information technology integration in supermarkets operations-libre

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Application and issues in e-business / penyelenggara Noor Hazarina Hashim, Ahmad Sharifuddin Shamsuddin, Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid. Includes index ISBN 978-983-52-0698-6 1. Electronic commerce. I. Noor Hazarina Hashim. II. Ahmad Sharifuddin Shamsuddin. III. Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid. 658.800285

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iv

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface vi

Chapter 1 A Meta Analysis on Website Design for the

Hospitality IndustryNoor Hazarina Hashim, Jamie Murphy, Rob Law

Information Technology Integration in

Supermarket’s Operation

Diffusion of Innovations: Adoption and Use

of Websites and Email Among Malaysians

HotelsNoor Hazarina Hashim

Website Design and E-Loyalty: A Case Study

of Air Asia

1

21

39

57

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

v

71

81

109

119

139

159

Branded Domain Name as an Online

Marketing Tool: A Case Study in Hospitality

IndustryJamie Murphy, Noor Hazarina Hashim

The Implication of IT in Supply Chain

Communication Systems in Manufacturing

Companies

Adoption of E-Banking in Small Medium

Industry

Online Destination Marketing: A Case Study

of MalaysiaNoor Hazarina Hashim, Jamie Murphy

Internet Evolution: A Case of Malaysian

Hotel IndustryNoor Hazarina Hashim

Research on Trust in Online Environment

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

vi

vi

PREFACE

Live in fragments no longer. Only connect.

Edward Morgan Forster, Chapter 22, Howards End (1910)

1A Meta Analysis on Website Design for the Hospitality Industry

1A META ANALYSIS ON

WEBSITE DESIGN FOR THE

HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

NOOR HAZARINA HASHIM

JAMIE MURPHY

ROB LAW

INTRODUCTION

Research suggests that website content can augment advertising and marketing activities (Barwise, Elberse, & Hammond, 2002; Wan,

same website (Kim & Stoel, 2004). Given the Internet’s growing importance as a hospitality distribution and marketing channel (O’Connor & Frew, 2002), hoteliers must routinely evaluate their

to customers (Baloglu & Pekcan, 2006). Yet despite the Internet’s increasing role in tourism and hospitality, research related to website evaluation seems lagging and requires further effort (Morrison, Taylor, & Douglas, 2004).

features and dimensions of hotel websites (Morrison et al., 2004). Website evaluation studies differ on dimensions of website quality (Aladwani & Palvia, 2002; Barnes & Vidgen, 2001). For example, Chen, Clifford and Wells (2002) identify three dimensions, while Liu

grows, dimensions of website quality begin to converge (Heinze & Hu, 2006) and suggest that website quality has multidimensional constructs such as information, interactivity, ease of use and trust

2 Application and Issues in E-Business

(Kim & Stoel, 2004).Despite this seeming convergence, most studies fail to explain

how website dimensions form or the domain of the measured construct, and even fewer studies establish the validity and reliability of their

example, Liu and Arnett’s (2000) factors related to website success included features about information to support business objectives, empathy to customer problems, and follow-up services to customers. These three features loaded on the same factor, information quality, yet there was no discussion of forming or classifying that factor (Kim & Stoel, 2004).

Finally, there seem to be two major research streams that analyse website features. One stream measures user perceptions of website quality (Law & Cheung, 2006; Law & Hsu, 2006) such as the E-S-Qual scale (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Malhotra, 2005). This stream examines perceived characteristics of effective and successful website and a complementary stream verify these variables in actual practice. These studies content analyse features on a website, using

(Scharl, Wöber, & Bauer, 2004; Schegg, Steiner, Frey, & Murphy, 2002) to count the presence of each feature.

In essence, websites are important to the hotel industry but there is little consensus on a valid and reliable website evaluation framework. Thus, this paper reviews key website evaluation studies across multiple disciplines from information management, e-commerce, electronic marketing, hospitality and tourism in order to propose and help validate an evaluation framework that will assist (a) hoteliers improve their website presence and (b) academics evaluate hospitality websites. The next section explains the methodology, an

the paper closes with academic and managerial implications of the

study.


DEFINING WEBSITES DIMENSIONS AND FEATURES

This study employed a two-step process to build content validity, a literature review of website evaluation studies and expert judgement

achieve content validity and ensuring the theoretical meaningfulness of a construct (Hinkin, 1995, p.969). A sound conceptual and theoretical basis of the construct must precede the development of

website dimensions (Tsai & Chai, 2005). The study started with a broad review of management

information system, internet marketing and electronic commerce literature, as website evaluation studies often progressed from these disciplines. A July 2006 search of online databases – Google Scholar (Jacsó, 2005), JSTOR, ProQuest International, PsycINFO, Business Source Premier, Wiley Interscience and ScienceDirect – with keywords website evaluation, website study or web site study – yielded 17 articles from nine journals from 1997-2005 that explained

developing or constructing website dimensions (see Table 1).

Authors Dimensions and features

Liu, Arnett, Capella &

Beatty (1997)

Products/services, overview, feedback, what’s new,

guest book, index/directory, online business, other

sites, CEO messages and FAQs

Ho (1997)

Matrix of purpose (promotion, provision and

processing) by value (timely, custom, logistic and

sensational)

Chen & Wells (2002);

Chen et al.,(1999)

Entertainment, informativeness, and easy to use

and understand

Johnson & Misic (1999)Functional/navigational issues, content and style

and contact information

Lin & Lu (2000)Information quality, response time, and system

accessibility


Table 1: Website quality dimensions and features across studies

Liu & Arnett (2000)Quality of information and service, system use,

playfulness, and system design quality

Zhang & von Drand

(2001)

Information content, cognitive outcomes,

enjoyment, privacy, user empowerment, visual

appearance, technical support, navigation,

organisation of information, credibility, and

impartiality

Barnes & Vidgen (2001) Usability, design, information, trust and empathy.

Cox & Dale (2002)resources, and relationship services.

Palmer (2002)Download delay, navigability, site content,

interactivity and responsiveness

Ranganathan &

Ganapathy (2002)

Information content, design, security and privacy.

Aladwani & Palvia

(2002) content, and appearance

and security and customer relationship

Kim & Stoel (2004)Information, transaction, ease of use,

entertainment, trust, consistent image

Hong & Kim (2004)

Structural robustness (Internal reliability and

external security), functional utility (useful content

and usable navigation) and aesthetic appeal (system

interface and communication interface)

Tsai & Chai (2005)

Impression, download and switch speed,

accessibility and convenience, web page content,

service function and compatibility with common

browsers

500 company homepages (Liu et al., 1997). Exploratory and descriptive, it failed to discuss reliability and validity. Later studies


however, addressed this shortcoming. For instance, Tsai and Chai (2005) developed and validated a questionnaire for nursing

criteria of impression, download and switch speed, accessibility and convenience, web page content, service function and compatibility with common browsers.

dimensions and features in Table 1. While these studies contribute to website evaluation and design, a main limitation is research inconsistencies in addressing different aspects of website design factors, purposes, and user categories (Zhang & von Drand, 2001,

dimensions were long, varied and oftentimes, different terms denoted

‘organisation of the site’ (Chen et al., 2002; Chen & Wells, 1999) and another uses ‘system design quality’ (Liu & Arnett, 2000).

This study uses structured conceptualisation, a technique to organise thoughts, ideas, theories, and problem statements into conceptual representations (Trochim & Linton, 1986). The researcher starts with a brainstorming session, in this case based on the 17 articles, to generate a large set of topical information. Then, the researcher sorts the information into similar groups and a pictorial representation

of retail website quality: information, interactivity, relationships, trust, and design and usability. Structured conceptualisation of the

Figure 1: information and process, value added, relationships, trust, and design and usability.


Figure 1: Dimensions of Hotel Website Quality

To help validate and generalise these dimensions to the hospitality industry, the researchers conducted 17 in-depth interviews in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, Malaysia in January 2006.

website designers specialising in hotel and destination marketing, and two university academics in e-commerce. The face-to-face, tape-recorded interviews relied upon semi-structured questions, whereby respondents described criteria for high quality websites. Transcribing and reviewing the interviews supported the framework in Figure 1

complements these qualitative results by reviewing website evaluation

studies in tourism and hospitality.


CLASSIFYING WEBSITE FEATURES INTO DIMENSIONS

framework should capture online activities from the beginning to the end of transactions, including information search, website navigation, ordering, customer service interactions, delivery and satisfaction

holistic website evaluations should assess technical details as poor technical performance could undermine good website content and sound marketing.

A literature review using the sources described in section 2.1

(see Appendix A). Research in website evaluation in tourism and hospitality took off only in mid 1990s (Morrison et al., 2004), as these 25 studies illustrate. There was one study from 1996-2001, three in

the 25 studies, 12 are descriptive and explained the frequency of each feature, ten studies measure the association of website features with dependent variables such as website marketing performance (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2005) and website effectiveness (Scharl et al., 2004) and three articles are case studies.

consolidation of these features focused on similar names for the same website feature. For instance, three studies used the term ‘electronic postcard’ (Doolin, Burgess, & Cooper, 2002; So & Morrison, 2004; Yuan, Gretzel, & Fesenmaier, 2006), while a fourth noted ‘send friend a postcard’ (Schegg et al., 2002). Combining similar terms strengthens discriminant validity, that features differ, and construct validity or that a feature measures what it claims measure (Malhotra, Hall, Shaw, & Oppenheim, 2002).

each feature appeared in the 25 studies. The top three dimensions and features based on frequency counts resemble literature discussing


the evolution of websites, from providing information to providing personalisation and adding value (Piccoli, Brohman, Watson, & Parasuraman, 2004). Yet combined, the personalisation and added value dimensions did not garner as much research interest as the top

dimension, information and processes.


The most researched features, over one-third of the total

sub dimensions related to sales, contact information, promotions, product descriptions and about the hotel. The top two sub dimensions were the most popular of all 15 sub dimensions. With a frequency count of 14, the ability to search a website and the presence of an email address, tied as the most popular feature in this dimension and all other dimensions.

The value added and relationship dimensions had the same frequencies. Value added features fell into two sub dimensions, travel information and entertainment. The top two value added features, 11 times each in the 25 studies, seemed at opposite ends of the implementation costs. External links are free and easy to add while animated features are much more complicated and expensive. The two sub dimensions of relationships related to either loyalty or personal care. The most popularly studied relationship feature was inviting customers to comment.

The design and usability dimension contained three sub dimensions: navigation, technical and success metrics. A multilingual site with 11 mentions, led this dimension, closely followed by Sitemap, FAQs and webpage size with nine mentions each. Despite growing calls for measuring website success (Morrison et al., 2004; Murphy, Ho, & Chan, 2005), success metrics was the least popular feature.

Studies highlight trust as an essential element to create positive costumer relationships and pleasant online experiences (Corbitt,

than one in ten frequency counts related to trust. Features such as timeliness information, branded URLs and email addresses, and privacy statements help increase customers with the hotel website and thus support and encourage customer relationships and loyalty.

