TOURISM WEB SITES AND VALUE-ADDED SERVICES: THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS

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1 Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 5 pp /03 $ Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Cognizant Comm. Corp. TOURISM WEB SITES AND VALUE-ADDED SERVICES: THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS HERBJØRN NYSVEEN, LEIF B. METHLIE, and PER E. PEDERSEN Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration The purpose of this article is to report on a study of 1) what kind of value-added services offered by tourism businesses Web sites are perceived the most important by customers, and 2) a comparison between customers preferences for and the actual offerings of value-added services by tourism businesses Web sites. A survey among customers of online tourism businesses shows that search engines, service integration, and personalization are the most preferred value-added services by the customers. In addition to the survey among customers, a survey was undertaken among tourism businesses to reveal the level of value-added services offered on their Web sites. By comparing the results of customers preferences for value-added services and tourism companies offerings, it is found that tourism businesses should provide more value-added services on their Web sites in order to fill the gap between customers preferences for such services and the companies actual offerings. Tourism Internet Value-added services Introduction Due to global competition and reduced barriers for new entrants, competition is increasing in the tourism industry as tourism businesses move into the electronic marketplace. Increased competition calls for more customer orientation. One way to obtain competitive advantage, often mentioned the last decade, is to give customers superior value (Day, 1990; Woodruff, 1997). Superior customer value calls for customer satisfaction, a factor of increasing importance in the more competitive electronic markets. Tourism businesses are among the most service-oriented businesses in the world. Also, the tourism industry is among the most prospering industry at the electronic marketplace. However, at the electronic marketplace, services and values have to be offered in other ways and by other applications than at the traditional marketplace. It has been demonstrated that information technology can add value to goods and that this value is exhibited in premium prices (Nault & Dexter, 1995). Value creation in electronic information networks like the Internet is grounded on either increased effectiveness in the supply chain or new customer values in the products and services delivered (Methlie, 2000). The Address correspondence to Herbjørn Nysveen, Breiviksv. 40, 5045 Bergen, Norway. Tel: ; Fax: ; E- mail: herbjorn.nysveen@nhh.no 165

2 166 NYSVEEN, METHLIE, AND PEDERSEN Internet should, therefore, be a suitable arena for tourism businesses to develop value-added services for the customers. Two important questions have to be answered in order to gain competitive advantage through superior customer value. First, what exactly produces customer values? Second, how well do customers think tourism companies deliver those values? (Woodruff, 1997). Thus, the purpose of this article is to study what kind of value-added services are the most preferred by customers on tourism businesses Web sites. To answer the first question, a survey among tourists focusing on their preferences for value-added services was undertaken. To gain a competitive advantage based on superior customer value, companies should indeed focus on these preferred valueadded services. To answer the second question, tourism companies were asked about the level of value-added services offered on their Web site. Then, a comparison between customers preferences for various value-added services and tourism companies actual offerings of these services on their Web sites was undertaken to find out what kind of valueadded services these Web sites should offer in the future. Value-Added Services The importance of customer service and service quality has been underlined by several authors (Berry, Parasuraman, & Zeithaml, 1988; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985; Sharma & Lambert, 1994). Value-added services are defined by Nysveen and Lexhagen (2002) as services giving access to various forms of information about the tourism products offered on a website (p. 489). In this article, the term value-added services is used to denote services providing added value to the core product demanded. Value-added services may be related to content (e.g., information and decision support), to infrastructure (e.g., access), and to context (e.g., multimedia product presentation) (Methlie, 2000). According to Woodruff (1997), customer value reflects what customers want and believe that they get from buying and using a seller s product (p. 140). Related to value-added services offered on tourism businesses Web sites, customer values reflect what kind of value-added services customers want and believe that they have access to on a Web site (i.e., what kind of value added-services do they prefer to have access to on a Web site?). If preferred value-added services are offered to a high degree, customers will perceive high customer value. On the other hand, if preferred value-added services are not offered or offered to a low degree, customers will perceive the value offered by the Web site to be low. This line of argument can also be related to the disconfirmation paradigm in the theory of customer satisfaction (Yi, 1990). The disconfirmation paradigm argues that customers judge their satisfaction of a product based on a comparison of their perception of product performance and a comparison standard, usually expectations about a product. When perceived performance is equal to or above expectations (confirmation), customers satisfaction will increase. When perceived performance is below expectations (disconfirmation), customers satisfaction will decrease. Preferred value-added services can be seen as the ideal level of value-added services. Ideal expectations are used in the satisfaction literature and are found to be a useful comparison standard to explain customer satisfaction (Tse & Wilton, 1988). Related to the disconfirmation paradigm, Web sites should offer value-added services at a level in accordance to customers preferences for value-added services or better. If the level of value-added services is below customers preferences (ideal expectations), the customers will be disconfirmed, and the competitive advantage of the seller based on superior customer value will decrease. Varki and Colgate (2001) found a positive effect of value perception on customer satisfaction, thus supporting the positive effect of value-added services on customer satisfaction. According to Nault and Dexter (1995), the main impact of information technology on customer value is convenience and control. Thus, adding customer value on the Internet should focus on value-added services adding convenience and control to the customers. Convenience should include value-added services making it easier for customers in their decision process from information search to purchase. According to Lemon, Rust, and Zeithaml (2001), Convenience relates to actions that help reduce the customer s time cost, search cost, and efforts to do business with the firm (p. 22). Control includes value-added services that reduce the problems of delegating the purchasing process to the customer.

