The 1st International Statistical Conference in CROatia - ISCCRO'16

Zagreb, 05-06 May 2016

Impact of ICT and organizational

readiness on innovations in hotel
and travel agency service industry:
Preliminary research
Mirjana Pejic-Bach and Jovana Zoroja
Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb,
Department of Informatics, Zagreb, Croatia
Zrinka Marusic
Institute for Tourism, Zagreb, Croatia

Goal
Goal of the research is to investigate
to what extent the usage of
information and communication
technologies (ICT) and the level of
development of organizational
readiness for the innovativeness
impact the innovations in hotel and
travel agency service industry.

Research model

Methods
Research instrument and data collection method

Our research is focused on innovation at the level of the tourism

firm
Hotel and travel agency service industry in Croatia and
Montenegro has been used as case study
(E)mail survey with two follow-ups have been conducted in
autumn of 2013 in order to collect data on firms characteristics
which may influence their innovativeness.
The survey instrument, a structured questionnaire adopted to the
requirement of mail survey, has three parts
1st - firms characteristics regarding the type and size of the firm
2nd - innovativeness, defined as the firms readiness for the
innovations and current level of innovativeness of the firm,
3rd - the level of ICT used within the firm was assessed through a
construct consisting 11 items describing different types of ICT

Methods
Sample characteristics and design

An (e)mail survey in Croatia was sent to 169 hotel firms and 344 tourist
agencies
A total response rate for the Croatian sample was relatively low 15%;
higher response rate was obtained for the hotel sample (18% or a total of
30 hotel firms) in comparison to that of tourist agencies (13% or a total of
46 tourist agencies)
Montenegros sample was a convenient one, targeting both, hotel firms and
tourist agencies. The obtained sample comprised of 10 hotel firms and four
tourist agencies which leads to the total sample of 40 hotel firms and 50
tourist agencies

Methods
Data analysis

Univariate analysis was performed comparing the difference in

firms characteristics and level of innovativeness between the
hotel firms and travel agencies. The significance of differences
was assessed by Chi-square or Fishers Exact test in case of small
number of observations.
Principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax factor rotation
was applied on a set of ICT items in order to address their
underlying structure in smaller number of factors.
Logistic regression was performed to find possible predictors of
innovativeness, separately for the two groups of tourism firms.

Results
Innovation activities of hotels and tourist
agencies
Tourist
Hotel firms
(N=40)

Agencies
(N=50)

pvalue*

Innovative products/services
Yes

40 100.0
26 65.0

48
43

100.0
89.6

No
Innovative processes
Yes

14 35.0
40 100.0
28 70.0

5
48
41

10.4
100.0
85.4

No
Innovative marketing
activities
Yes

12

30.0

14.6

40 100.0

49

100.0

28

70.0

40

81.6

12

30.0

18.4

No

0.0053

0.0801

0.1985

Results
ICT usage
and
organizatio
nal
readiness of
hotels and
tourist
agencies

ICT1
Used
Not used
ICT2
Used
Not used
ICT3
Used
Not used
ICT5
Used
Not used
ICT7
Used
Not used
ICT12
Used
Not used
ICT13
Used
Not used
ICT14
Used
Not used
ICT15
Used
Not used
ICT16
Used
Not used
Person / persons employed for innovative activities
Yes
No
Some form of financial support for innovation activities
have been received within last 3years
Yes
No
Some percent of profit allocated to innovation annualy
Yes
No

Tourist
Agencies
(N=50)

Hotel firms
(N=40)

p-value*

39
32
7
39
15
24
40
20
20
40
37
3
40
16
24
40
9
31
40
10
30
40
37
3
39
19
20
39
14
25
38
8
30

100,0
82,1
17,9
100,0
38,5
61,5
100,0
50,0
50,0
100,0
92,5
7,5
100,0
40,0
60,0
100,0
22,5
77,5
100,0
25,0
75,0
100,0
92,5
7,5
100,0
48,7
51,3
100,0
35,9
64,1
100,0
21,1
78,9

50
40
10
50
16
34
50
16
34
50
32
18
49
28
21
49
5
44
50
6
44
50
43
7
47
15
32
48
4
44
49
17
32

100,0
80,0
20,0
100,0
32,0
68,0
100,0
32,0
68,0
100,0
64,0
36,0
100,0
57,1
42,9
100,0
10,2
89,8
100,0
12,0
88,0
100,0
86,0
14,0
100,0
31,9
68,1
100,0
8,3
91,7
100,0
34,7
65,3

0,8070

0,5255

0,0833

0,0015

0,1076

0,1130

0,1090

0,3296

0,1126

0,0016

0,1631

38
4
34
39
23
16

100,0
10,5
89,5
100,0
59,0
41,0

49
11
38
50
42
8

100,0
22,4
77,6
100,0
84,0
16,0

0,1442

0,0083

Results
Factor loadings for ICT dimension
ICT1
ICT2
ICT3
ICT5
ICT7
ICT1
2
ICT1
3
ICT1
4
ICT1
5
ICT1
6

Factor Factor
1
2
Factor 3 Factor 4
0.164
0.156
0.515
0.070
0.096
0.824
0.139
-0.018
0.175
0.819
0.097
0.032
0.079
0.122
0.720
0.147
0.013 -0.020
0.756
-0.231
0.839
0.075
0.022
-0.110
0.855

0.172

0.110

0.013

-0.044

-0.018

-0.007

0.935

0.633

0.151

0.130

0.408

0.713

0.062

0.126

-0.032

The four extracted factors

are:
Factor 1: Advanced ICT
systems (ERP, CRM, data
mining, intelligent systems)
Factor 2: Internal and
external communication
management (Intranet and
Extranet)
Factor 3: E-business
Factor 4: Customer
transactional data.

Results
Summary of the logistic
regression
results
Innovation of
Process

Marketing
products and
innovation
innovation
Hypoth
servicess

esis 1
Tourist
Tourist Hote Tourist
Hotel
Hotel
and 2
agenci
agencie
l
agencie
firms
firms
es
s
firms
s
Organizational readiness
(+)
(+)
(+)
INN1

1%
5%

10%

(+)
(+)
Partially
INN5

1%

1%
confirmed
(+)
(+)
(+)
(+)
INN7
1%
1%

1%
10%

Usage of ICT
(+)
(+)
(+)
Factor 1
10%
(-) 1% 1%

1%

(-)
Factor 2

1%
Partially
(+)
(+)
confirmed
Factor 3

1%

1%
(+)
Factor 4

1%

Hypotehsis

3
Confirmed
Confirmed
Confirmed

Conclusion
The research revealed that
the usage of ICT and organizational readiness for
innovations significantly impacts all of the three main
innovation activities: product/services innovations,
process innovations and marketing innovations

However, the impact was different between hotel

firms and travel agencies
Found discrepancy indicates that the innovations
in hotels and travel agencies should be supported
in different manner