Table 2: Dimension, Sub Dimension and Feature Frequency Counts


A few studies showed a relationship between some features and website performances. For instance, the search capability, download and printables, external link, video and animation, comments/

with dependent variables such as email reply quality (Murphy et al.,

2005). For instance, hotel websites with animation had low quality email replies, while websites that provided external links or brochure

CONCLUSION

Although the list of reviewed articles is by no means exhaustive, the peer-reviewed articles provide useful and dependable information. Furthermore, the qualitative interviews took place in Malaysia, which could bias the framework. Future research should involve a more heterogeneous set of experts and a larger set of articles.

This study reviewed the presence of website features. Future research could extend and complement this study by including more quantitative studies and investigating the presence of other variables in those studies. For example a few studies examined relationships between these features and either organisational characteristics such as

(Law & Hsu, 2006).

current and future website design. The five dimensions help management understand important areas for their site. Offering the right information is critical, as customers with purchase intention

gauge their website versus their competitors’ sites. For example, the website ranking features demonstrates the visibility of the website on the Internet.


Academically, this framework helps consolidate existing studies on website evaluation and lays a foundation for future research. Research requires valid and reliable instruments, yet website evaluation studies often fail to verify or discuss dimension

study takes a small step forward, beyond the descriptive and narrative evidence to propose a website evaluation framework and corresponding features. A review of dozens of website evaluation studies helps ensure comprehensiveness and avoid missing important aspects of effective websites.

a systematic and comprehensive study of website dimensions and features (see Figure 2). These phases cover six key validity types: content, construct (convergent and discriminant), criterion (predictive and concurrent), internal, statistical and nomological (Bagozzi, 1981;

Hinkin, 1995; Straub, 1989).

Figure 2: Proposed Website Evaluation Framework Development and

Validation Process


evaluation framework. Both theory and understanding build a foundation for deciding website dimensions and features. The third phase deals with reliability, pre-tests coding the features on a few

Lastly, future research should pre-test the framework and most features on a sample of hotel websites. A pre-test allows the

misunderstood by coders, which leads to unreliable coding of the feature (Krippendorff, 1980; McMillan, 2000).

APPENDIX A: TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY STUDIES

INCLUDED IN THIS STUDY

Baloglu, S., & Pekcan, Y. A. (2006). The Website Design and Internet Site

Marketing Practices of Upscale and Luxury Hotels in Turkey.

Tourism Management, 27(1), 171-176.

Benckendorff, P. J., & Black, N. L. (2000). Destination Marketing on the

Internet: A Case Study of Australian Regional Tourism Authorities.

Journal of Tourism Studies, 11(1), 11-21.

Blum, V., & Fallon, J. (2001). Welsh Visitor Attraction Websites:

Multipurpose Tools or Technological Tokenism. Information

Technology & Tourism, 4(3-4), 191-201.

Cano, V., & Prentice, R. (1998). Opportunities for Endearment to Place

through Electronic Visiting: WWW Homepages and Tourism

Promotion of Scotland. Tourism Management, 19(1), 67-71.

websites. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 22(1),

119-125.

Doolin, B., Burgess, L., & Cooper, J. (2002). Evaluating the Use of the Web

for Tourism Marketing: A Case Study from New Zealand. Tourism

Management, 23(5), 557-561.


Essawy, M. (2006). Testing the Usability of Hotel Websites: The Springboard

for Customer Relationship Building. Information Technology and

Tourism, 8, 47-70.

Comparison of Online Destination Marketing in China and the

USA. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 10

and its Consequences in the Lodging Industry. International Journal

of Hospitality Management, 22(2), 161-175.

Küster, I. (2006). Relational Content of Travel and Tourism Websites. Asia

Law, R., & Cheung, C. (2006). A Study of the Perceived Importance of the

Overall Website Quality of Different Classes of Hotels. International

Journal of Hospitality Management,

Law, R., & Hsu, C. (2006). Importance of Hotel Website Dimensions and

Attributes: Perceptions of Online Browsers and Online Purchasers.

Perceptions of Online Purchasers in Hong Kong. Journal of

(1), 118-124.

Morrison, A. M., Taylor, J. S., & Douglas, A. (2004). Website Evaluation

in Tourism and Hospitality: The Art Is Not Yet Stated. Journal of

Travel and Tourism Marketing, 17

Morrison, A. M., Taylor, J. S., Morrison, A. J., & Morrison, A. D. (1999).

Marketing Small Hotels on the World Wide Web. Information

Technology & Tourism, 2

Murphy, J., Forrest, E. J., Wotring, C. E., & Brymer, R. A. (1996). Hotel

Management and Marketing on the Internet. Cornell Hotel and

Murphy, J., Ho, P., & Chan, C. (2005). Competitive Analyses for Marketing

Electronic Wine Tourism. International Journal of Wine Marketing,

17

Murphy, J., Olaru, D., & Schegg, R. (2006). Investigating the Evolution

of Hotel Internet Adoption. Information Technology & Tourism.,

forthcoming.

Swiss Hotels’ Website and E-mail Management. Cornell Hotel and


(1), 71-87.

Scharl, A., Wöber, K. W., & Bauer, C. (2004). An Integrated Approach to

Measure Web Site Effectiveness in the European Hotel Industry.

Information Technology & Tourism, 6(4), 257-271.

Schegg, R., Steiner, T., Frey, S., & Murphy, J. (2002). Benchmarks of

Web Site Design and Marketing by Swiss Hotels. Information


So, S. I., & Morrison, A. M. (2004). Internet Marketing in Tourism in

Asia: An Evaluation of the Performance of East Asian National

Tourism Organization Websites. Journal of Hospitality and Leisure

Marketing, 11

Wan, C. S. (2002). The Websites of International Tourist Hotels and Tour

Wholesalers in Taiwan. Tourism Management, 23(2), 155-160.

Wang, Y., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2005). Identifying the Success Factors of

Web-based Marketing Strategy: An Investigation of Convention and

Visitors Bureaus in the United States.

43

Yuan, Y. L., Gretzel, U., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2006). The Role of

Information Technology Use in American Convention and Visitors

Bureaus. Tourism Management, 27

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Web Site Design and Marketing by Swiss Hotels. Information


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Web-based Marketing Strategy: An Investigation of Convention and

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21Information Technology Integration in Supermarket’s Operations

NOR ZAFIR MD. SALLEHABU BAKAR ABD. HAMID

ROHAIZAT BAHARUNSITI ZALEHA OMAIN

MAZILAH ABDULLAH

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

INTEGRATION IN SUPERMARKET’S

OPERATIONS

2

INTRODUCTION

Retail sector in Malaysia is growing rapidly following the impact

of economic growth in Malaysia (Rohaizat, 1997). Increasing

income and purchasing power among the Malaysian population has

contributed to the development of supermarkets in this region. In

the current situation, supermarkets today face much competition in

the light of the increasing presence of hypermarkets in Malaysia.

Increasing size of supermarkets and competition among the retailers

has also created the need for sophisticated stock control to increase

their productivity and implementations of new IT (Al-Sudairy and

Tang, 2000).

According to Shyla (2003), ICT adoption among Malaysian

retailers is comparatively low. On average, retailers spend 1 percent

of sales on IT investment compared to 5.5 percent spending of

economy as a whole. This under-investment is putting the retail

industry at risk (Steidtmann, 1999). According to Frugal Retailers

Splurge on IS, study reveals, each year, retailers only spends about

0.5% of sales on new technology, upgrading existing systems


problems and IT base manpower in implementing IT system in

operations. IBM Malaysia retail store solution manager, Ooi Kok

Hooi said local retailers should look at employing multi-channel

ICT solution to better connect with customers, colleagues, suppliers

and distributors through a choice of access channels and devices that

are fully integrated.

The objectives of this study are to identify and measure the

levels of IT integration in the supermarket operations, examine the

operations in the integration of IT.

RETAIL TECHNOLOGY

IT refers to any computer-based tool that people use to work with

information and support the information processing needs (Haag et

al., 2004). IT should be a tool to enhance organizations and to promote

competitive advantage. It is a help since today’s retail environment

is complex where disposable incomes have been squeezed, whilst

and Rands, 1999). According to Al-Sudairy and Tang (2000),

supermarket retailers have expanded their market and operate store

in multiple location resulting in controlling merchandising to

Kotler and Armstrong (2002) stated that retail technology

is a competitive tool. IT provides tools to automate business,

analyze performance and manage relationships with customers

(Granofsky, 2001). IT also connects retailers with customers and

suppliers. In addition, according to Gupta (2000), IT speeds up

stock replenishment, reduces costs and minimizes duplication.

Meanwhile, elimination of disruption in processes digitized and

synchronized intra – enterprise data transfer made product design


and delivery cycle to be increased (Kilcourse, 2004). Beside that, IT

also improves inventory management, provide better services and

enable effective decision-making (Al-Sudairy and Tang, 2000). On

the other hand, Lewison (1997) claimed that IT helps in making

better, faster and informed decisions.

Retailers use technology to gain competitive advantages

by applying all the organisation’s functioning division as in the

normally used in retailing are listed below.

Types of IT Used in Retailing

Electronic Point of Sale Systems (EPOS) - In-store

accessing of product and customer information to facilitate

Bar Codes and Scanner - Bar codes reader captures

information that exists in the form of vertical bars (Haag et

all, 2004). Scanners add bar codes by producing electronic

signals that represents the light it detects.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - EDI is used

for ordering processing, payment and delivery

arrangements (Loughlin, 1999).

E-Commerce - Selling products to consumer online

as well as adding additional-added services (Parks, 1999).

In addition, other advanced IT used in the retailing industry

are self-scanning, kiosks, electronic shelf label, Radio Frequency

Inventory. However there are some barriers of using IT in the

supermarket operations. The barriers are listed below:

Low Budgeting and High Cost - On average, retailers

spend only 1% of sales on IT compared to the 5.5% on the

economy (Steidtmann, 1999).

i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

i.


Lack of IT Staff and Training - Lack of technical support

and integrated solution of hardware and software became

an important barrier. Employees also need a training

program to enhance their IT knowledge. This will then

increase operation cost and be time consuming (Al-Sudairy

and Tang, 2000).

Transference and Acceptance of Technology - Transference

is highly dependent on the socio-cultural environments

which effected to a different outcome and acceptance in

different countries (Ho and Lau, 2001).

Obsolete Solution - By the time investment is made, the

solution may be obsolete in light of newer technologies.

This would be a waste as the cost for retooling and

retraining would be very high (Conforto, 1995).

retailers can focus on emerging technologies, they need to

ensure technology infrastructure is well set up and

the basics of integration are in place (Granofsky, 2001).

Ethical Issue - Some of the issues include ethical scrutiny

via the Internet, security transactions, data integrity,

METHODOLOGY

of Companies (ROC) and Kementerian Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal

Pengguna to identify the number of supermarkets operating in Johor

exactly the number of supermarkets. Since there is lack of references

and resources, we employed the observation method to recognize

from 3,000 to 10,000 sq.ft. to be in our sample. From our survey, we

ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

vi.


found out 12 supermarkets in Johor Bahru fell under this range. Thus

we took the population to be the sample. The methodology used in

this exploratory study involved questionnaire and in depth face-to-

face interviews with the IT or MIS and Information System Manager

of each supermarkets as they were the appropriate staff who really

understood the information technology used in their supermarkets

and be involved actively in the business operations. The interview

focused on the factors for choosing IT and problems encountered in

utilising IT in their supermarket operation. Following the interviews

design of the questionnaire was based on the knowledge gained from

relevant literature and drawing information from previous studies.

