This thesis examines factors that influence e-commerce sales in the tourism industry through a study of Brazil, China, Russia, and the United States. The researcher identifies demographic, cultural, e-trust, and consumer behavior factors and develops a model relating them to online sales. Surveys of over 1,000 consumers are analyzed to determine the impact of variables like income, gender, and website quality on purchases and website visits. Results vary between countries and indicate cultural factors significantly affect online shopping behavior. The findings can help companies optimize marketing, understand cultural differences, and improve their websites to increase sales.

1. Bocconi University
Graduate School
Master of Science in Management
The factors that influence the E-commerce sales in the tourism industry.
An intercultural study between Brazil, China, Russia and United States
Supervisor:
Professor Lei Wang
Co-Examiner:
Professor Sebastiano Alessio Delre
Researcher:
Guido Tirone

2. Summary
 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Research question
 Research model
 Application
 Results
 Additional research and limitations
 Contributions
 Conclusions
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone

3. Introduction
Increased penetration of the internet and establishment of e-commerce in recent years
have led to a need to understand and verify factors that influence online sales with the
aim to formulate a successful business strategy.
The goals of this paper are:
 Identify a framework of elements that can have on impact on the consumers’
purchasing decisions in the tourism industry
 Understand the existing differences in internet usage and e-commerce trends
between countries like United States, Brazil, China and Russia
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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4. Literature Review
The existing literature on the subject can be divided in four categories based on the
nature of the elements that compose them.
Demographics factors:
 The e-consumer man purchase a greater quantity of products and spend more
money compared to the woman segment (Li et al., 1999; Naseri e Elliott, 2011)
 The existence of a positive relationship between the income and the tendency to
buy online (Zak e Knack, 2001)
 The lack of empirical evidence that supports the age as an influencing factor due
to non-unique results
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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5. Literature Review
Cultural Factors:
 The existence of five dimensions able to influence the e-commerce (Hofstede,
2002):
 Power distance
 Individualism
 Masculinity
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Long-term orientation
 The succes of a global interface is correlated to the design capacity in reflecting
the cultural nuances of the targeted audience (Badre e Barber, 1998)
 The various cultural origins lead to a different reaction to environmental stimulus
(Chau et al., 2000)
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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6. Literature Review
E-trust:
 Internet consumer trust model: the clients evaluation of the e-seller reputation
and dimension determinates their trust in the shop itself (Jarvenpaa et al., 1999)
 Trust building model: the trust in the seller is influenced by his reputation and the
website quality, the so called "antecedent factor" (McKnight et al., 2002)
Online consumer behaviors:
 The marketing stimulus, web experience and personal/environmental factors
influence the consumer decisional process in its different phases (Kotler, 2003)
 The social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) have a direct repercussion on the
e-consumer tendency to buy online (Srivastava e Kim, 2007)
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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7. Research Question
The existing theory is characterized by the absence of:
 A general study on the factors that influece the sales that considers at the same
time the four described categories
 A comparison of the results obtained within the different economies, advanced
and emerging
Covering this gap represents the main goal of this paper in order to develop business
and marketing stratagies that allow companies to attract the e-consumer.
For this reason the research model is not focused on one only class of factors but
considers the totality of elements that may have an effect on sales using as starting
point the academic discoveries.
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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8. Party choise
Income
Vacation planning
Budget
Destination choice
Behaviors during the
vacation
Budget/Income
Age
ONLINE SALES
Social media
Power distance
Individualism
Seller reputation
Masculinity
Website quality
Uncertainty avoidance
Seller knowledge
E-TRUST
CULTURAL FACTORS
Gender
CONSUMER BEHAVIORS
DEMOGRAPHICS FACTORS
Research Model
Long-term orientation
Language
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9. Application
The described hypotheses have been tested using data generated from a voluntary
