Organisational Commitment

Commitment in this instance refers to the degree of enthusiasm by which the management and staff embrace e-commerce (Eastlick, Lotz & Warrington 2006, Jung,

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122 Han & Byun 2009). Research shows that commitment has a great impact on the successful performance of an organisation (Chesbrough 2007, Nusair, Parsa & Cobanoglu 2011, Singh, Chopra & Desai 2009). This section analyses participants’ views on online trading.

There were variations in the extent to which participants in this research adopted ICT and were committed to further investment, with some noting the circumstances which led to their adoption of ICT elements. The chief executive officer or the owner was cited frequently as the driving force behind technology adoption. Other factors leading to greater reliance on technology were derived from the evolution of the firm’s systems. P2 commented on both these aspects in his explanation of the organisation’s ICT advanced practices:

“Since the group’s establishment, the president sought to automate all the business systems in its profit centres and departments. You cannot build a company on people or individual performances unless they have appropriate tools with which to work. Business systems can be accessed by all, and the absence of an individual cannot cause the work to stop. That is why the president is very keen to automate the system” [P2].

In regard to extending attention from business automation to include other technologies like e-commerce and online booking, P2 answered:

“We had several informal plans to go online, but our first priority is the back office system. We will spend a lot of time maintaining and developing this system until we get it right. I think by next year we will be able to do something in this regard [online booking]” [P2].

Although participant P10, representative of the fully e-commerce adopting organisation, was not satisfied and thought the company was under-performing, the interviewee felt that this was perhaps caused by an older organisation manager and his management style. He said:

“One of the things that held us back was the decisions of our ex-president and for fourteen years, we had no real development. With the current management it is a different story. Since coming to this organisation, the president is working toward the future in our industry. He wants to integrate the current ICT platform with improved systems, and with this systems change, existing and potential competitors will have to take the lead from us” [P10].

There were many comments on the perceived lack of commitment of firms’ managers to exploit the new technologies. Participants criticised the standard of decision-making in the industry, particularly after the global economic crisis. Nor do

123 tourism managers take due regard of the need for future development, lacking a plan or business strategy for moving into global business channels. They are cautious to the extreme in moving into new markets and new technology, using excuses such as government instructions, or online payment security. One participant argued that most managers in tourism firms do not have a sufficient understanding of the industry. He said:

“Many of the organisations’ leaders and senior people are not qualified. As a result, their decisions do not support efforts required for organisational performance even in the area of adopting net technologies” [P7].

Further, travel agents are restricted to local clients and are satisfied to service their busy shops, not considering that business will move online as the bulk of the population matures and seeks information online, are as the education system shifts to online delivery. P1 was an advocate for the status quo and sees no motivation to move online:

The concept of e-commerce is not interesting to Saudi companies. We know of its advantages but this is not the time for investing in online business. Other countries are successfully moving online, but we need more time” [P1].

Another participant, P7, was more interested in the content of travel services than the means of marketing those packages. This participant represents an event management organisation which offers many services, including website designs for the client’s event. The firm’s own website is not consistently updated as the clients’ websites take priority. He said:

“As an event organiser, I concentrate more on our clients’ event websites and make sure they are fully operational, attractive and the information is current. I always try to keep the firm’s website up to date, sometimes I overlook our company website” [P7].

Other participants spoke of the greater necessity of maintaining and serving current customers before developing e-commerce. To illustrate this further, P3 had recently lost 10 hotels in a government project of expanding the Holy Mosque in Makkah. All of them were owned by his firm. The participant’s priority was therefore business maintenance rather than developing an e-commerce presence:

“We stopped all development initiatives after we lost the ten hotels. It was a big loss for us. We are working now to raise the number of hotels and rooms, and this doesn’t allow time to work on e-commerce. But the issue of moving into

124 electronic booking is important and we will do it immediately once the hotels issue is out of the way” [P3].

Participant P9, the Umrah and Hajj services provider, agreed:

“We do not have any current plans to invest further in information technology because our information systems perform well. Further we are focusing on expanding our bus fleet and building or buying new hotels. Yet, this does not mean we are not going to adopt new technology, if it is necessary” [P9].

This view was supported by a travel agent participant, P2:

“We focus on internal development more than planning electronic business. We are restructuring our organisation with new organisational services and profit centres. We recently moved from paper to online records and staffs are being trained in the new systems. It is an expensive program with training staff in 15 locations and we have to ensure that all records are changed over successfully as well” [P2].

The findings, therefore, show that the industry representatives are undertaking ICT development, however, this is not necessarily directed at e-commerce. The ICT standards in the majority of minor firms differs from the larger providers who appear to be reasonably satisfied with their online activity. The organisations that can resolve this impasse can market their products to a global market where potential clients are long used to selecting and purchasing travel services online. Complexity in travel information, content of the offer, communications with the firm, or means of payment will simply mean the potential client will go elsewhere. Lack of commitment contributes considerably to absence of the business on e-commerce channels in the Saudi tourism industry.