
customer service and delivery in producing a quality the service quality and retailing literatures, their scale
experience could not be investigated [25]. contains 14 attributes in four factors: Web site design
SiteQual. This instrument was developed by asking (including personalization), reliability (including
students in two marketing classes to generate appropriate accurate product description, on-time delivery, and
questions. Fifty-four unique items were generated, order accuracy), privacy/security, and customer service
forming the basis for an instrument completed by 69 (referring to solving problems, willingness to help
students for three self-selected sites [26]. Using a process and prompt answers to queries). Using concepts and
of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis this was attributes from both the service quality and retailing
whittled down to 9 items measuring ease of use, design, literatures, their scale contains 14 attributes in these
processing speed, and security. A validation study with four factors.
47 subjects each, evaluating 4 sites (n = 187), resulted
• Kim and Stoel [ 16], in their more simplified instrument,
in reliabilities in the range 0.69 to 0.83 and good fit
include three of the factors of Loiacono [18] plus
indices. SiteQuaPs original set of items is narrowly
three slightly different factors — entertainment, web
based and thus possibly excludes some key factors [18],
appearance and transaction capability. The instrument
and the authors did not investigate customer service or
is tested with a large sample and demonstrates good
delivery issues [25].
reliability and validity.
eQual 4.0. cQua! 4.0 (previously called WebQual 4.0) • E-S-Qual and E-RecS-Qual. These two scales were
has been iteratively developed over time. The authors developed for assessing the full cycle of service quality
have used the instrument on student and customer for online B2C e-commerce Web sites. The E-S-Qual
samples to assess the quality of a number of different scale developed in a 22-item scale of four dimensions:
TABLE 1: Instruments for measuring Web site quality
Instrument Authors Dimensions
1. Quality of Infomiatioii 4, Playfulness perceived by cnnsumcrs
Not named Liuand Arnett [17] 2. Service 5. Design of the Website
3. System use
I. Informational fit-to-task 7. Visual appeal
2. Interactivity 8. Innovativeness
3. Trust 9. Flow (emotional appeal)
WebQual™ Loiacono et ah [18] A. Response Time 10. Integrated Communication
5. Design Appeal 11. Business Process
6. Intuitiveness 12. Substitutability
1. Easy of use 3. PrtKessing speed
SiteQual Yoo and Donthu [26]
2. Aesthetic design 4. Security
1. Web site design 3. Privacy / security
.comQ Wotfinbarger and Gilly [24]
2. Reliability 4. Customer service
eQual 4.0 1. Web site usability
(previously Barnes and Vidgen [3] 2. Information quality •
WebQual 4.0) 3. Service interaction
1. Web appearance 4. Transaction capability
Not named Kim and Stoel [16] 2. Entertainment 5. Response time
3. Informational fit-to-task 6. Trust
Core e-SQ Recovery e-SQ
E-S-Qual / 1. Efficiency ' 1. Responsiveness
E-RecS-Qual Parasuraman, et al. [21] 2. System availability 2. Compensation
3. Fulfilhnent 3. Contact
1
4. Privacy
Winter 2008-2009 Journal of Computer Information Systems 51
efficiency, fulfilment, system availability, and privacy. Proposition 3: The service quality of airline Web sites
Tbe second E-RecS-QUAL scale contained three will tend to increase over the period of study.
dimensions {responsiveness, compensation, contact) Proposition 4: The information quality of airiine Web
with an 11 -item scale. Tbe scales were empirically tested sites will tend to increase over the period of study.
by using questionnaires distributed to sample of users of Proposition 5: Tbe playfulness or enjoyment of airline
the most visited Web sites in the USA — amazon.com Web sites will tend to increase over tbe period of
(n=653) and walmart.com (n=205) [21]. study.
Research framework and propositions
METHODOLOGY
Looking across instruments and the literature, there are
clearly a number of core features that a good quality Web Tbis section briefly details bow tbe research was designed and
site should possess [6] [12] [14] [23]. First, an effective Web conducted.
site should serve as a major source of information; provide
complete information on the products and services; and allow Instrument development
for quick access to information through tools like search engines.