It is important to state that this is an exploratory study and the data

collected from the data collected from the questionnaire designed

sophisticated statistical analysis.

LEVELS OF IT INTEGRATION

supermarkets surveyed.

i) Hwa Thai Supermarket

As referring to Figure 1 in the appendix, it

Supermarket started with the scanned barcode

which automatically is sent to the POS system

for itemization before the information is being

transformed to the 3P’s for inventory and stock

control. Information from the POS is also used for

other types of application using Microsoft Based

Tools such as accounting, promotion, workforce

management and others.


ii) The Store Supermarket

the scanner then is automatically connected to the

EPOS. Information from EPOS will be transferred

to The Store Retail Management System, which acts

as a database before being directed to the main

server. (Appendix: Figure 2)

iii) Cold Storage Supermarket

with the used of scanners which then transforms

information to the EPOS. Using the Internet,

information was then communicated directly to the

of corporate planning, merchandise management

and collaborative solutions. Each branch however

is able to view sales and items sold from internal

databases. (Appendix: Figure 3)

iv) Gedung Harian Supermarket

The utilization of IT in the Gedung Harian

which transfer information directly to the EPOS.

Then using the Intranet, information gathered from

EPOS were transformed to the Retailmap System

which also consist of the EDP system for entering

purchase order invoices. (Appendix: Figure 4)

v) Uda Ocean Supermarket

scanner to the EPOS and directly to the in-house

system called Flexy to manage all of the internal

management. (Appendix: Figure 5)

vi) Econsave Supermarket

started with the use of scanners which then

transforms information to the EPOS. Using the


Intranet information was then communicated

directly to the Retailmap system that consists

of inventory management and accounting

management. (Appendix: Figure 6)

vii) Maslee Supermarket

with the application of scanner to the EPOS and

directly to outsource generated system of ORIS for

the inventory management. In addition, UBS is in

use for the accounting management. (Appendix:

Figure 7)

viii) Kapitan Supermarket and Jalal Supermarket

Kapitan Supermarket and Jalal Supermarket have

the same IT systems employed in their supermarket

scanner to the EPOS and directly to outsourced

generated system called 3P’s system for the

inventory control and management. Other internal

management are still using Microsoft Base.

(Appendix: Figure 8)

xi) Bersatu Jaya Supermarket

the cash register and internal price tag. It also

implements the use of a Bersatu Member card but

not complimented with the magnetic strips. All

other activities and internal management operation

Bersatu Jaya supermarket still used the manual

system applications and basic software of Microsoft

Base.

xii) COOP Supermarket

COOP supermarket only used cash registers

complimented with the price tag on products and

at the shelf. The reasons for delaying in investing

are due to a problem whereby the building was


supposed to be upgraded and the company did not

want to adjust the system again after the upgrading.

the supermarket only has one branch, rising cost

of IT application and employees reluctance to

change. Stock checking is being done manually

once a year while supplier pays a visit for purchase

order. All other activities and operations are being

done manually with the help of Microsoft base

applications.

xiii) Duty Free Zone Supermarket

This supermarket adoption of IT can be considered

in its advance level (Figure 9). Since the company

has its own MIS department, we found out that

the company is able to generate a system call

Integrated Merchandising System. This is a

complete system comprising Merchandising

System, Logistic Management System, Data

Inventory Planning, Pricing Management System

and Accounting System.

JUSTIFICATION OF IT SELECTION

Our research found that it is important for IT to be cost and scale

sensitive. Complimented with these, it is vital for the technology to

to operate in different environment and situations effectively.

Furthermore, it is crucial for the technology to be user friendly.

Supermarkets also consider local availability and conservation

in cost, time, energy, and resources. In addition, the social issues

revolves around the community, the public and employees in terms


of their involvement, perception and impacts.

BENEFITS OF IT INTEGRATION AND

IMPLEMENTATION

accuracy in operation, decision-making and customers checkout

time. On the other hand, IT also offers a space reduction by being

able to identify saleable and non – saleable items and a way to better

control inventory. Furthermore, predictions could be made to enable

also found out that a lot of IT applications especially the RIS has

given a lot of changes to the management. Retailers are being able

to respond quickly while offering quality services and product

able to reduce human error, labour, inventory and operation costs.

CHALLENGES IN IT INTEGRATION

The main problems encountered in the integration of IT in the

supermarket are regarding the cost of maintenance, IT equipments,

that some applications might just be an obsolete solution by the

time of implementation. There are also issues of resistance to

technology. In addition, capacity and readiness of the Malaysian

within the integration of IT is very low with the lack of expertise,

skilled manpower and even vendors or manufacturers who are

able to best serve in ensuring technology that is worth it and

can be implemented successfully and effectively. Furthermore,

incompatibility of IT hardware and software also was found to be

among major problems. Data accountability and accuracy also has


become an issue apart from miscommunication and ethical and

security issues.

CONCLUSION

Bahru adopt the Point of Sales system (POS) in their daily operation

as their basic IT application and have a complete transaction in

this interface. Out of this, only two supermarkets are still using the

traditional type of POS. However, 17 percent of the respondent in

our analysis did not implement the POS in this interface and are at

conclude that the level of IT integration in these interfaces to be at

a medium level.

Based on our research, 33 percent of the supermarkets

are categorized in the advance level of IT implementation as it

completed this interface with the use of incorporated system such

as the TSRMS, Flexy and Integrated Merchandising System.

50 percent of the supermarkets are in the intermediate level of

application with half of applications using outsourced systems such

as 3P’s, EDP, Retailmap and UBS, an individual system linked to

are categorized as early entry level, which is using basics computer

Overall, the level of IT integration in these interfaces is at a medium

level.

83 percent of the supermarkets in Southern Malaysia did not

have any integration of IT in retailer to vendor interface and only

two supermarkets, which are Cold Storage and Duty Free Zone, have

this application. This indicates that the retailer to vendor interface is

at an early stage of low adaptation among supermarket retailers in

Southern Malaysia.


Supermarket Retailer-Consumer Retailers Internal-

Operation

Retailer-

Vendor

Hwa Thai UPC, Scanner, POS 3P’s None

The Store UPC, Scanner, EPOS TRSMS (Custom

Build)

None

Cold Storage UPC, Scanner, EPOS JDA

Gedung Harian UPC, Scanner, EPOS Retailmap System None

Uda Ocean UPC, Scanner Flexy (Custom

Build)

None

Econsave UPC, Scanner Retailmap System None

Maslee UPC, Scanner, EPOS ORIS None

Kapitan UPC, Scanner 3P’s None

Jalal UPC, Scanner, EPOS 3P’s None

Bersatu Jaya Manual Cash Register None None

COOP Manual Cash Register None None

Duty Free Zone UPC, Scanner, EPOS Custom Build

Level of IT Intermediate Level Intermediate Level Low Level

Table 1: Level Of IT Integrate In Supermarket Operations

In conclusion, supermarkets in the area of Southern

Malaysia are still in the process of upgrading IT systems to

a higher level in their daily operations. They were trying to

allocate larger amounts of budget in order to invest in the IT. It


is important that the supermarkets should make full use of IT

capabilities in the future to gain competitive advantages. As

referring to Table 1, we conclude that the integration of IT in

the supermarkets operation in Southern Malaysia is very low

compared to many IT applications available in the market for each

of the 3 interfaces.

RECOMMENDATION

In order to solve problems encountered in the implementation

of IT in the supermarket operations, some recommendation

include performing training programs , employing staff with

IT background, select the optimum IT solution, reduce costs by

standardize the EDI format and adapt to future IT. Some of the

technology include RFID or EPC, self-scanning and self checkout,

point of impulse marketing and other smaller IT solutions such

as public cellular access, wireless video marketing and integrated

Kinks, 1997)

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APPENDIX

Figure 1: Hwa Thai Supermarket


Figure 2: The Store Supermarket

Figure 3: Cold Storage Supermarket


Figure 4: Gedung Harian Supermarket

Figure 5: Uda Ocean Supermarket


Figure 6: Econsave Supermarket

Figure 7: Maslee Supermarket


Figure 8: Kapitan Supermarket and Jalal Supermarket

Figure 9: Duty Free Zone Supermarket

39Diffusion of Innovations: Adoption and Use of Websites

and Email Among Malaysian Hotels

3DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS:

ADOPTION AND USE OF

WEBSITES AND EMAIL

AMONG MALAYSIAN HOTELS


INTRODUCTION


LITERATURE REVIEW

e-brands



Domain Names


Internet Adoption Stages



Hotel Characteristics Related to Internet Adoption



METHODOLOGY

FINDINGS

Evolving Internet adoption: From email presence, to website

presence, to matching domain names


N



Hotel characteristics and Internet adoption

CONCLUSIONS

Table 1:


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57Website Design and E-Loyalty: A Case Study of Air Asia

4WEBSITE DESIGN AND E-LOYALTY:

A CASE STUDY OF AIR ASIA

LING JONG PING

AHMAD SHARIFUDDIN SHAMSUDDIN

INTRODUCTION

Customer’s loyalty is becoming an area of great interest for companies. The rapid development of technology and internet has diverted companies’ direction to retain e-loyalty. Customer loyalty

website interface plays an imperative role in customer e-loyalty. An interactive and content full website creates added value and highly motivate customer repeated visits.

Internet is a creative business tool of the new era. It has changed the shape of traditional way of doing business and has gained a great deal of attention in the media. With the advent of the WWW and user-friendly web browsers, companies are making the leap online. Many companies have set up their own internet presence. Companies are quickly moving to use the Internet as a way of segmenting markets, targeting customers ,having frequent customer feedback, enhancing global customer access ,maintaining round the clock shopping facility and many other things which were beyond the reach of ordinary promotional tools. All these business functions

The potential application of the Internet are being expanded every day, and companies which are the first to exploit these opportunities will have a tremendous advantage over their traditional-oriented competitors(Ainscough and Luckett, 1996). The following are the actionable factors that impact website loyalty and investigate


the nature of their impact. These eight factors appeared to impact website loyalty: (1) customization, (2) contact interactivity, (3) cultivation, (4) care, (5) community, (6) choice, (7) convenience, and (8) character. We refer to these factors as the 8Cs.