3 THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS 167 Many types of value-added services offered on the Internet today add convenience and control to the customers. The value-added services included in this study are presented below. The value-added services included are based on relevance for tourism companies. Also, the value-added services used in this study are included in earlier research reported in articles regarding tourism companies Web sites (Lexhagen & Nysveen, 2001; Nysveen and Lexhagen, 2001; 2002; Tjøstheim, 2002). Although the value-added services included in this study are not exhaustive for potential value-added services to offer superior customer value, the included value-added services should be highly relevant for tourism businesses. Service Aggregation Services can be assembled horizontally across different suppliers to provide customers with less transaction costs and increased convenience. Service aggregation provides customers visiting a Web site access to information and services not directly related to the core product of the firm and, at the same time, provides the firm the ability to exploit economies of scale and scope. This variety of services may be supplementary services such as financial services or shopping services. Intermediaries in the electronic marketplaces provide service aggregation (Bailey & Bakos, 1997). Typically, portals (e.g., AOL) fill the service aggregation function. However, by giving customers access to information, services, and entertainment on a Web site, customers will have more information and services available to control their decision and buying process. Furthermore, such a broad access to information and services may be perceived as convenient for the customers because they get access to all they need at one and only one Web site, thus reducing their search costs. Thus, service aggregation could be a value-added service to be offered on tourism businesses Web sites. Service Integration (Bundling) While aggregation points to access of a variety of information and services not directly related to tourism (i.e., the core product), service integration means providing access to a bundle of information and services that are complementary to the core product. Integrated services make up a composite product demanded by the customers. Examples of service integration are a packaged tour, bundling of transportation services with hotel lodging, a full-service travel agency, and a bundle of concierge services for adventure visitors. The arguments for more convenience and control offered by the value-added service of service aggregation are the same for service integration, although on a more industry-narrow scale. Customer Community Communities can serve many customer needs (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996), thus adding customer value. On the Internet more and more Web sites are offering customer communities or bulletin boards. The communities make it possible for customers to exchange experiences with other customers. Although the vendor may control the information presented on its community Web site, communities give customers access to fair world-of-mouth information. The convenience of communities for customers is the access to third-party neutral information about the tourism product presented on the Web site. This extra and neutral information helps customers to make decisions regarding purchase due to reduced risk associated with the purchase, thus giving customers more control of the purchase process. In a study among Dutch tourist, Dellaert (2000) found that their valuation of the availability of community services on tourism businesses Web sites was high. Customer communities, therefore, should be included as a value-added service on tourism businesses Web sites. Search Engine A search engine makes it possible for customers to make an automatic search for information on a Web site. By entering a word or a phrase into a search engine, customers can search for all or any of the words in a phrase (Schneider & Perry, 2001). By using search engines, customers can have access to most of the information they need for making purchases of tourism products, thus increasing customers control of their decision processes. Compared to information search at the traditional marketplace, information and services search on the Web is more convenient because it can be done from remote locations. The customer does not need to visit a travel agency or to call several hotels and restaurants. Fur-

4 168 NYSVEEN, METHLIE, AND PEDERSEN thermore, a search engine is much faster than manual information search, saving the user search time. Information found by search engines gives customers a better basis for their purchase decisions, thus adding convenience and control to their purchasing processes. A search engine is also offered by many Web sites today. Due to the usefulness and the extensive supply of this value-added service, no wonder Web site visitors expect a search engine (Rappoport, 2000, p. 72). To meet customers expectations, search engines should be included on Web sites of tourism businesses. Personalization Personalization is a method to give customers information and/or services on a Web site that suit the individual visitor. The Web site is adapted to the unique and individual needs of each user (Cingil, Dogac, & Azgin, 2000). This may be electronic access to customers loyalty programs or an overview of their ticket reservations for the coming period. In addition to personalized Web sites, personalization also includes individual adaptation of products sold at the Web site. An example of personalization is a Web site offering customers seating and food in an airplane according to stored, personal preferences. Personalization adds convenience and control to the buying process by the