Customers also demand appropriate levels of service interaction Based on the literature review and Figure 1, this research
including customer service, personalisation and ease of contact focuses on five constructs for survey development:
in the event of a problem. Furthermore, a Web site should
incorporate appropriate security measures and adopt privacy • Usability (USAB) is related to human-computer
practices in order to develop customers" trust. In addition, a Web interaction and is concerned with how the user perceives
site should be easy to navigate and typically have aesthetic appeal and interacts with a Web site. It is derived from the
and an appearance that is appropriate for the organisation. Such
eQual 4.0 [3]. In tbis study, there are 4 items measuring
features also contribute to enjoyment or emotional appeal, which
usability.
beip to create flow [18] and retain tbe customer. In summary, the
• Web site design (DESI) is based on tbe user-perceived
core features described above can be divided into 5 dimensions:
Web quality instrument of Aladwani and Palvia [ 1 ] and
usability. Web site design, service quality, information quaiity
Kim and StoeKs [16] analysis, which contain items for
and enjoyment (see Figure I ).
Web site content and Web site appearance. There are 8
In order to formaüy determine changes in Web site quaÜties items used to measure this research construct.
over time, this research adopted a numl)er of propositions for • Service quality (SERV) is emphasized by Bames and
statistica! testing. We refer to these as propositions rather than Vidgen [3] and Liu and Amett [17] In their research
hypotheses due to the nature of samphng and testing in this instruments to measure Web site quality, ¡n this study,
study; a!tbough the overall sample is 120, only 10 respondents service quality is measured by a 7-item instrument.
were available in each time period. The propositions tested are as • Information quality (INFO) is also emphasized by
foUows: Bamcs and Vidgen [3] and Liu and Amett [17] in their
research instruments. In tbis study, information quality
• Proposition 1: The usability of aidine Web sites will is again measured by 7 items.
tend to increase over tbe period of study. • Playfulness or enjoyment (PLAY) comes from the
• Proposition 2: TTie Web site design quality of airline Liu and Amett"s [17] framework, Ethier's [9] emotion
Web sites will tend to increase over the period of system in using a Web site, and Kim and Stoel" s [16]
study. research, which involves tbe context of consumer
behaviour. In this study, we use three items to measure
this factor.
UsabiUty
Each questionnaire consisted of two sections. In the first
section of tbe survey, respondents were asked to evaluate various
Website
aspects of Web site quality for an airline company in a time
Design
period. It consisted of 29 items measuring user's perceptions of
the 5 dimensions of Web site quality. The second section solicited
Website demographic information such as age, gender and occupation.
Service Quality
Quality
Respondents were also asked about: (1) tbe number of years
they had been using the Intemet; and (2) how many times they
typically use the Internet each week or day. Experienced onüne
in format ioD
users are perhaps more likely to point out their perceptions about
Quality 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].
PUyfulim» or
Enjoyment Background on the airlines examined
The research focuses on the four major airünes operating in
FIGURE 1: Framework for evaluating Web site quality the UK in the air travel market:
52 Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 2008-2009
• British Airways (http://www.britishairways.com/ total, 70 members of www.speedsurvey.com responded within
travel/home/public/en gb). British Airways is the two weeks. Since the research utilises small, longitudinal samples,
largest airiine in the United Kingdom. It is also the it was not possible to examine the two populations for bias, e.g.,
third largest airline in Europe, with more flights from using ANOVA.
Europe across the Atlantic than any other operator. Its Each respondent was asked to evaluate an airiine Web site
main hubs are London Heathrow and London Gatwick. in one year. Respondents were asked to evaluate sites using a
British Airways' worldwide route network covers some 7-point scale where the anchors are from 7 (= strongly agree) to
233 destinations in 96 countries. The company has 1 (= strongly disagree), where 4 is neutral. All responses were
succeeded in growing revenues faster than costs: total received within a two week period during August 2006. The
revenue rose 9.6% to £8.5 billion in the tax year to online questionnaire responses were received via email, filtered
March 2006 [15]. to check for duplicates and converted into Microsoft Excel and
• Virgin Atiantic Airways fhttp://www.virgin-atlantic. SPSS for analysis. The analysis included a mixture of descriptive
com/en/gb/index.jsp) is part of Richard Branson's and graphical procedures as well as statistical testing.
