Perceived value of the online environment of tourism agencies and its impacts on the purchase decision: the mediating role of attitude

Abstract

This article aims to understand how perceived value in an online tourism setting influences the purchase intention indirectly, given that consumers’ trust and attitude impact on their online behavior. The theoretical model used was inspired by the background of trust by Beldad, De Jong and Steehouder (2010a), in the trust model in online travel agencies (Agag & El-Masry, 2017), in the technological acceptance model (TAM) and in the rational action theory (RAT), applied to the retail context of tourism services. The results confirm the mediation of attitude in the relationship between trust and purchase intention, consistent with the numbers of markets in countries with low education for Internet use and security prob-lems for online transactions. The results also made it possible to propose the measurement of perceived value that considers dimensions of technological acceptance, which is conven-ient when dealing with consumers' online behavior. Thus, the impact of the trust construct on the purchase intention is best explained by the indirect path via attitude. Therefore, indi-viduals who trust the website of online travel agencies have greater intentions to hire services in this virtual store environment when they have positive attitudes towards the afore-mentioned retail context.