automatic adjustments of customers profiles on the basis of buying behavior. Customers do not need to express their preferences each time they make a purchase. Nevertheless, they can be assured that the product is in accordance with their preferences. Pricing Methods Price image is often, particularly in undifferentiated markets, the most important determinant of consumer shopping decisions (Srivastava & Lurie, 2001). At the traditional marketplace, customers usually will have to pay the price they are offered by tourism businesses. On the Internet, new methods for pricing are implemented. Auctions, usually English auctions (Mohammed, Fisher, Jaworski, & Cahill, 2002), give customers the possibility to bid on products (e.g., airline tickets). The price will not be higher than the fixed price, because, if so, the customers will go for the fixed price. Another method of pricing is collective volume discounts. Collective volume discounts mean that customers buying collectively can get a lower price than individual customers. Also, reversed pricing where customers set their willingness to pay and give companies the possibility to buy their offerings is a potential method for pricing on the Internet ( All three methods for online pricing have a potential for reducing customers costs when buying tourism products. In total, the mentioned methods for pricing increase control of the customer s reservation price (i.e., the maximum price the customer is willing to pay). Due to the importance of price on the consumers shopping decisions mentioned by Srivastava and Lurie (2001), alternative methods for pricing should add value to the customers buying process, and therefore be included on tourism businesses Web sites. Trust Trust is a crucial part of success of businesses in electronic markets. According to Hoffman, Novak, and Peralta (1999), there is a fundamental lack of trust between consumers and businesses on the Web. Trust between two parties is normally built upon how much confidence each one has of the other party. Trust is associated with the misuse of data, reliable product information, secure payment, etc. To increase trust between the Web site (seller) and the customer, several remedial actions can be taken by the offering Web site. Transaction security in general, and secure payments in particular, can be facilitated by technologies such as SSL, SET, and PKI. Furthermore, in some countries companies approved by the national consumer ombud are allowed to mark their Web site with a specific logo, indicating a trusted Web site. Also, co-branding can be used to build trust online. Implementation of elements increasing customers trust in the supplier means reducing perceived risk among the customers purchasing on the Web site. Trust elements make customers feel they are more in control, and more relaxed and less afraid of making purchases on the Web site, thus increasing customer convenience. Research Questions Above, services that can be offered on tourism businesses Web sites to add superior customer value are discussed. However, the value-added services are

5 THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS 169 not differentiated according to the perceived importance among customers. It will be of value to tourism businesses to know which value-added services are the most preferred. Obviously, in situations with limited resources, tourism businesses have to choose among a set of potential value-added services. To determine what kind of services the customers prefer can help tourism businesses to implement valueadded services on their Web sites that provide customers with the greatest value. Therefore, the following research question is focused. Research Question 1 What kind of value-added services offered on tourism businesses Web sites are perceived as the most important services by the customers? Research have often revealed a mismatch between what kind of value-added services customers say they value and which value-added services companies think their customers value (Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml, 1985; Sharma & Lambert, 1994). This gap between customers preferences for valueadded services and companies offerings of such services leads to a mismatch between ideal performance expectations and perceived performance, hence dissatisfaction is created. Thus, competitive advantage based on superior customer value is not fulfilled. This points to the importance of making comparisons between customers preferences for and companies offerings of value-added services. Thus, the second research question presented in this article is given. Research Question 2 How is the correspondence between customers preferences for value-added services and the actual offerings of such services on tourism businesses Web sites? Methodology The results presented in this article are based on two surveys. One survey was undertaken among Norwegian consumers who were asked to express their preferences for value-added services offered on tourism businesses Web sites. A random sample of 1000 persons between 18 and 75 years was contacted by mail. The random sample was drawn by a company called DM Huset. DM Huset bases their sampling on an electronic version of the telephone catalogue of Norway. The catalogue is updated every day. In total 154 questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate around 15%. The average age of the respondents was 44 years. Compared to the population, the sample consisted of more active Internet users (i.e., respondents were using the Internet more often than the population). Of the sample, 57% were men. Furthermore, the sample was somewhat overrepresentitive of respondents with college and university education. Characteristics of the sample compared to the population of tourism customers in Norway are shown in Table 1. Implications