Virgin Group. Virgin Group owns 51% of the airline,
and Singapore Airiincs owns the other 49% stake. It is FINDINGS
the UK's second largest operator of long-haul scheduled
flights, with an ever-increasing network of flights In this section we briefly describe the sample and general
branching out to four different continents from their trends before testing the propositions and examining reliability.
main hubs at Heathrow and Gatwick airports in London
[11|. Virgin Atlantic reported revenues of £1.91 billion Description of tiie sample
in the tax year to 2006 [19].
• easyJet (http://www.easyJet.com) is Europe's leading In total 120 responses were received — 10 responses for each
low-cost airiine. It provides high frequency services on airline company in each of the three years. Respondents consisted
short-haul and medium-haul point-to-point routes within of 55 (45.8%) students. 58 (48.3%) employed persons and 7
Europe from its three airport bases at London Luton, (5.8%) unemployed persons. Also, 111(92.5%) of respondents
Liverpool and Geneva. The airline operates frequent indicated that they had previously visited the Web site being
scheduled services for leisure and business passengers evaluated before. Related to Internet use, 69 (57.5%) respondents
and serves more than 200 routes between more than 75 used the Internet more than once per day; 80 (66.7%) respondents
European airports. Revenues in 2006 were £2.8 billion had more than 7 years of Internet use experience and 19 (27.5%)
[8]- respondents had 5 to 6 years of experience. Overall, the majority
• Ryanair thttp://www.ryanair.com) is an Irish airline of respondents are frequent, experienced Internet users and likely
headquartered in Dublin, although its biggest operational to be relatively good judges of Web quality.
base is at London Stansted Airport. It is one of Europe's
largest low-cost-carriers, operating more than 300 General trends
routes between 130 airports in 21 Europiean countries.
Its main hub is London Stansted Airport, with 88 routes. Table 1 shows the changes over time in the five constructs for
Over the years it has evolved into a profitable airiine the individual and combined datasets for all four airlines. Let us
because online booking has increasingly contributed first consider the combined dataseL As we can see, there is a clear
to the aim of cutting flight prices by selling direct to trend for improvement over time — with means between 3.58
passengers. Gurrently, the Web site accounts for 95% and 3.92 in 1999, between 4.72 and 4.96 in 2002 and between
of total bookings [2]. Revenues in 2006 were £1.7 5.35 and 5.61 in 2005. However, this trend varies considerably by
billion. construct; for example, in the final time period, 2005, information
quality and playfulness both appear to buck the trend of previous
Operationaiization of the survey years and move considerably ahead in the perceptions of users.
Examining the changes in the rankings of the various constructs
Due to time and resource constraints for this study, an online confirms this; while usability was ranked top in 1999 and 2002,
survey was used, offering rapid operation and low cost. Data it fell to second place in 2005, being pushed out by information
for this study were collected via an Internet survey instrument quality, which was only ranked 4th in previous years. Similarly,
(www.speedsurvey.com). The Internet survey web site, www. playfulness, ranked 5th in previous years was joint 3rd in 2005,
speedsurvey.com, provides easy and professional survey design while service fell to rank 5.
and data collection facilities. This trend is less easy to decipher between the three time
The research was further complicated since there were 12 periods, because of varying increases in constructs. However, if
versions of the questionnaire that needed to be completed; we look at the rankings for 1999 and 2005, where improvements
each airline Web site in each year was evaluated to collected are most marked, there are definitely some clear differences. Both
10 responses, i.e. 120 responses overall. The procedure was B A and Ryanair bear out the trend in information quality. EasyJet
as follows. First, invitation emails were sent to 50 potential and Ryanair, the budget airlines, bear oui their image and clear
respondents, and each of these email messages had a link to a demonstrate the rise in the importance of playfulness (to 2nd
questionnaire embedded within it. Second a popup invitation place). British Airways clearly bucks the trend in the other three
letter with a hyperiink to the Web page with questionnaires airlines away from service quality, which is firmly in joint second
was posted on the www.speedsurvey.com Web site. The letter place.
explained the purpose of the study and encouraged the users These trends in the qualities ofthe various Web sites are more
to participate iti the survey to evaluate Web site quality. In clearly repre.sented in Figure 2.
