Going digital with multisided-platforms: Assessing the innovation adoption process from the perspectives of travel agents

Abstract

Travel agents’ adoption of digital technologies to digitally transform their businesses has seen a rapid surge in recent years in the tourism industry. Multisided Platforms (MSPs) have been one of those digital technologies that digitally transformed brick-and-mortar travel agents to have access to online tools and modules for searching, comparing, and booking travel content. This study examines the factors that are taken into consideration by travel agents in the three phases of the adoption process, namely, pre-adoption, during-adoption, and post-adoption phases. A qualitative study was taken up for this purpose and seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with international travel agents. The findings of this study were twofold. First, the findings of the study adhered to the existing factors of the diffusion of innovation (DOI) model such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability, as crucial factors for adopting MSPs. Second, the findings of the study extended the DOI model by proposing two other factors, supportability, and integrability, which were deemed crucial by travel agents when adopting MSPs. The study shows that as part and parcel of the DOI model, travel agents by adopting MSPs get access to global content from multiple-channels and multiple-providers easily and securely. The study discusses practical and theoretical implications.