of these biases are discussed together with the presentation of the results below. The second survey was undertaken among Norwegian tourism businesses with a Web site. In total 1600 businesses were contacted. Also this sample was drawn by DM Huset based on a list of all registered tourism companies in Norway. The questionnaire was addressed to the manager of the company. There were 180 questionnaires received in return, for a response rate of about 11%. The distribution of business categories among the returned questionnaires was: 40 restaurants, 56 hotels, 35 tour operators, 27 travel agencies, and 22 from a category of companies called Other tourism companies. To increase the relevance of the questionnaire for the businesses contacted, only businesses with more than Table 1 Validation of the Customer Sample Sample Population Share of active users a 76% 53% Age b % 40% % 35% >60 19% 25% Education b Regular school 12% 23% High school 37% 56% College/university 51% 21% Share of women b 43% 50% a Active users are defined as customers using the Internet one time or more every week. Source: MMI (2002) ( b Statistics for population for age, gender, and education from Statistics Norway ( emner/).

6 170 NYSVEEN, METHLIE, AND PEDERSEN a certain number of employees were contacted. This number varied across the business categories as follows: restaurants (2), travel agencies and tour operators (3), and hotels (5). Thus, the average number of employees among the companies in the sample is intentionally higher than in the population of tourism businesses in Norway. The sample showed a fairly representative geographical location distribution. Single indicators were used to measure preferences and actual offerings of value-added services. Customers were asked about how important they perceive the various value-added services when searching for information about tourism products or buying tourism products online (very little important to very important). Tourism businesses were asked about their supply level of the value-added services (low degree to high degree). All measures were based on a 7-point semantic differential scale (very little important = 1 and very important = 7; low degree = 1 and high degree = 7). The context of the questions was defined very broadly. As an introduction to the questionnaire, both the survey among the customers and the survey among the tourism companies gave a description regarding tourism and the Internet before the respondents started to answer the questionnaire. The survey among the customers was given the following introduction to the specific questions reported in this article: Given a situation where you need to search for information about a tourism product or buy a tourism product on the Internet. How important is it for you to have access to the following value-added services on the Web site you are using? Then the various value-added services were listed along with a short definition of the services. Thus, the context of the questions was very general and not related to a particular tourism segment, a particular search mode, or a particular level of risk perception associated with buying tourism products. The survey among the tourism companies had the following introduction to the questions relevant for this article: Below a number of value-added services are described. Please indicate at what level your tourism company is offering these value-added services 1) today (2001) and 2) your intention of offering such value-added services within 3 years (2004). Also here a short definition of the various value-added services was presented. Data were analyzed by SPSS. Methods for analyses were descriptives (mean values), pairwise comparisons of mean values (paired samples t-tests in SPSS). Analyses presented in Table 4 and 5 were run by analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA in SPSS). Results The first research question was related to which value-added services are the most preferred by the customers. Table 2 presents the value-added services in a ranked order based on the customers evaluation of their importance. The results show that the most preferred valueadded service by the respondents is access to a search engine. As can be seen from Table 3, this value-added service is significantly more important than all the other value-added services included in this study, supporting the assertion by Rappoport (2000, p. 72) that Web site visitors expect a search engine. Service integration is ranked as the next most important value-added service, significantly more important than service aggregation, trust, and pricing methods (see Table 3). Preferences for the three alternative methods for pricing included in this study are not very strong. Customer community is evaluated as the least important value-added service in this survey (Table 2). The second research question presented in this article focused on how well value-added services offered are in accordance with customers preferences for value-added services on tourism businesses Web sites? The results presented in Table 4 shed some light on this research question. Table 2 What Kind of Value-Added Services Offered on Tourism Businesses Web Sites Are Perceived as Most Important Among Customers? Mean Search engine 5.55 Service integration 5.12 Personalization 4.95 Trust 4.77 Reversed pricing 4.29 Auctions 4.13 Collective volume discount 4.05 Service aggregation 4.03 Customer community 3.08