Winter 2008-2009 Journal of Computer Information Systems 53
TABLE 1: Trends in constructs over time
Airline Construct 1999 Rank 2002 Rank 2005 Rank
British Airways USAB 4.05 1 5.18 1 5.35 4
DESI 3.76 5 5.00 3 5.43 2
SERV 3.91 4 5.10 2 5.43 2
INFO 3.96 3 4.97 4 5.84 1
PLAY 4.00 2 4.50 5 5.40 5
Virgin Atlantic USAB 3.95 1 4.38 1 5.70 2
DESI 3.63 3 4.03 2 5.78 1
SERV 3.79 2 4.00 3 5.40 5
INFO 3.47 4 3.96 4 5.66 3
PLAY 3.13 5 3.83 5 5.57 4
Easyjet USAB 4.45 1 4.33 5 5.93 1
DESI 4.13 2 4.66 2 5.34 4
SERV 3.60 4 4.43 4 5.24 5
INFO 3.89 3 4.53 3 5.50 3
PLAY 3.60 4 4.67 1 5.53 2
Ryanair USAB 3.23 5 5.98 1 5.28 5
DESI 3.70 2 5.41 5 5.40 2
SERV 4.11 1 5.70 3 5.34 4
INFO 3.29 4 5.44 4 5.44 1
PLAY 3.57 3 5.87 2 5.40 2
OVERALL USAB 3.92 1 4.96 1 5.56 2
DESI 3.80 3 4.78 3 5.48 3
SERV 3.85 2 4.81 2 5.35 5
INFO 3.65 4 4.73 4 5.61 1
PLAY 3.58 5 4.72 5 5.48 3
USAB
DESI
PLAY
Key:
time
j s
periods:
{I)1999;
(2) 2002:
(3) 2005:
cases:
(1) British
Airways;
(2) Virgin
Atlantic;
(3) easyJet;
(4) Ryanair
FIGURE 2: Summary of airline Web site evaluations in the three time periods
54 Journal of Computer Information Systems Winter 2008-2009
TABLE 2: T-tests for changes to constructs over time (significant results in bold)
Airline Construct TltoT2 T2toT3 Tl to T3 Proposition (Tl to T3)
British Airways USAB 0.00 0.34 0.00 Confirmed
DESI 0.00 0.07 0.00 Confirmed
SERV 0.00 0.19 0,00 Confirmed
INFO 0.13 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
PLAY 0.24 0,04 0.01 Confirmed
Virgin Atlantic USAB 0.26 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
DESI 0.13 0,00 0.00 Confirmed
SERV 0.44 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
INFO 0.17 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
PLAY 0.06 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
EasyJet USAB 0.06 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
DESI 0.00 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
SERV 0.00 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
INFO 0.01 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
PLAY 0.00 0.01 0.00 Confirmed
Ryanair USAB 0.00 0.01 0.00 Confirmed
DESI 0.00 0.97 0.00 Confirmed
SERV 0.02 0.11 0.51 Disconfirmed
INFO 0.00 1.00 0.00 Confirmed
PLAY 0.00 0.07 0.00 Confirmed
OVERALL USAB 0.00 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
DESI 0.00 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
SERV 0.00 0.00 0,00 Confirmed
INFO 0.00 0.00 0.00 Confirmed
PLAY 0.00 0,00 0,00 Confirmed
Test of propositions only factor that did not improve over the entire study period —
service quality. Clearly this says something about the nature of
Now that we have established that there is a general trend the airline's offering.
towards quality improvement and towards emphasis on different
patterns of qualities, both over time and for the different air- TABLE 3: Reliabifity analysis
lines, we tum our attention to a formal test of our propositions.
Research Construct Questions Cronbaches Alpha
We use the term proposition in preference to hypothesis due to
the limited dataset. To formally examine the improvement in Usability 1-4 0.76
qualities over time, a t-test was conducted both for each air-
line and for the overall dataset over time. Table 2 shows the Design 5-12
significance levels resulting from t-tests for means between 1999 Service 13-19
(Tl ) and 2002 (T2), 2002 and 2005 (T3). and 1999 and 2005 (for
propositions). Information 20-26 0.87
Table 2 clearly demonstrates very significant changes (p
of five times the number of variables according to Hair et consumers' behaviours on airline Web sites, and distinguishing
al. [13]). between the behaviours of various types of consumers (e.g., goal-
focused versus experiential shoppers).
DISCUSSION
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