As companies struggle to persuade their customers to adopt new self-service technologies (SSTs), it has become increasingly important to understand the factors affecting customers’ attitudes towards these SSTs and their adoption behaviour. Technology readiness (TR), i.e. the customer's mental readiness to accept new technologies, has been proposed as such a factor. TR comprises four dimensions: innovativeness, optimism, discomfort and insecurity. This article investigates the effects of TR on customers’ (1) attitudes towards using SST for airline check-in, (2) adoption of self-service check-in, and (3) evaluations of a new self-service check-in on the Internet, in terms of perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty. An empirical study was conducted among loyalty program customers of a European airline, having access to Internet check-in. Data were collected with online and traditional mail surveys, resulting in 1258 usable responses. Analysis of the data revealed that only optimism and innovativeness formed unique individual dimensions. Furthermore, TR had surprisingly little impact on customer attitudes towards SST, on adoption behaviour, and on SST evaluations. Optimism explained consumer behaviour towards SSTs best, whereas innovativeness had only a marginal effect on attitudes towards using the Internet or a mobile phone to check-in. The article concludes with a discussion of the validity of the TR construct and suggestions for future research. Managerial implications are provided.
The growing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in services has revolutionized the interactions between service providers and customers, and increased the standardisation of many services. This development makes the old adage of services being characterised by frequent customer–employee interaction, high service variability and high costs of serving customers less true today than 10–20 years ago (Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004). Service providers introduce self-service technologies (SSTs) to increase productivity and efficiency (Walker et al., 2002; Zeithaml and Gilly, 1987), and to offer customers access to services via new and convenient channels (Meuter et al., 2003), thereby better meeting customer demand and increasing satisfaction (Bitner et al., 2002). Some SSTs, such as online banking, electronic retailing, scanning purchases in supermarkets, and paying public transportation tickets by mobile phone are indeed popular among consumers.
However, the introduction of an SST does not automatically lead to its usage, which can be an issue in technology markets where the law of critical mass applies (Parasuraman and Colby, 2001). Many technological innovations are radical or really new to customers (Garcia and Calantone, 2002), and cause apprehension in those who lack sufficient experience with the technology. Customers’ reluctance to adopt SSTs has become a hurdle for companies that want the full cost benefits of technological service innovations. Therefore it is crucial to improve our knowledge on factors affecting customers’ willingness to adopt new technologies (Walker et al., 2002).
Personality traits have been proposed to affect customer adoption of SSTs (Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002; Susskind, 2004). Technology readiness (TR), i.e. customers’ mental readiness to accept new technologies can be considered such a factor (Parasuraman, 2000). So far, the TR instrument has been used to compare consumers in different countries (Parasuraman, 2000; Parasuraman et al., 2004; Tsikriktsis, 2004), to understand the TR of service employees (Taylor et al., 2002), and to explain the relationships between perceived ease of use, usefulness and behavioural intentions (Yi et al., 2003). It should, however, be tested in other contexts as well. In his seminal article, Parasuraman (2000) calls for further research on the TR of customers of different companies and the effect that TR of the customers has on the firm, such as its impact on customer satisfaction. The present study addresses these issues by investigating the impact of TR on customers’ (1) attitude towards using SSTs, (2) adoption of SSTs, i.e. actual usage and (3) response to the firm in terms of perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty to an SST. The empirical context of the study is airline check-in services. Airlines are looking for new ways to cut operating costs, and the introduction of self-service forms an important item on their agenda.
First, we review literature on the TR construct and develop propositions to be tested in an empirical study. Second, the empirical context of airline check-in and the data collection methods are discussed. The propositions are then tested with empirical data from customers of a European airline. The article rounds up with a conclusion, managerial implications and a discussion of limitations and directions for further research.