7 THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS 171 Table 3 Comparison of Mean Differences Between Customers Preferences for Value-Added Services Aggregation Integration Community Search Engine Personalization Auction Volume Reversed Trust (4.03) (5.12) (3.08) (5.55) (4.95) (4.13) (4.05) (4.29) (4.77) Aggregation (4.03) Integration (5.12) 1.09** Community (3.08) 0.95** 2.04** Search engine (5.55) 1.52** 0.43** 2.47** Personalization (4.95) 0.92** ** 0.60** Pricing Auction (4.13) ** 1.05** 1.42** 0.82** Collect. vol. disc ** 0.97** 1.50** 0.90** 0.08 (4.05) Reversed (4.29) ** 1.21** 1.26** 0.66* Trust (4.77) 0.74** 0.35* 1.69** 0.78** ** 0.72** 0.48** Mean differences marked (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01) indicate significant differences between the mean preferences for the value-added services compared. For example, integration (5.12) is significantly more preferred among customers than aggregation (4.03). With a few exceptions, customers preferences for value-added services are much higher than the actual level of value-added services offered by the tourism businesses. Service integration is the only valueadded service offered that is in accordance with customers preferences. For the other value-added services, there is a large gap between customers preferences and tourism businesses offerings. Taking these results into consideration, an important question follows whether tourism businesses will fill this gap in the next few years or not. Table 5 shows the level of value-added services tourism businesses are planning to offer on their Web sites within 2004 compared to the customers preferences for these values in The results show that tourism businesses have intentions to increase their offerings of value-added services. The supply of service integration and personalized services in 2004 seem to be in accordance with customers preferences as they are reported in For the rest of the value-added services included in this study, the level of planned value-added services offered on tourism businesses Web sites in 2004 is lower than the level of preferences reported by the customers in The customer sample is somewhat biased regarding education, gender, and age. Education has an effect on preferences for service aggregation (p = 0.02) and customer community (p = 0.04). Gender does not have an effect on preferences for any of the value- Table 4 A Comparison of Customer Preferences for Value-Added Services (2001) and Tourism Web Sites Offerings (2001) Customers Web Sites Preferences (2001) Offerings (2001) F p Service aggregation Service integration Customer community Search engine Personalization Pricing Auctions Collective volume discount Reversed pricing Trust

8 172 NYSVEEN, METHLIE, AND PEDERSEN Table 5 A Comparison of Customer Preferences for Value-Added Services (2001) and Tourism Web Sites Offerings (2004) Customers Web Sites Preferences (2001) Offerings (2004) F p Service aggregation Service integration Customer community Search engine Personalization Pricing Auctions Collective volume discount Reversed pricing Trust added services. Potential effects of age on preferences for the value-added services were also tested, and no such effects were found. The effects of potential biasing variables show only marginal effects on the dependent variables studied. Thus, the biases do not seem to threaten the validity of the presented results. Conclusion The results show that tourism businesses offer value-added services such as service integration (and personalization in 2004) that are in accordance with the customers preferences today. However, in total, tourism businesses should focus more on increasing the level of value-added services on their Web sites in order to meet customers preferences for such services. Confirmation of customers preferences for value-added services is of vital importance for customer satisfaction with these services (Tse & Wilton, 1988; Yi, 1990). If customers preferences are not met, customers will be dissatisfied, and they may not visit the Web site again. Tourism businesses planned level of value-added services offered in 2004 was compared to customers preferences for such services in 2001 in this study. Probably, within 2004, customers will be even more demanding, expecting a level of value-added services higher than reported in Thus, the gap revealed between customers preferences (2001) and tourism businesses offerings (2004) should be regarded as a conservative estimate. A positive effect of satisfaction on customer loyalty is well documented in the marketing literature (Oliver, 1997). As argued in this article, supporting customers with superior customer value will increase the customers satisfaction (Varki & Colgate, 2001). Results presented in this study show that tourism businesses offer a level of value-added service that is well below customers expectations. An implication of this is that the lack of value-added services offered on tourism businesses Web sites may lead to dissatisfied and less loyal customers, subsequently leading to more shopping around for services (and the lowest price) from multiple suppliers. The general impression of the results presented shows that tourism companies should focus more seriously on offering value-added services. However, it should be mentioned that tourism businesses strategies could be either cost leadership or differentiation (Porter, 1985). An implication of this is that some companies may focus on offering alternative methods for pricing (cost leadership). These companies may not want to differentiate their product through, for instance, personalized services. Other companies may focus on offering community services and personalized services to differentiate their services from other companies. These companies will not include services such as auctions and reversed pricing on their Web sites. A possible implication of this is that a situation where tourism companies on the average are offering a level of value-added services that is in accordance with the average customers preferences of such services may never occur. Thus, customers will have to use various Web sites depending on their needs for value-added services in various situations.

