IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cwd/ijbmnz/v4y2025i2p139-153.html

Exploring factors influencing service quality of online travel agencies: A politeness perspective

Author

Listed:
  • I-Ching Chen

    (Zhaoqing University)

  • Zhi-Ling Zhang

    (Zhaoqing University)

Abstract

As the internet becomes more widespread, competition among online travel platforms has intensified. To succeed, platforms must understand how to attract and retain customers. This study, based on the theory of e-commerce politeness, employs the critical incident technique to collect customer feedback regarding politeness on online travel platforms, identifying key factors in both satisfactory and unsatisfactory user experiences. This study collected a total of 76 valid questionnaires, with 76 instances of satisfaction and 76 instances of dissatisfaction. Satisfactory incidents fall into categories such as discounts and promotions, precise push notifications, ticket purchasing channels, system functionality, and customer service quality. Unsatisfactory incidents include price stability, refund and exchange policies, advertising frequency, review mechanisms, system functionality, and customer service quality. The study confirms that these critical incidents significantly impact the service quality of online travel platforms. Finally, practical recommendations are proposed based on these findings, aiming to offer valuable insights for the development of online travel platforms and to enrich theoretical research on consumer behavior. The study presents a novel and timely exploration of e-commerce politeness in the context of online travel agencies (OTAs), filling a gap in existing research.

Suggested Citation

  • I-Ching Chen & Zhi-Ling Zhang, 2025. "Exploring factors influencing service quality of online travel agencies: A politeness perspective," International Journal of Business and Management (IJBM), International Emerging Scholars Society (IESS), New Zealand, vol. 4(2), pages 139-153, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwd:ijbmnz:v:4:y:2025:i:2:p:139-153
    DOI: 10.56879/ijbm.v4i2.151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iessociety.org/index.php/IJBM/article/download/151/1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.56879/ijbm.v4i2.151?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hardesty, David M. & Bearden, William O., 2004. "The use of expert judges in scale development: Implications for improving face validity of measures of unobservable constructs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 98-107, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vesna Spasojević Brkić & Mirjana Misita & Martina Perišić & Aleksandar Brkić & Zorica Veljković, 2022. "Validating Measurement Structure of Checklist for Evaluating Ergonomics Risks in Heavy Mobile Machinery Cabs," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Kipnis, Eva & Demangeot, Catherine & Pullig, Chris & Broderick, Amanda J., 2019. "Consumer Multicultural Identity Affiliation: Reassessing identity segmentation in multicultural markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 126-141.
    3. Alexandria M. Gain & Leonard V. Coote & André Bonfrer, 2024. "Conceptualising and measuring consumer perceptions of brand wastefulness," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(6), pages 557-575, November.
    4. Saud S. Alghazi & Amirrudin Kamsin & Mohammed Amin Almaiah & Seng Yue Wong & Liyana Shuib, 2021. "For Sustainable Application of Mobile Learning: An Extended UTAUT Model to Examine the Effect of Technical Factors on the Usage of Mobile Devices as a Learning Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    5. Antun Fagarazzi, 2025. "Emotional Intelligence In Project Management," Poslovna izvrsnost-Business Excellence, University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics & Business, vol. 19(1), pages 57-75.
    6. Chandra Mahapatra, Subas & Bellamkonda, Raja Shekhar, 2023. "Higher expectations of passengers do really sense: Development and validation a multiple scale-FliQual for air transport service quality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Yang, Zhiyong & Janakiraman, Narayan & Hossain, Mehdi T. & Grisaffe, Douglas B., 2020. "Differential effects of pay-it-forward and direct-reciprocity on prosocial behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 400-408.
    8. Habel, Johannes & Alavi, Sascha & Pick, Doreén, 2017. "When serving customers includes correcting them: Understanding the ambivalent effects of enforcing service rules," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 919-941.
    9. Minyoung Lee & Seon-Deok Eun & Tae Hyun Cho & Young-Il Shin & Jiyeon Song & Seung Hee Ho, 2020. "Development and Evaluation of a Classified and Tailored Community-Based Exercise Program According to the Mobility Level of People with Stroke Using the Knowledge to Action Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Rodriguez, Virginie & Sangle-Ferriere, Marion, 2023. "Do supermarkets’ emails have any value for their customers? The effect of emails’ content and interestingness on customers’ attitude and engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Waqas, Muhammad & Salleh, Noor Akma Mohd & Hamzah, Zalfa Laili, 2021. "Branded Content Experience in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development, and Validation," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 106-120.
    12. Chathurika Sewwandi Kannangara & Rosie Elizabeth Allen & Jerome Francis Carson & Samia Zahraa Noor Khan & Gill Waugh & Kondal Reddy Kandadi, 2020. "Onwards and upwards: The development, piloting and validation of a new measure of academic tenacity- The Bolton Uni-Stride Scale (BUSS)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-26, July.
    13. Erhan Boğan & Bekir Bora Dedeoğlu, 2020. "Hotel employees' corporate social responsibility perception and organizational citizenship behavior: Perceived external prestige and pride in organization as serial mediators," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2342-2353, September.
    14. Verhagen, Tibert & Meents, Selmar, 2007. "A Framework for Developing Semantic Differentials in IS research: Assessing the Meaning of Electronic Marketplace Quality (EMQ)," Serie Research Memoranda 0016, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    15. Ramesh Darbha & Abhilash Ponnam & Rik Paul & S. Sreejesh, 2022. "Discerning the antecedents determining empowerment of life insurance agents: an empirical examination," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(4), pages 279-290, December.
    16. Zhang, Zhikun & Zhang, Chuang & Shen, Lu, 2020. "Deterring dealer slackness: The role of supplier incentives and monitoring and the market environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 353-363.
    17. Ayako Kohno & Maznah Dahlui & Nik Daliana Nik Farid & Norlaili Abdul Aziz & Takeo Nakayama, 2021. "Development of Early Marriage Attitude Scale: A Multi-Dimensional Scale for Measuring the Attitudes Toward Child Marriage," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    18. Ittamalla, Rajesh & Srinivas Kumar, Daruri Venkata, 2021. "Determinants of holistic passenger experience in public transportation: Scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Rudkowski, Janice, 2024. "Measuring employee-consumer integrated retailer brand equity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    20. James J. Zboja & Ronald A. Clark & Diana L. Haytko, 2016. "An offer you can’t refuse: consumer perceptions of sales pressure," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 806-821, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cwd:ijbmnz:v:4:y:2025:i:2:p:139-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Cindy Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://iessociety.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.