Air Asia’s website and later identify factors found most effective in

LITERATURE REVIEW

buy or re-patronise a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set

having the potential to cause switching behavior” (Oliver 1999, p.

customer’s favorable attitude toward an electronic business, resulting in repeat purchasing behavior” (Srinivasan et.al 2003). Customer loyalty is considered important because of its positive effect on

to create loyal customers because it has a positive effect on long

be more expensive and company has to spend much more on new customers (Reichheld et al. 2000).

nearly perfect market because information is instant and buyers

price competition and vanishing brand loyalty.” Given the reduction in information irregularity between sellers and buyers, there is a growing interest in understanding the bases of customer loyalty

customer base, e-retailers need to develop a thorough understanding


of the background of e-loyalty, that is, customer loyalty to a business that sells online. Such an understanding can help e-retailers gain a competitive advantage by devising strategies to increase e-loyalty. The following are the actionable factors that impact e-loyalty and investigate the nature of their impact. These eight e-business factors that appeared to impact e-loyalty: (1) customization, (2) contact interactivity, (3) cultivation, (4) care, (5) community, (6) choice, (7) convenience, and (8) character.

METHODOLOGY

toward Air Asia’s website. There are eight factors introduced by

Figure 1: Concept Model for E-Loyalty Source (Srinivasan et.al. 2002)


Srinivasan et.al. (2002)These instruments were utilised to examine this analysis.

The population of this study includes the students from Faculty of Management, UTM who have used Air Asia’s website for searching for information and purchased the air tickets. In the research, the questionnaires were distributed to 278 respondents who are aged between 20 and 30 years old. Researcher will use the simple sampling technique choosing the respondents to answer the questionnaire. Every respondent chosen was given one set of questionnaire form.

Data collection started with collecting common information such as the company’s website performance. After the main

design was collected. The main objective of this part of data collection process was to improve the implementation quality of website for operational activities.

Frequency analysis helps describe the demographic of the respondents. Factors analysis analysed the dimensions that are

website. To test the reliability of the factor, a reliability factor is the appropriate method of investigation. Further, to test the relationship between eight e-loyalty factors with loyalty, researchers applied

achieving e-loyalty on Air Asia’s website.

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

The survey garnered 100 respondents who have used Air Asia’s

answered by respondents will contributed the implication towards research results. The demographic characteristics discussed here included gender, race, age, year of study, experience of using Air


for study use. The frequency distributions of these characteristics are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1:

Factor Analysis was used to identify factors that are associated with loyalty toward Air Asia’s website. Principal Component Factor Analysis with Vairmax Rotation was used to analyse 28 items to identify the factors that are associated with loyalty towards Air Asia’s website.


Factor analysis is appropriate in this research because the test of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is more

(Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity =3282.850, Sig = 0.000). These results show that factor analysis is useful in analyzing the data which was collected.

RELIABILITY

Reliability analysis had been done for the eight constructs in this study, which were customisation, contact interactivity, cultivation, care, community, choice, convenience, and character. As recommended by Hair et al. (1998), the benchmark of the reliability analysis was Chronbach’s alpha of 0.7. In this study, all the eight factors had shown high Chronbach’s alpha which exceed the recommended benchmark, thus implying that all the items from the eight factors were statistically reliable.

Among these eight factors, Contact Interactivity had the highest reliability level whereby the reliability alpha was 0.986 followed by Character alpha which was 0.974. For Convenience, the alpha was 0.968 and Care had an alpha of 0.945 and Choice which had an alpha of 0.942. Besides that, cultivation, customization and

community also had the Chronbach’s alpha of 0.901, 0.889 and

0.704 respectively. Through this reliability analysis, no items were

deleted and the high Chronbach’s alphas supported the reliability of

this study.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EIGHT E-LOYALTY

FACTORS THAT APPEARED TO IMPACT LOYALTY

students’ loyalties were then computed in order to verify the


relationships between both variables. The result shows that only 5 factors yielded a positive degree of convergent validity among the variables.

Table 2 shows that the value of each variable correlates with loyalty. According to the correlation analysis above, most of the independent variables yielded a moderate and positive degree against loyalty. This meant that the number of students loyal towards Air Asia website would bincrease with the increase of these variables.

In brief, eight variables out of the six measures have appeared

of the Air Asia website has been expected to be a high variable that correlated with the students’ loyalties, which has the highest

The table below shows the correlation between eight loyalty factors across loyalties of Air Asia website.

Table 2: Correlation between eight loyalty factors across loyalties of Air

Asia website

THE MOST EFFECTIVE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCES

LOYALTIES TOWARDS AIR ASIA’S WEBSITE


Five factors were found to have a dominant impact on loyalty toward Air Asia’s website which is customization, contact interactivity, care, community and choice. Besides that, dimension of customisation has (t=2.571, Sig=0.012), contact interactivity (t=1.984, Sig=0.050), care (t=2.111, Sig=0.038), community (t=3.108, Sig=0.003) and choice (t=2.001, Sig=0.048)and these have a positive relationship with the loyalties toward Air Asia website except for factor of choice. It shows that students loyalties can increase if dimension of customisation, contact interactivity, care and community is increased and the factors of choice is decreased. The equation of regression is:

Y=0.364X1+0.311 X2+ 0.301X3+0.321X4+0.291X5+0.047

Of Which:

Y=Loyalty

X1=Customization

X2=Contact Interactivity

X3= Care

X4= Community

X5= Choice

Dimension of customisation (beta=0.362) is a main dominant

on the students’ intention to use Air Asia website was higher if compared to the factor of customization, care, choice and contact

The results of the research are supported by researchers (Srinivasan et al, 2002)and that the extent to which an e-retailer’s website can recognize a customer and then tailor the product, services for that customer. Air Asia customizes its services to its customers

cost savings and low cost schemes to its customers through email.

supports the practical as it customized its services according to the

needs of customers. According to Alba et al. (1997), interactivity enables a search


process that can quickly locate a desired product or service, thereby replacing dependence on detailed customer memory. By replacing a

process, Air Asia may be able to increase the perceived value that the consumer places on an information transaction. Air Asia had provided

Besides that, Air Asia website also provides an effective search tool to make the browsing process more easily and locate the products or service from the perspective of the viewer. Customer care refers to the attention that an e-retailer pays to all its customers to make a long term relationship.. In this case researchers found that Air Asia keeps its customers up to date about the different products and services that are offered and also the status of their order. To increase loyalty Air Asia uses customer personal data that is submitted on Air Asia web site. Customer data is treated with great care and respect while making a reservation, payments and providing ticket delivery information.

Air Asia uses customer’s e-mail address to send news and other marketing information and communication on a regular basis. Air Asia also uses email, phone and customer survey to get feedback from their customers. Hagel & Armstrong (1997) found that there are several reasons why a community could potentially affect customer loyalty. They found that communities are highly effective in facilitating word-of-mouth information. Frank (1997) discerned that the customer’s ability to exchange information and compare product experiences can add to customer loyalty. Air Asia fame with the lost cost air fare motivates students exchanging news with each other. It

Air Asia’s formal website. Air Asia statements partially support the theory as they do not provide any facility on their web site that can

interconnect customers with each other to share opinions.Regarding Srinivasan et al (2002), the e-retailer extended

their partnership and cooperated with each other, so it can offer wider range of products and services within given category than the


traditional retailer. An alliance with virtual suppliers can provide customers with greater choice. Air Asia has made alliances with some hotels, cruise operators , hospitals or medical checkup centers, resorts and companies to give a customer a one-stop shopping so that a customer does not change his or her attention to another web site

discounted rates such as Red Card to give their customers more choice while selecting services. Air Asia fully supports the theory as they have given their customers choice of services on their website

CONCLUSION

was more statistically significant in influencing customers’ loyalties than other attributes such as care, choice, community and

cultivation, convenience and character. The followings describe the recommendations for Air Asia’s website designer and marketers.

From a managerial perspective, researchers pointed out that there are some issues that could be useful for Air Asia to create loyalty of customers to its website continuously. Air Asia should focus on 8Cs factors to sustain students loyalty through its website. From the researchers opinion a strong and good response service system will help Air Asia to build a good interactive communication relationship between students, customers and Air Asia.

Communication and feedback can play an effective role in making e-commerce successful Feedback is important for interaction with customers on the Internet. (Cox & Dale, 2002). This is because an efficient website system can make customers feel at home, building their trust and loyalty. Air Asia can establish early warning systems based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for the 8Cs.


Besides that, here are some recommendations that can be considered by Air Asia to enhance its website services. This is done by improving convenience and character of its website. In order for Air Asia to maintain students’ loyalty towards its website, it needs to use the students database effectively to cultivate students consumer habits. Air Asia can deliver information desired by students such as university holiday packages, special air fare for university students and etc. AirAsia may offer low cost air fare for students especially during holiday periods. This will encourage students to visit Air Asia websites more frequently. Air Asia websites will show students’ needs

Furthermore, Air Asia needs to improve on its website’s conveneience as students tend to leave the website without purchasing

Sinioukov (1999) suggested that enabling consumers to search for information readily accessible and visible is the key to creating a successful e-retailing business.

Additionally, website attractiveness will attract more students to visit Air Asia’s website. Information must be presented in a meaningful format. If Air Asia wants to make its website become more convenient it must enable a shorter response time, facilitate faster completion of a transaction and minimize customer effort.

their transactions. If Air Asia’s website is convenient to use it will minimize mistakes made by students or other customers and it will make their shopping and search experiences more satisfying. This

enhances loyalty towards Air Asia’s website.Moreover, Air Asia’s website can use unique characters

or personalities to enhance site recognition and recall.The unique characteristics will attract consumers to stay at the website longer to search for more relevant information.

According to Budman ( 1998 ) creative website design can help an e-retailer build a positive reputation and characterization for itself in the minds of consumers. Air Asia’s website designer may create more striking and attractive animation to catch viewer’s


attention and ensure they will spend more time in comprehending promotional information.

As a conclusion , the results of this study provide information on students loyalties towards Air Asia’s website and solutions to solve the problems they have to face. Recommendations provided present an extra input to Air Asia to enhance their website to meet

customer’s needs.

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71Branded Domain Name as an Online Marketing Tool:

A Case Study in Hospitality Industry

5BRANDED DOMAIN NAME AS AN

ONLINE MARKETING TOOL:

A CASE STUDY IN

HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

JAMIE MURPHY


INTRODUCTION

While they could plead ignorance last century, hospitality enterprises cannot ignore the Internet this century; effective Internet use is a competitive advantage. Choosing the right domain name or names is a critical key to effective Internet use. In addition to the branding opportunities and protection from fraudulent websites, customers often guess the website address. Current and potential guests seeking Hyatt hotels’ Swiss and global operations would type hyatt.ch or hyatt.com, respectively. For as little as 10USD annually, hotels can protect their brand, strengthen their brand and increase website visitors via a branded domain name. Choosing the right name necessitates answering two key questions – what name and how many names.

on a life of its own. Before addressing these key questions, a brief overview of domain names, and their importance, follows.

THE EVOLUTION OF DOMAINS AND DOMAIN NAMES

In the pioneering Internet days, the small community of users knew


the Internet Protocol or IP address of each other’s computers. But as the number of users grew, remembering four to 12 digit IP addresses proved cumbersome and led to the 1985 development of the domain name system or DNS, whereby domain names replaced IP addresses. Thus to reach Hyatt’s global website, it is simpler and easier for users to remember and type hyatt.com rather than a number such as 207.155.183.72.