survey administered to the clients of a travel company.
The data collection lasted around 12 weeks and the number of valid survey obteined
has been 1074. The univariate statistics of the respondents charachtestics are:
Gender
Age
Income
Nationality
Value
Male
Female
<30
30-45
45-60
>60
<50k
50k-150k
150k-250k
>250k
United States
Brazil
China
Russia
Other
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
Percentage
38.55%
61.45%
2.42%
18.99%
39.76%
38.83%
9.59%
41.43%
36.69%
12.29%
34.82%
17.50%
24.40%
13.13%
10.15%
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10. Application
In order to verify the validity of the proposed hypotheses three regression analysis have
been developed:
1)
cultural and demographics factors, consumers
behaviors and e-trust
Source:
survey
Dependent variable:
daily visits
Independent variables:
local language
Source:
3)
purchased products
Independent variables:
2)
Dependent variable:
Travel company website
Dependent variable:
available budget
Independent variables:
consumer income
Source:
survey
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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11. Results
The output obtained from the first regression analysis is the following:
General Model
Std. error
T-ratio
Significance
-4.575
.936
-4.888
.000
Income
.002
.000
6.968
.000
Budget
.053
.004
14.588
.000
Age
.001
.001
.416
.677
-.149
.037
-4.079
.000
Power distance
.003
.008
.360
.719
Individualism
.015
.003
6.075
.000
Regression
287.26
Masculinity
.026
.008
3.239
.001
Total
589.06
Uncertainty avoidance
.009
.003
3.368
.001
Long-term orientation
.013
.004
3.627
.000
Location knowledge
.072
.036
1.992
.047
Planning
.107
.037
2.910
.004
-.002
.034
-.046
.964
.505
.051
9.864
.000
Location
-.019
.005
-3.806
.000
Seller knowledge
-.028
.040
-.692
.489
Seller reputation
.100
.010
10.096
.000
Website quality
.075
.015
5.105
.000
(Costant)
Gender
Social Media
Party
Sum of squares
48.77%
Dependent variable: Purchased products
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
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12. Results
Brazil
China
Significance
Russia
Significance
United States
Significance
Significance
(Costant)
.211
.557
-.461
.134
.637
.211
-.304
.077
Income
.003
.000
.002
.002
.002
.004
.002
.000
Budget
.024
.003
.041
.000
.033
.000
.087
.000
Age
-.001
.766
.003
.358
-.010
.011
-.005
.025
Gender
-.093
.238
-.391
.000
-.460
.000
.030
.577
Location knowledge
.081
.249
.012
.892
.120
.184
-.002
.976
Planning
.066
.348
.227
.010
.125
.162
.019
.740
Social Media
.097
.161
-.016
.839
-.024
.781
-.057
.255
Party
-.004
.976
.424
.000
.653
.000
.329
.000
Location
-.036
.001
-.012
.301
-.017
.203
.009
.198
Seller knowledge
-.082
.312
.144
.123
-.189
.078
-.035
.550
Seller reputation
.122
.000
.068
.004
.108
.000
.057
.000
Website quality
-.082
.046
.014
.734
-.038
.525
.051
.044
30.16%
49.13%
Graduate Thesis - Guido Tirone
65.08%
61.90%
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13. Results
The output obtained from the second regression analysis is the following:
Brazil
China
Significance
Russia
Significance
Significance
(Costant)
10.361
.000
10.386
.000
8.136
.000
Mother tongue
14.802
.000
10.800
.000
22.668
.000
Dependent Variable: website’s daily visit
The output obtained from the third regression analysis is the following:
General
Brazil
Significance
(Costant)
Income
China
Significance
Russia
Significance
United States
Significance
Significance
4.707
.000
3.185
.000
4.330
.000
4.828
.000
5.627
.000
.013
.000
.018
.000
.017
.000
.015
.003
.005
.050
Dependent Variable: available budget
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14. Additional Research and Limitations
Limitations
Additional Researches
Population used in the data
collection
Considering the proposed theoretical model
proceed to verify it on an diversified and
bigger population
Number of countries examined
Analyzing a greater example of countries in
order to identify the existing differences
between
developed
and
emerging
economies
Limited budget variance
explained by the income
Investigate further elements that can affect
the budget
Lack of Social Media relevance
Analyzing the seller use of social media and
their influence on the consumer behavior
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15. Contributions
The discoveries made prodive important information on the clientele in order to
understand the consumer behavior and to support the decision making process. The
same can be used for three separate purposes:
 Identify the elements to focus on during the creation of marketing campaigns due
to their significance in influencing the e-consumer purchasing behavior
 Understand the existing differences between the different cultures and their
impact on the propensity to shopping online
 Create a succussful global interface for the wbsite in order to increase the number
of daily unique visits
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16. Conclusions
It is possible for me to conclude that the declared research goal has been reached:
«define a general framework of elements able to influence the onlise sales in the
tourism industry"
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