Investigating internet adoption and implementation by Malaysian hotels: an exploratory study

[Truncated abstract] Based on the growing importance of tourism to Malaysia’s economy and the increasing use of the Internet in tourism, this study investigated the adoption and implementation of the two most popular Internet application, email and websites, by Malaysian hotels. Diffusion of innovations laid the theoretical foundation that drove this dissertation. Using two research streams, adoption and diffusion modelling, this dissertation addressed four research questions related to Malaysian hotels’ Internet adoption and implementation. In addition, this study applied the Miles and Snow (1978) typology to investigate relationships between business strategic types with email and website adoption and implementation. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology classified hotels into one of four business strategic types: Prospector, Analyser, Defender and Reactor. Finally, this study validated a temporal variable, website age, to investigate evolving website use. The literature review helped set up fifteen hypotheses. Using a triangulation approach to address the research questions, the dissertation began with an explorative study with 17 representatives from the Malaysian hotel industry. An empirical study using four independent data sources - mail survey, website features, email responses, and website age - tested the hypotheses. The adopter study investigated relationships among hotel characteristics and business strategic types with Internet adoption. The results showed hotel characteristics - size, rating and affiliation - and business strategic types related positively with email and website adoption. Large, high rated, affiliated and Prospector hotels led the email and website adoption. This result supported the diffusion of innovation theory on the relationship between organisational characteristics and business strategic types with technology adoption...