Technically, hyatt is the domain name and .com is the domain. The global body for domains and domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), oversees three processes relevant to this article: adding new domains, authorising companies to rent domain names, and settling domain name disputes.

Until this century, domains were either three-letter generic domains or two-letter country domains. Anyone in any country can

and .org domains for as little as $10 annually. Rules for registering names in country domains vary depending on the country. Switzerland

and Niue (.nu) let anyone register any name. Other countries, such as Australia (.au), Italy (.it) and Malaysia (.my) restrict registrations based on country of residence or a corresponding business name. Country domains cost from about 10 to hundreds of Swiss Francs annually.

This century has seen the blossoming of domains and non-English languages. New generic domains are either unrestricted (.biz, .info, .name and .pro) or restricted (.aero, .museum and .coop). Generally, the former are available to anyone but the latter have restrictions such as being in the aerospace or museum industry. A generic domain solely for the travel industry, .travel went live in late 2005. Two new country domains for businesses and individuals in Europe and Catalonia, respectively .eu and .cat, go live in mid 2006. ICANN is considering .asia for Asian businesses, .tel for telecommunications and .xxx for sex-related websites. Finally, early this century ICANN began implementing domain names Arabic,



Chinese, Thai and Croatian characters.

DOMAIN NAMES AND ONLINE BRANDING

A brand name, the spoken part of the brand, is often the company name (Siegel, 2004). When buyers need a good or service, they often seek a known and trusted brand. Branding is vital to marketing, with industry spending over US 2 trillion on brand creation and management in the year 2000 (Ilfeld & Winter, 2002). Customers loyal to a brand usually have a positive perception of its quality and will repurchase the brand (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). In the Internet marketplace, the role of the brand has asserted itself as an important factor related to purchasing (Rowley, 2004) and to a company’s integrated communication strategy (Murphy, Raffa et al., 2003; Siegel, 2004).

“Click-and-mortar” businesses, with both physical and virtual processes (Chaffney, Mayer, Johnston, & Ellis-Chadwick, 2000),

virtual businesses (Dutta & Biren, 2001; Mahajan, Srinivasan, & Wind, 2002). These click-and-mortar businesses often use the same

(Siegel, 2004). Most well-established and reputable click-and-mortar

their online presence, e.g. mcdonalds.com, dell.com, and walmart.com (Ilfeld & Winter, 2002; Reichheld & Schefter, 2000).

The brand name may also guide consumers to the website.

sheraton.com and hyatt.com. An effective online strategy lets existing or potential visitors remember or guess the correct website address (Hanson, 2000; Ilfeld & Winter, 2002; Murphy, Raffa et al., 2003). Many web users rely less on search engines and tend to visit easy-to-remember domain names rather than searching for websites (Coyle & Gould, 2002; Roberts & Ko, 2001). As a participant in Coyle and


Gould’s (2002) study noted, “Most every well-known company has its own website, so I didn’t have to search for the address with a search engine because I assumed that Panasonic had its own website. I assumed right, because it did.”

Branded website and email addresses help businesses build their brand and increase visits to their website (Carpenter, 2000; Ries & Ries, 2000). A branded site can reassure consumers that the business is reliable, safe and trustworthy (Hanson, 2000). Finally, branded sites save buyers time because they know what to expect at the site and need not shop for alternatives (Rowley, 2004).

Common sense suggests that organisations choose domain names that match their brand name. All things equal, the Hyatt Hotel chain would use hyatt.ch and hyatt.com for its Swiss and global online presence. Similarly, Hyatt would direct customers to email [email protected] or [email protected] for queries to its Swiss or global operations. Most of the world’s top brands own their brand name in the global .com domain (96%) as well as the Australian .au (77%) and French .fr (80%) country domains (Murphy, Raffa, & Mizerski, 2003). In addition to mimicking the top brands, this intuitive online branding suggests effective Internet use.

A popular theory of effective technology use is the diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1995). Since the end of World War II, studies have shown that organisations adopt technologies over a continuum, from having the technology to using the technology well. A 2005 hospitality study found that hotels advance from having email, to having a website to having the same domain name in the website and email address, such as hyatt.ch and [email protected] (Hashim & Murphy, 2005).

The above argument relates branded domain names and advanced Internet use, but fails to relate branded domain names to effective Internet use. Two other studies show that compared to those without branded email addresses, Swiss hotels and Singaporean travel agencies with branded email addresses provided better email responses to guest inquires and had more advanced websites (Murphy, Olaru, Schegg, & Frey, 2003; Murphy & Tan, 2003). Thus for both



online branding and better Internet use, hotels should buy and use domain names that match the hotel’s brand name.

OWNING AND KEEPING THE RIGHT DOMAIN NAME(S)

For hotels seeking branded domain names, two general rules guide choosing the correct domain(s) and domain name(s). The target customers dictate the choice and the more valuable the brand, the more domains and domain names rented. But there is also the sleazy side of renting domain names.

Businesses and the trade literature usually speak of buying a domain name, yet the correct analogy is renting a domain name. ICANN lists over two hundred businesses authorized to register generic and country domain names, but the registration is for a limited number of years. If a hotel registers a domain name for one year and lets the registration lapse, another person or hotel can grab that domain name.

from staking legitimate businesses’ domain names. For example, cybersquatters buy lapsed domain names and host a pornographic website at that name, ransoming a hotel’s online reputation. Similarly, cybersquatters could buy a hotel’s name as a domain name in one of the half-dozen generic domains or over two hundred country domains.

or take the cybersquatter to arbitration. While the hotel should win the arbitration, the lengthy process costs usually offers little recourse for damages.

intuitive names and typographical variations their customers might use, such as hyatt, hyat, hyatthotels and hyattcorporation. Hyatt should register domain name variations across generic and country domains, starting with .com and country domains where Hyatt has a


strong presence such as .fr, ch, and .de. Hyatt could eventually register hundreds of domain names, but the expense is minimal compared to Hyatt’s brand value and the arbitration hassles. Hyatt can then point several domain names to the same website. For example, visitors keying in hyatthotels.com arrive at the hyatt.com website.

main decision is a global versus country image. For the former, the hotel would use hotelbrand.com and for the latter, a Swiss hotel would register hotelbrand.ch. Yet given the minimal expense of around CHF 10, a small Swiss hotel should register their brand name in both .com and .ch, and then redirect hotelbrand.com visitors to hotelbrand.ch.

the hotel website address, www.hotelbrand.ch, and branded email addresses to all advertisements and collateral materials. Online promotion includes using a branded email address for both the hotel departments and employees, such as [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. All outgoing hotel emails would use a branded email address as well as include the hotel website

address, www.hotelbrand.ch.

MYNIC: THE .MY REGISTRAR

MYNIC Berhad is the registry and registrar for the .my domain, and comprises the following departments: registration, billing, system administration, and policy and operational. MYNIC Berhad was incorporated on 24 May 2006. Prior to that, the Malaysian Network Information Centre (MYNIC) was a division of MIMOS Berhad, a mission-oriented research and development (R&D) government corporation.

MYNIC administers the name space for the .my top level domain (TLD). This involves the registration of domain names as well as the maintenance and operation of a domain name registry (a



central database for .my domain names).MYNIC administers eight (8) domain name categories,

namely:

qualify for other categories

only

For the newly launched shorter Internet address “.my” for Malaysian individuals and organisations, the MYNIC website

provides step-by-step procedure to register any .my domain.

BRIEF TIPS

A few tips for choosing and renting domain names follow:

Choose domain names that resemble the hotel’s

brand name.

Keep the domain name simple, short and easy to

remember.

Use an accredited ICANN registrar.

Watch out for the expiration date and consider

renting the domain name for several years.

When renting a domain name, use contact details

that will last. Expiration messages sent to an


ex-employee can prove troublesome.

RELATED WEBSITES

list.html

.cat

.ch

.eu

.travel

REFERENCES

Hashim, N. H., & Murphy, J. (2005). The Diffusion of Websites and Email

among Malaysian Hotels. Paper presented at the International

Conference on Tourism and Hospitality, Penang, Malaysia.

Murphy, J., Olaru, D., Schegg, R., & Frey, S. (2003). The Bandwagon Effect:


Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 44(1), 71-87.

Murphy, J., Raffa, L., & Mizerski, R. (2003). The Use of Domain Names

in E-Branding by the World’s Top Brands. Electronic Markets,



13(3), 30-40.

Murphy, J., & Tan, I. (2003). Journey to Nowhere? Electronic Customer

Service by Travel Agents in Singapore. Tourism Management,

24(5), 543-550.

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations (Fourth ed.). New York,

New York: The Free Press.

81The Implication of IT in Supply Chain Communication Systems

in Manufacturing Companies

6THE IMPLICATION OF IT IN SUPPLY

CHAIN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

ABU BAKAR ABDUL HAMID

LEONG CHIN HSIUNG

MELATI AHMAD ANUAR

INTRODUCTION

Information technology provides various applications that enhance

competitive advantages, through the improved internal capacity that

competitive advantage in the long run.

the management of materials and information resources across a

structured and controlled.


adding activities along the supply chain. Supply chain communication

internally or externally.

as an integrated communication system is designed to facilitate

related information and transmitting information to and retrieving it

and incorporate critical market information into their production

SCCS.

and the application of IT in SCM. Gustin, Daugherty and Stank



forecasting, transportation management and inventory management.

logistics activities in supply chain.

surrounding key enterprises to connect suppliers, manufacturers,

connecting material, information, capital from suppliers to customers,

value in the process of production, packaging and transportation

management.

suppliers, or providers of services, need to share a great deal of

instruments) and manual interactions. In an ideal system, each piece


chain partners.

to identify the importance of IT resources in relation to supply chain

information sharing and coordination and transaction execution and

LITERATURE REVIEW



times, increased agility to respond to customer demand, and yet to

active sharing of planning, strategies, resources and competencies


that a company gains competitive advantages through supply chain

calls, letters, telex and faxes. With the development of information

is the fundamental difference from that of traditional enterprise

are such as:

Electronic data interchange (EDI)



key role in the success supply chain management and information

functional departments so as to make the information run smoothly

Bar code technology

management technology and are all the necessary technology for

of supply chain.

Expert system

Expert System is an intelligent computer programming system,

The application of expert system and intelligence can effectively

Communication technology


can improve the service to customers. By providing more timely

the application of radio, satellite communication and picture dealing

high.

Database technology

information.

Network technology

intranet and Internet are the support for normal running for supply

2002). It may reduce transition costs, shorten term and improve



the supply chain from system management, stocking management,

calls, letters, telex and faxes. With the development of information

the fundamental difference from that of traditional enterprise adopts

IT ADVANCEMENT


invest in IT for their SCCS and setting up expensive IT departments

managerial process can provide a competitive advantage.

