Fuzzy hierarchical evaluations of business website performance with application to luxury hotels

Abstract

Goal and objectives of the dissertationGoalThis study evaluates usefulness performance of websites by integrating functionality and usability, a fuzzy hierarchical TOPSIS model was designed for calculation process.Objectives- to develop a comprehensive list of attributes for functionality based on literature;- to establish a comprehensive list of attributes for usability based on literature;- to integrate the applicability of these two lists in the Chinese and international context; and- to assess the usefulness (functionality and usability) performance of different groups of websites (China-based and international luxury hotels) using a fuzzy TOPSIS hierarchical model from users' perception.MethodologyThe research combines both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to achieve the objectives of developing a usefulness evaluation framework and evaluating usefulness performance of websites. methodology section includes three stages. At stage one, a qualitative approach that involved Chinese and international focus groups formed by population of tourists who have purchased or searched travel products in the past 12 months. New usefulness attributes for websites were discovered from Chinese online travelers, and then the applicability of these attributes in an international context was tested. result of group discussions was employed to establish a new set of usefulness evaluation measurement.Stage two aimed to collect the perceived importance of usefulness attributes from Chinese and international respondents who have visited or searched luxury websites. performance scores of selected websites were generated from Chinese and international evaluators. For a normal sampling distribution the minimum sample size should be 30 (Mendenhall & Beaver, 1995). Thus, the researcher randomly selected 30 international luxury hotels from the publication The Leading Hotels of the World (Romanella & Chung, 2007). China-based luxury hotels were selected from the top 30 Chinese cities that received more than 200,000 inbound tourists. Using Ctrip.com, the top online travel operator in China that provides a star-related list, hotels were randomly selected.The third stage used a modified fuzzy hierarchical TOPSIS model that integrates the perceived importance of usefulness into evaluation results, which represent the overall performance of selected luxury websites. research data were mainly calculated by newly developed fuzzy model.ResultsA new usefulness evaluation list was produced and the applicability of the new list was tested by both international and Chinese consumers. importance of each usefulness attribute was indicated by Chinese and international consumers, respectively. Results revealed that Chinese and international users had similar perceptions of functionality. most important attribute is reservation information. In particular, hotel location, room rate, secured payment system, hotel descriptions, and hotel facilities were evaluated as high importance by both international and Chinese luxury consumers. On the usability aspect, both international and Chinese consumers indicated that Access speed of website, information credibility, and website learnability was the most important among all usability attributes. Different perspectives were observed between these two groups of consumers. International consumers care more about how to explore a while Chinese consumers considered accessibility and ease of use as more important attributes. Therefore, hoteliers should treat these two groups of consumers separately during their development.The usefulness performance of 30 China-based and 30 international luxury websites was evaluated by both Chinese and international evaluators, respectively. …