9 THE GAP BETWEEN CUSTOMER PREFERENCES AND WEB SITES OFFERINGS 173 Further Research In this article, seven types of value-added services are discussed. We do not argue that this list of value added services is complete. Further research should therefore include other services to get a broader picture of which value-added services are the most preferred by tourism customers. Such value-added services may be agent-based search engines, push-based services, links, and location-based services on mobile terminals (Lexhagen & Nysveen, 2001; Nysveen & Lexhagen, 2001). In this article, value-added services have been related to the customers decision process. This process can be divided into various phases. Thus, preferences for various value-added services may vary depending on where in the decision process the customer is (Fill, 1995). Furthermore, Moe (forthcomming) divides visitors of a Web site into four segments depending on their motives for visiting the Web site. By revealing information about what kind of value-added services are the most preferred in the various phases of customers decision process and what kind of value-added services are the most preferred related to the four motives revealed by Moe, it will be possible to present valueadded services that suits the individual visitor. By asking the visitors, for instance, their motives for visiting the Web site, value-added services can be implemented to support the needs and preferences implicit in these motives on the Web sites. Other moderating variables may be customers purpose of travel (Dubè & Renaghan, 2000) and customers perception of risk (Moutinho, 1987). The study reported in this article compares the level of customers preferences for various valueadded services and tourism businesses level of value-added services offered, as reported by the tourism businesses themselves. Thus, the gap between customer preferences and Web sites offerings are based on perceptions of customers on the one side and tourism businesses on the other side. It would be interesting to follow up this research by asking customers to evaluate both 1) their preferences for value-added services and 2) the level of value-added services offered on the tourism businesses Web sites. This would give an even more reliable estimate of the perceived gap between customers preferences for value-added services and customers perceived level of value-added services actually offered online among tourism businesses. Acknowledgment This research was supported by the Norwegian Research Council. The authors are grateful for the financial support. Biographical Notes Herbjørn Nysveen, Ph.D., is an associated professor at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business administration. He is currently engaged in several projects in electronic commerce/mobile commerce and tourism. Nysveen holds a part-time position at European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR) in Östersund, Sweden. Leif B. Methlie is a professor of Information Management in the Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian school of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen. Since 1996 electronic commerce has been his major research area and he is currently managing several projects concerning electronic banking and tourism and mobile commerce. Methlie is a former president of the Norwegian school of Economics and Business Administration. Per E. Pedersen, Ph.D., is a professor at Agder College and professor II at the Norwegian school of Economics and Business Administration. His current research interests include consumer behavior and mobile commerce. References Armstrong, A., & Hagel, J. (1996, May June). The real value of on-line communities. Harvard Business Review, Bailey, J. P., & Bakos, J. Y. (1997). An exploratory study of the emerging role of electronic intermediaries. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 1(3), Band, W. A. (1991). Creating value for customers. New York: John Wiley. Berry, L. L., Parasuraman, A., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1988, September October). The service-quality puzzle. Business Horizons, Cingil, I., Dogac, A., & Azgin, A. (2000). A broader approach to personalization. Communication of the ACM, 43(8), Day, G. (1990). Market driven strategy: Processes for creating value. New York: Free Press. Dellaert, B. G. C. (2000). Tourists valuation of other tourists contribution to travel Web sites. In D. R. Fesenmaier, S. Klein, & D. Buhalis (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Information and Communication Tech-

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