IT APPROPRIABILITY

of IT resource fully.

order to gain competitive advantage. This synergy from the integration

1999; White 1999).

stemmed from certain internal and external factors such as the existence



information exchange electronically helps channel partners to share

2002).Coordination and transaction execution in this study refers to

deploy more advanced IT for SCCS, they can perform the coordination

coordination activities for the same cost. Thus, sophisticated SCCS


effectively in the contexts of SCCS. Different types or models of SCCS play different functional roles to facilitate different applications in the



Accordingly, the proposed hypotheses are:

SCCS Integration.

and information sharing.

and coordination and transaction execution.

information sharing.

coordination and transaction execution.

METHODOLOGY

in nature have employed descriptive research method, for instant,

inferential.

integration is for information exchange and transaction execution in

Figure 1:


chain executive, purchasing executives, logistics executives, store

one another. While the validity analysisis used to measure validity,

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The targeted respondents representing executives of MNC manufacturing companies came from different departments. There are mainly from supply chain departments, purchasing departments, logistics departments, administration departments and etc. Further

Position Total Respondent Percentage

Planner



Table 1:

Purchasing Executive

Buyers

Procurement Engineer

Logistics Executive

Total

Percentage

1

10

12

2

Total

Company Tenure

22

Total

Type of manufactured

products

Finished products 11

Total:


data communication and management for supply chain. By using

internally or externally.

Type of SCCS

A

B Bar code technology

C

D

E Communication Technology

F

Figure 2:

to test the formulated hypothesis. The result from Pearson moment



integration and coordination and transaction execution. Third, using

transaction execution.

Table 2: Pearson moment correlation analysis of IT Resources and

ITR SCCSI

ITR Pearson Correlation 1

. 0.0000

N

SCCSI Pearson Correlation 1

0.0000 .

N

important determining factor for supply chain communication system


Table 3: Pearson moment correlation analysis of Supply Chain

SCCSI

SCCSI IS

Pearson Correlation 1

. 0.0000

N

IS


0.0000 .

N

researchers concluded that IT for SCM has the door for companies to



enterprise management. To get ahead in competition, the enterprises must change the traditional information system, adopt advanced

of supply chain communication system for information sharing and

Table 4: Pearson moment correlation analysis of Supply Chain

Coordination Execution

SCCS

SCCS CTE

Pearson Correlation 1 0.7170

. 0.0000

N

CTE

Pearson Correlation 0.7170 1

0.0000 .

N


execution.

ITR

ITR IS


. 0.0000

N

IS


0.0000 .

N


Information Sharing




Coordination and Transaction and Coordination Execution

ITR

ITR CTE

Pearson Correlation 1 0.7220

. 0.0000

N

CTE

Pearson Correlation 0.7220 1

0.0000 .

N


instances to the handling of supply chain transactions.

CONCLUSION

Another theoretical implication of this study is that IT resources

competitive advantage. Investment in IT Advancement for SCCS

investment should seek functional improvements or additions for

The results regarding SCCS integration and IT resources

IT strategy for IT resources is a critical necessary option for the



REFERENCES

Marketing Research.

7th

Journal of Management

Advantages: A Longitudinal Study. Information and

Management.

21st Century Logistics: Making Supply Chain Management a

Reality, Oak Brook, IL: Council of Logistics Management.

Interchange in Small and Medium Enterprises. Journal of

Global Information Management

Technology and Industrial Cooperation: The Changing


International Journal of Information Management

Technology for Supply Chain Management Systems in

Data Science Journal, Volume 5, 05 June 2006

29.

Chain Performance: Assessing the Impact of Information

Systems, “Logistics Information Management

Academy of Management Executive

Management Science

Gustin, Craig M., Patricia J. Daugherty, and Theodore P. Stank

Journal of Business Logistics

Performance

measures and metrics in a supply chain environment,



Department of

Industrial Engineering & Management, Helsinki University

of Technology.

Management

Science

Industrial

Marketing Management

Harvard Business Review,

Information Technology: A Coordination Perspective,

Information & Management

International Journal

of Physical Distribution & Logistics management


Hong Kong: An Empirical Analysis. Industrial Management

and Data Systems.


Technology as Competitive Advantage: The Role of Human,

Resource Dependency and Transaction Costs Perspectives,

of Electronic Data

Interchange Adoption in Bruneian Small Business

lectronic

Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries.

Information Technology on Supply Chain Management.

Science Management of Railway Material,

Logistics Information

Management

Designing

and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies, and

Case Studies,



Journal of Business Logistics


Management Sci-Technology and Management

Voluntary

Interindustry Commerce Standard Association.

Management Based on Information Technology. Shandong

Electronics

of Enterprise Supply Chain. Value Engineering

109Adoption of E-Banking in Small Medium Industry

7ADOPTION OF E-BANKING IN SMALL

MEDIUM INDUSTRY

AHMAD SHARIFUDDIN SHAMSUDDIN

INTRODUCTION

The introduction of the auto teller machine in the 80s marked the


OBJECTIVES

REVIEW OF LITERATURE


E-banking service in Malaysia


Awareness and knowledge level of small medium entrepreneurs

towards e-banking

Attitude and tendencies of SME entrepreneurs towards e-banking

applications in the running of their business.


Entrepreneurs’ perception towards e-banking

METHODOLOGY


FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.

Entrepreneurs’ perception towards e-banking


CONCLUSIONS


REFERENCES

nd

th

119Online Destination Marketing: A Case Study of Malaysia

8ONLINE DESTINATION MARKETING: A

CASE STUDY OF MALAYSIA


JAMIE MURPHY

INTRODUCTION

The Internet started a new communication era in the early 1990s that changed tourism marketing. Established websites can improve marketing activities (Kim & Kim, 2004) and become a main information source for travelling activities. The information-intensive nature of tourism suggests an important role for Web technology in

information platform supports travel activities through more information, connectivity and online transactions (Sharma, 2002).

Thanks to the Internet, tourism websites often display the beauty of their attractions (Govers & Go, 2003). For destinations such as Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, France and India, religious activities are important for tourism. A typical destination for Muslims is Mecca, Christians often visit Jerusalem, Rome and the route of Saint Jacques of Compostela in France and Spain (Kadir, 1989). A Hindu destination could be an Ashram – a spiritual retreat or college established by a Hindu sage (Sharpley & Sundaram, 2005).

The Islam holy book, the Quran, encourages travelling activities (see Quran (1987) Chapter 29: verse 20) to increase Muslims’ faith by witnessing God’s power (Subhanallah) as well as the beauty and bounty of God’s creations. To promote travelling,

zakah

solah (prayer) and fasting, and


benevolent treatment from hosts. Yet, despite a mushrooming Muslim population (Essoo & Dibb, 2004) and encouragement to travel in Islam (Q29:20; Q16:36) there is little research of tourism in Muslim countries. The scant research of tourism in Muslim countries tends

to focus on four areas:

(a) destination image (Burns & Cooper, 1997;

Henderson, 2003a, 2003b; Kadir, 1982,

1989; Schneider & Sonmez, 1999)

(b) culture and ethnicity (Henderson, 2003a, 2003b;

Kadir, 1982; Schneider & Sonmez, 1999);

(c) future of tourism in Muslim countries (Inayatullah,

1995); and ;

(d) tourism in Muslim countries such as Egypt (Aziz,

1995), Kenya (Sindiga, 1996), Malaysia

(Henderson, 2003a, 2003b; Kadir, 1982, 1989)

and Yemen (Burns & Cooper, 1997).

online used one website, Tourism Malaysia. She found few pictures or comments about Islam as Malaysia’s main religion, rather pictures of Malay culture, crafts, customs and tradition dominating the Tourism Malaysia website. Govers and Go (2005) content analysed 20 Dubai-based tourism company websites’ projection of Dubai’s

use pictorial and narrative images to project its cultural identity by overemphasising experiential images such as shopping facilities and

activities in a Muslim country. The country’s multiracial and multi-religious population, as well as friction between Islamic


(Henderson, 2003a). Modernity and development may nurture hedonistic lifestyles among some Muslims in Malaysia, especially in big cities with activities such as concerts, discos and pubs becoming available. Islamic revivalism in Malaysia grows due to increased Muslim awareness, understanding and commitment towards Islam. At the federal level, the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia,

Islamic understanding. This institute provides Islamic information to Muslims and non-Muslims through activities such as research, public seminars, workshops, forums, consultations and publications.

Academically, this chapter adds to the small body of research of tourism in Muslim countries in several areas. Firstly, it

identity and images in Malaysia to DMOs at state level. Lastly, it

in promoting their destination to Muslim and non-Muslim tourists. For industry, this chapter sheds light and offers initial suggestions

paper tackles the two research questions:

(1) How do DMO perceive Islam’s role in promoting

their destination to Muslim and non-Muslim

tourists, and

promoting Malaysian destinations?

and how a Muslim nation, Malaysia, promotes Islam as a tourism

tourism. The paper then shares the results of qualitative interviews


online promotion of their destination to Muslims and non-Muslims. The paper closes with future research suggestions and implications

by both Muslim and non-Muslim tourists.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Concept of Tourism in Islam

Islam, the fastest growing religion in the world (Essoo & Dibb, 2004), should constitute 30% of the world population by 2025 (Huntington, 1996). Between 1989 and 1998, Europe’s Islamic population more than doubled (Abdullah, 2000). With 0.7 to 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, Islam dominates most Arab countries, as well non-Arab countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. Only 12% of Muslims worldwide are Arabs and there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in all Arab countries combined (Sechzer, 2004). With their burgeoning presence and 57 Muslim countries globally (The Organization of Islamic Conference, 16 September 2005), tourism in Muslim countries is a major market. Despite the growing

& Mohamad, 2002). Islamic political, economic, legal and social policies affect

most aspects of believers’ lives (Huntington, 1996). Religious travels are fundamental in Islam (Q29:20; Q22:46) based on the Islamic worldview of God, man and nature, tourism is part of the addin (way of life). Life is a journey in the way of God; travelling in Islam stresses the sacred goal of submission to the ways of God. Travelling in Islam also aims to achieve physical, social and spiritual goals (Kadir, 1989).

The spiritual goals reinforce one’s submission to God through the beauty and bounty of God’s creation by grasping


the smallness of man and seeing the greatness of God (Q29:20, Q30:42 and Q16:36). The physical goal leads to a healthy and stress-free life, which subsequently lets Muslims serve God better. Islam encourages Muslims to visit their Muslim brothers as this helps strengthen Muslims’ silaturrahim (bond) among the ummah

(Muslim community) (Q49:10). Finally, travelling is a test of one’s perseverance in Islam.

religious duties. For instance, travellers may postpone fasting during Ramadhan, as well as shorten or combine prayers (Q4:101). In

with compassion and thoughtfulness (Kadir, 1989).

(Henderson, 2003a; Kadir, 1989). In addition, as Islam preaches aurah (dress codes such as women covering all but their face and hand), scanty women’s clothing and men’s shorts above the knee are bad. These restrictions shape tourism in most Muslim countries. For instance, selling alcohol is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

These restrictions, perhaps unfavourable to non-Muslim tourists where these activities are common, raise a dilemma. How do Muslim countries include Islamic teachings and restrictions in their

discusses how Malaysia balances Islamic teachings and restrictions in its tourism industry.

