An empirical investigation of the factors influencing online repurchase intention: evidence from the hotel industry

Abstract

In the fierce competition of the hotel industry, how to increase customers' satisfaction and repurchase intension is critical for hotels to gain competitive advantages. This study developed a research model and hypotheses to investigate how electronic trust (e-trust) and electronic satisfaction (e-satisfaction) could sustain repurchase intention of existing customers and also develop word-of-mouth (WOM) for new customers. Web-based and paper-based survey questionnaires were used to collect data and 300 effective samples (198 web-based and 102 paper-based) were gathered. Structural equation modelling was utilised to test the research hypotheses. The results show that navigation has a positive effect on e-trust and e-satisfaction, and both offline trust and offline satisfaction can be transfer to online context which influence e-WOM and online repurchase intention. Several managerial implications for the operation of a hotel are also provided in this study. For example, a hotel should value its offline satisfaction and offline trust as proceeding in e-commerce business. In addition, a hotel's website needs to contain detail information such as room type, price and discount and the layout should design in simple way so as to make the consumer feel easy to use.