Islam in Malaysia

After manufacturing, tourism is Malaysia’s most important sector for

to its strong economic contribution, tourism is a key in promoting the diverse cultures and lifestyles of Malaysia’s multi-ethnic population (Ghazali, 2000). Tourism Malaysia’s current promotion, “Malaysia Truly Asia”, showcases its vibrant Asian communities – Malay,


Chinese, Indian and ethnic groups of Sabah and Sarawak. With this varying ethnic composition, many of the world’s

major religions are in Malaysia. Over 60% of Malaysians are Muslims, followed by Buddhists (19%), Christians (9%), Hindus (6%), and Confucians (6%) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2001). Myriad religious buildings, festival, rituals and lifestyles are important Malaysian tourist attractions for casual visitors as well as religious followers (Ghazali, 2000).

any religion. Temples, mosques and churches in the same area are

(Asghar, 2000). The Prophet Muhammad laid the framework of governance known as Mithaq-e-Madina (Covenant of Medina) that respected the tribal customs of Judaism, Islam and pre-Islamic idol worshippers (Asghar, 2000). The covenant guarantees equality and freedom of religion and emphasises the sanctity and safety of Medina. Respecting others’ beliefs promotes stronger integration and unity, thus allowing people in the nation to live peacefully.

Malaysia supports multiculturalism through a year round

that symbolises the Muslims’ end of Ramadhan, Chinese New Year, Christian’s Christmas and Deepavali for the Hindus. Although Islam prohibits gambling and alcohol, these vices are available in Malaysia in order to respect other’s races and religious practices, as well as for tourism. Malaysian tourism also tends to highlight Islam’s uncontroversial elements such as culture, history, and architecture

Host-Guests Encounters: Malaysian Scenario

Host-guest relations can be pleasant when both are sensitive to one another’s feeling and needs. Yet different outlooks and degrees of cross-cultural tolerance lead host societies to react differently. In


Muslim destinations, local adaptation to tourism is either discouraged, isolated from the host community or treated with a laissez faire or moderate attitude (Kadir, 1989). Furthermore, due to political instability, governments may discourage tourism to Muslim countries such as Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan (Foreign and Commonwealth

their interpretation of Islamic Law (Sechzer, 2004).Tourists travelling to the Middle East may find a strict

implementation of Islamic law, sometimes referred to as Shariah

Law. Most Middle Eastern countries have strong Islamic laws due to the religion’s Arabic roots and having most of Islam’s holiest places, such as Kaabah, the holiest building in Islam where Muslims pray

traits such as drinking alcohol, discos and pubs are isolated from public life (Kadir, 1989; Sechzer, 2004). Yet, the different lifestyles of Islamic countries could be a unique tourist attraction.

Countries such as Malaysia, Dubai, Oman, Indonesia and Turkey are more moderate. To maintain the harmony among different races and religions (Henderson, 2003a; Kadir, 1982) and to meet modernity (Sechzer, 2004), the implementation of Islamic Law

teachings, such as selling liquor or men and women dressing violating Islamic dress codes are present in these countries. Dubai continues to promotes its modernity with multi–billion development projects such as The Palm and Hydropolis – respectively the world’s largest

(Govers & Go, 2005).Serious Malaysian efforts to develop and promote tourism

began with the establishment of the Tourist Development Corporation Malaysia in 1972 (Ghazali, 2000). Prior to then, concerns over western

(Kadir, 1982). The moderate approach towards tourism and business continued with Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi’s vision for national development, Islam Hadhari (Civilisation Islam) that incorporates progressiveness in parallel with Islamic teachings (Islam


Hadhari, 2005). One objective of Islam Hadhari is to promote Malaysian

socioeconomic development and counter a common misconception of socioeconomic underdevelopment in Muslim countries. Factors such as poverty, poor transportation and underdeveloped infrastructure hinder tourism in Muslim countries (Kadir, 1989). Urbanisation and development such as the Petronas Twin Tower, Multimedia Super Corridor and Intelligent City of Putrajaya are major tourist attractions that symbolise Malaysia’s economic development and liberalisation. Apart from infrastructure development, Islam Hadhari stresses personal traits such as acquiring knowledge, high moral and ethical

Islamic teaching (Bernama, 2005). Malaysia positions itself as a clean and value-for-money

destination (Dass, 2005). Malaysian promotional strategies include its potpourri lifestyle with races and religions living together peacefully. However, promotions do include Islamic motifs such as mosques, museums and Muslims festivals (Henderson, 2003b). Two recent efforts by the Ministry of Tourism and Kuala Lumpur City Hall promote foods for Muslims breaking their fast, the famous bubur

lambuk rice porridge and Bazaar Ramadhan – the open market selling of various Malaysian dishes (Kuala Lumpur City Council, 2005; Tourism Malaysia, 2005).

Tourists visiting Malaysia receive the courteous and hospitable treatment as clearly enjoined in Islam (Kadir, 1989). In addition, hotels usually provide an arrow on the ceiling of every room for Muslims to pray pointing towards the qiblat (Mecca). Also in line with Islamic teachings and Shariah Law, state religious departments

public, gambling, eating or drinking in public during Ramadhan, and selling and drinking liquor.

Yet in some countries such as Malaysia, banned activities – for

rooms – apply only to Muslims. This double standard, which seems to work well for Muslims and non-Muslims, illustrates balancing tourist


discusses how Malaysian DMOs could migrate Muslim images and teachings to the online environment, while catering to both Muslims and non-Muslims

Taking Destination Image Online

Image is a valuable concept for understanding how tourists choose destinations. Studies show a positive relationship between destination image and preference or visit intentions (Beerli & Martin, 2004; Gallarza, Saura, & Garcia, 2002; Schneider & Sonmez, 1999). Research on the influence of destination image suggests three

tourism motivations, socio-demographics, and information sources related to the destination (Baloglu & McClearly, 1999a; Beerli & Martin, 2004; Echtner & Ritchie, 1993).

Information sources represent a stimulus or image forming agent to help shape destination perceptions and choices (Baloglu & McClearly, 1999b; Beerli & Martin, 2004). Information sources

celebrities, television, referrals and the Internet (Gartner, 1989; Standing & Vasudavan, 1999).

The Internet, particularly the World Wide Web and email, continues to change tourism. The Web is becoming a major information sources for tourists. This new medium differs from other information sources as it provides general information about tourism products as

the Internet potential visitors can access multimedia information

interactively (Baines, 1998). Promoting tourism online requires businesses and tourism

& Vasudavan, 1999). As ‘word-of-mouth ’ (Govers & Go, 2005, p.4) becomes a powerful and important information source for tourist, the narratives and photographic materials on a website should describe


the destination precisely. Discrepancies between projected image and real encounter can create a negative perception among tourists

images such as a veiled woman, a man wearing a gotra (a red and white square scarf) and agal (a round black binding to hold the gotra), Arabic handwriting, the Nabawi mosque (Islam’s earliest mosque)

Wording such as ‘one of the oldest Islamic states in the world’ and ‘the birthplace of Mohammad the messenger of Allah’ and advice for tourists to wear modest dress that covers arms and legs further emphasise the practice of Islam in this kingdom (Kingdom of Saudi

answer the proposed research questions.

METHODOLOGY

Sampling for this chapter was the DMOs representing Malaysia’s 13 states and three federal territories. Of these 16 areas, Putrajaya’s website listed no email address nor did the Tourism Malaysia and Ministry of Tourism websites list an email address for Putrajaya. An

two questions about (a) the role of Islam in promoting their destination

language in Malaysia, it is widely encouraged in business (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 July 2003). To encourage replies, respondents were given the option to answer the email in Malay or English; all respondents answered the English email in Malay.

Of the 15 emails, three DMOs responded, but four emails bounced due to problems such as bad addresses and unknown users. A follow up email one week later, this time in Malay, sent to the remaining 12 DMOS – using different email addresses for the


week later failed to garner any responses. Finally, three days later,

response rate.

FINDINGS

This section discusses the findings from the email and phone interviews, and per the interview protocol, protects the respondent’s anonymity. Overall, Islam seems to play a minor role in promoting

promotional brochures and website have just one statement about

failed to contain even one picture of a mosque. While all interviewees agreed that Islam is important in promoting Malaysia as a tourist destination, they disagreed on the emphasis.

The strongest emphasis was a state that designs tourism activities in line with Islamic teachings. Islam plays a great role in its tourism industry and has become a main attraction. According to this DMO, “People come to our state to see how Islam is implemented and most of the time tourists are impressed”. Recently, the state’s city council declared the state capitol as Islamic City. Activities contrary

Islam on their website, the respondent noted that ‘there is probably not much’. The Muslim prayer schedule on their website however

One state focuses on the Prime Minister’s aspiration of Islam Hadhari, portraying the Islam as a balance between worldly and hereafter affairs. The state government encourages development in its tourism products as healthy and clean-living holiday activities.


Their website provides information on Islam as the main religion with the image of the state’s mosque, but at the same time welcomes

Hadhari and promoting the state’s stable economy for investment, peaceful living among different races and religion, and wondrous natural resources.

Four states take a more moderate approach towards Islam, albeit noting tours to their national mosque as Islamic tourism activities. For two of these states, eco-tourism, beaches and their varied ethnic cultures are key tourism attractions. Their land, rainforests, different ethnic faces and costumes, and local wildlife dominate the websites. For the third state, the website promotes

local dances and local cuisines. Lastly, the fourth state focuses on heritage and traditional Malaysian lifestyles.

Perhaps quality rather than quantity describes Islamic images in Malaysia’s tourism industry. Images help reflect Malaysia’s moderate and tolerant Muslim community that shares and respect other religions and practices. Commenting on Islam as a tourism product in Malaysia, one DMO said that “We may not have a distinct

beautiful practice of the religion itself in Malaysia is an attraction”. This religious tolerance should be good news and relief to

non-Muslim and Western tourists. One DMO commenting on the

media would spread the beauty of Islam in Malaysia, especially how Malaysians celebrate Ramadhan harmoniously unlike what is

happening in the Middle East”.

DISCUSSION

online moderately and lend minimal support to the proposition. At


least two factors limit the results of this chapter, the small sample and the low response rate. Regardless, the responding DMOs agreed on the importance of Islam in Malaysian tourism and the results of this chapter offer important implications for academia and industry.

interviews round bounced. This 27% bounce rate suggests ample room for improvement in the implementation of email as a customer service tool by the state tourism councils and Tourism Malaysia. Bounced emails harm the reputation of the DMOs, and indirectly, harm Malaysian tourism. DMOs should decide if they will answer email, if not, DMOs should not list an email address on their website.

DMOs should ensure that their websites and the websites of relevant agencies list the correct email address. As email communication is business communication, the DMOs should establish policies and procedures for proper – polite, personal, promotions, professional and prompt – email responses (Murphy & Gomes, 2003). Hospitality and tourism organisations gain a competitive advantage via proper email response (Frey, Schegg, & Murphy, 2003; Gherissi-Labben, Schegg, & Murphy, 2003; Matzler, Pechlaner, Abfalter, & Wolf, 2005; Murphy & Tan, 2003). Finally, similar to mystery shopping to test tourism goods and services, both local and national DMOs should regularly mystery shop their implementation of proper email responses.

Common stereotypes for Muslim countries, conservative and anti-Western, make them unattractive to Western tourists (Kadir,

religion (Sharpley & Sundaram, 2005). Images such as beautiful nature, festivals and religious tolerance help improve the perception of Malaysia as a liberal harmonious, multiracial, and multi-religious Muslim country. This moderate image could be pleasant news to the non-Muslims. While the media may often associate the Muslim

environment. This allows the DMOs to rectify the wrong interpretation

one to the non-Muslim tourists.


In addition to images related to nature, festivals and religious tolerance, the DMO websites should provide tips for non-Muslim travellers. As non-Muslim travellers have a different lifestyle than Muslims, these tips would make their visit more enlightening and enjoyable. This consideration aligns with Islamic teachings that enjoin Muslim to assist travellers. Information on Muslim customs and practices could reduce cultural misunderstandings and mistakes, such as:

Muslim women may acknowledge an introduction

to a man solely with a smile and nod of their head.

Not shaking hands shows no disrespect; Islam

prohibits physical contact between men and women

Removing shoes when entering a house since

Muslims pray at home.

Dressing neatly in suitable attire that covers arms

and legs when visiting places of worship.

Avoiding scanty clothes and showing affection in

public

Toasting is uncommon, and

Using the right hand when handling food, and

giving and receiving objects.

Alternatively, to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims tourists especially from the Middle East (Amran, 2004; Gee, 2002), DMOs should include more Muslim-related information such as halal food, mosque locations and prayer times. Similarly, Western countries with high numbers of Muslim tourists – such as Australia, the USA and the UK – could improve their Muslim marketing efforts by adding Islamic information on their websites. Finally, hotels – in Muslim and non-Muslim countries – that target Muslim tourists should offer Islamic information on their websites and concierge desks, as well as add arrows pointing towards Mecca to their rooms’ ceilings.


2003b; Kadir, 1982), the results suggest minimal, albeit varying, portrayal of Muslim values by the DMO websites. The interviewee’s

ethnic composition, Malaysian tourism tends to concentrate on uncontroversial elements such as culture, history and nature.

This chapter also support the discussion of destination image as a valuable concept in understanding the destination selection process of tourist (Beerli & Martin, 2004; Gallarza et al., 2002; Schneider & Sonmez, 1999). Malaysia successfully delivers its brand image, ‘Truly Asia’. This image differentiates Malaysia from other competing destinations such as Singapore and Thailand.

This chapter also supports the discussion of destination branding (Gnoth, 1998) and marketing destination online (Lee, Cai, & O’Leary, In Press). The website of a destination has become a crucial branding channel. DMOs could have multiple branding channel, however, consistency among the branding elements is important as discrepancies between projected images and real encounters may create a negative perception among tourists (Fairweather &

Asia’, in promoting their destinations.

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139Internet Evolution: A Case of Malaysian Hotel Industry

9INTERNET EVOLUTION: A CASE OF

MALAYSIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY


INTRODUCTION

Hotels today no longer question on going online rather how to leverage

of Internet usage (Morrison, Taylor, & Douglas, 2004; O’Connor &

communication to promotional purposes (Marinova, Murphy, &

The constant evolution of the Internet leaves hotels with a multitude

al., 2004).

return on the investment. Hotels could evaluate the effectiveness

and return on investment (Morrison et al., 2004). Hotels may also

(Morrison et al., 2004). This study investigates the evolution of Internet usage

among Malaysian hotels, extending diffusion research and adding to the growing discussion of Internet evolution (Alonso Mendo &


of Internet research in Malaysia, particularly in hospitality industry.

(Thuong & Anthony, 2002). Similarly, hospitality research is also

of Internet evolution and then explains the qualitative methods applied for the interviews. Next, this paper discusses the results of

The paper closes with practical suggestions for future research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Approaches to Internet evolution

(Rogers, 2003). Innovation characteristics, adopter characteristics

such as leader and organisational characteristics, organisational

major decisions, changes and restructurings. Research of organisational technology diffusion is extensive,

yet researchers criticise DOI in explaining organisational adoption


diffusion. DOI theory suggests that organisational diffusion ranges from awareness to adoption to successfully infusing the technology

innovation adoption, particularly with complex technologies, goes

state of evolution’ in its usage, features and technology (Morrison et al., 2004, p.243).

The Stage Model depicts the progress of information system

organisational information systems progress through successive and

instance, Levy and Powell (2003) suggest that an organisation’s

Complexity and sophistication of Internet use in an

enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management to enhanced personalised and customised services (Alonso Mendo &


The next section introduces a proposition related to hotels’ Internet evolution.

PROPOSITION

Organisations adopt technologies over a continuum, from having a technology to using that technology effectively throughout the organisation (Rogers, 2003). Piccoli et al., (2004), suggest that Internet usage with customers evolves from experimentation, value creation,

customers and increasing switching costs (Piccoli et al., 2004). Thus,

customer acquisition to customer retention and loyalty (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2003).

customer loyalty. Thus:

Proposition 1: Internet usage evolves from (1) no adoption to

(2) email adoption to (3) brochureware to (4) publishing site


to (5) database retrieval and interactivity to (6) personalised

interaction and loyalty building.

hotels.

METHODOLOGY

This exploratory study uses a case study approach, which suits

stage of theory development, where phenomena are new – Malaysian hotels’ Internet usage – premature quantitative research can lead

sampling, which is appropriate when the research population is small

& Oppenheim, 2002). Based on their experience and future planning of hotel operations and Internet usage, the researcher conducted 13

anonymous.

144

Applica

tion

an

d Issu

es in E

-Bu

siness

Hotel’s

Name

Position Year

started

using

Internet

Current Internet Usage

Rating

status Internal

Hotel A Sales and Two Chain Families and

government

agencies

Very

minimum

Very

minimum

Brochureware

Hotel B Room

Division

Manager

Three Chain Families and

government

agencies

2000 Moderate Very

minimum

Online

reservation,

promotion

Hotel C Sales and

Operation

Manager

Four Chain Top level

travellers

Moderate Moderate Online

reservation,

promotion

Hotel D

Manager

Five Chain Business

travellers

Online

reservation,

promotion,

email

Director

Five Chain Conferences,

meetings and

activities

Online

reservation,

promotion,

loyalty

program

145

Intern

et Evo

lutio

n: A

Case o

f Mala

ysian

Hotel In

du

stryHotel F

Manager

One Leisure

travellers and

travel groups

Do not

adopt

Do not

adopt

Manager

Two Travel groups Very

minimum

Do not

adopt

Hotel H

Manager

Three Chain Leisure

travellers

Moderate Moderate Online

reservation,

promotion

Hotel I

Manager

Three

travellers and

privilege card

holders

Moderate Online

reservation,

promotion

Hotel J

Manager

Five Chain Business

travellers

Online

reservation,

personalised

promotion,

loyalty

program

Hotel K

Manager

Four Chain

and leisure

travellers

Moderate Online

reservation,

promotion,

program,

loyalty

program

146

Applica

tion

an

d Issu

es in E

-Bu

siness

Hotel L Owner/

Manager rated

Non Chain Students Do not

adopt

Do not

adopt

Hotel M

Manager

Five Chain Conferences,

meetings and

families

Moderate Online

reservation,

personalised

promotion,

Table 1: Hotels Interviewees


RESULTS

Hotels Internet evolution

The past (1996-2000)

There was a strong consensus among the hoteliers that their Internet

with the headquarters and exchanging information among executives,

their customers.

promote and advertise their hotel to potential customers worldwide. “The Internet allows

us to open our rates and promote our hotel to the whole world…if we

can capture even less than 0.0001 percent of the world population,

can you imagine our guest patronage?”

The general manager of Hotel M called the early days the

government to use the Internet – “but very few of us could visualise

of phone, fax and mail”. Hoteliers were slow in using the Internet.

hindered adoption. Managers were uncertain with their decision to

their Internet usage.

plan or strategy to promote the use of the Internet. There was only a vague understanding of the Internet. For instance, the general manager of Hotel K explained,


the Internet is something that we knew was going to be here to stay.

But the usage was not a focus until a few years later when we realised

it could help our business.”

The present (2001-2005)

replied that they do not have such procedures. Traditional and online

(Murphy & Tan, 2003; Strauss & Hill, 2001). Hoteliers added more functions and information on their

Internet only offers images and videos of their rooms. Internet usage,

e-magazine, e-news and

Major changes during this phase included providing transactional support and online reservations. To encourage customers to use the online reservations, Hotels B and H provided discounts for

hotelabc.com or hotelabc.com.my

H said,

o panoramic room views,


animation and newsletters.

personalised and convenient tools such as email newsletter, language option, currency converter, redeem points and weather information

However, some general managers are sceptical of change, as Malaysian customers still hesitate to engage in advanced Internet

main online activities until Malaysians are open to other advanced

Manager at Hotel C said, “Of course being in Malaysia, we still

lag behind those hotels in America and Europe in terms of Internet

marketing. Very few hotels talk beyond online reservation. It is not

that we do not want to change… but my customers still prefer to call

and fax their reservation.”

The Future (2006 and after)

The interviewers agreed that personalisation and relationships would dominate future trends. The higher rated and international chain hotels

with existing and future customers. As the general manager at Hotel H expressed, “I do not want to confuse my staff. Therefore, I will use


customer privacy, which could lead to rejection of the services. Some

claim that the Internet cannot provide the essential ingredient of their

B summarised, “I might be old fashioned; however, I still think that

the monitor and keyboard are no match to our greetings and heart

warming smiles.”

CONCLUSION

the proposition. Internet use evolves from no adoption of email and

Overall, these Malaysian hotels still use the Internet in a limited fashion. They concentrate on exploiting the Internet for disseminating information and online reservations.

Figure 1:


This study extends diffusion research and adds to the growing discussion of Internet evolution. Most diffusion studies assume

and technology use. This study also supports Internet research in the hotel industry.

2001), Malaysian higher rated and chain hotels lead in their Internet usage. Considering the growing Internet use, hotels not adopting the Internet may suffer serious competitive disadvantages if they fail to react adequately. However, the results demonstrate that these hotels

customers demand more customised and personalised services, hotels

quality and customer relations management online. For instance,

welcome note.


that are not user friendly. Jeong et al., (2003) found that easy to

intention.

reply to enquiries; they harm the hotel’s service quality. Alternatively, hotels can gain an immediate competitive advantage via proper email

2003). Hotels should train their staff on email policies to improve their

enquiries neglect an opportunity to attract additional guests. With the Internet, customers might contact several hotels simultaneously. Slow and incomplete replies might exclude a hotel from the set of

reply is vital.

presence in Internet usage. The Internet evolution timeline in Figure 1 suggests potential features and dilemmas a manager could face. Some

features and using email.

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159Research on Trust in Online Environment

10RESEARCH ON TRUST IN ONLINE

ENVIRONMENT

KHALIL MD. NOR

INTRODUCTION


PREVIOUS STUDIES


Table 1:

CONCLUSION


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