Quantitative Approach

3.4.3 Quantitative Approach

The third phase used a quantitative approach. This phase aimed to find the important factors and variables affecting e-Service usage, which was reflected in the final research model developed from the previous phase. Twenty-one hypotheses were developed and subjected to empirical testing (Anderson 1983).

This phase consisted of questionnaire development, a pilot test, a survey, data analysis by PLS and interpretation of findings. The details of the quantitative approach are presented below.

54 3.4.3.1 Hypotheses and Questionnaire Development

The twenty-one hypotheses were developed based on the final research model, which was itself developed from theories and their applications found in the literature.

Hypotheses were formulated for justifying the relationships among the factors in the final research model. There are nine antecedent factors (effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, privacy concerns, trustworthiness, outcome expectancy, motivation, intention to use and e-Service usage) and three moderating factors (age, experience and geographical area). A draft questionnaire was designed, based on the hypotheses, including demographic information of the respondents.

Selected items were based on previous theories and studies referred to by researchers and practitioners. A Likert scale using six levels of response (from strongly disagree to strongly agree) was used to measure all the factors. As the current study was conducted in Indonesia and the original instruments were written in English, a decentring process (Brislin 1976) of translation was conducted so that it could be used in any Indonesian location. The detailed discussion of the hypotheses and questionnaire development are presented in Sections 5.2 and 5.4, respectively.

3.4.3.2 Pilot Study and Questionnaire Refinement

Once the questionnaire development was completed, approval from the University Ethics Committee was obtained before the questionnaire was administered to the respondents. Prior to conducting the main survey, a focus group discussion was held to identify problems with the survey instruments. Some wording revisions of the draft questionnaire were made after the focus group discussion. Next, the pilot test was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the research instruments before their actual use in the main survey. The details of this stage are presented in Section 5.5.

3.4.3.2.1 Sample Selection

The draft questionnaire for the focus group discussion and pilot test was distributed to other researchers and potential respondents. The reason for distributing the questionnaire to other researchers was to get some responses in terms of the research perspective, especially concerning the format of the questionnaire. In general, respondents provided valuable inputs in terms of the applicability of the items and

55 suggested that the draft questionnaire was easily understood. As mentioned before, a combination of convenience, purposive and snowball sampling was adopted to select the potential respondents in the pilot test (Henry 1990).

3.4.3.2.2 Data Analysis

The data analysis in the pilot study was conducted using simple descriptive statistics;

in this case, percentages. It allowed evaluation of the draft questionnaire and improvement in its quality; for example, the items in the questionnaire became more readable for the respondents. Necessary changes were made to the questionnaire based on the feedback from respondents and the results of the pilot study. From these steps, the final form of the questionnaire was obtained and ready to be used for data collection in the main survey. A more complete description of the questionnaire is given in Section 5.4.

3.4.3.3 Conducting the Main Survey

At the completion of the qualitative phase, a survey was conducted as the main data collection method for the quantitative phase (Zikmund and Babin 2007). The details of the survey are presented below.

3.4.3.3.1 Sample Selection

The study focused on factors that influence Indonesian consumers to use e-Services.

Therefore, respondents were Indonesian consumers who had used Indonesian airline e-Services. A non-probability sampling design was adopted to select the respondents;

namely convenience, purposive and snowball sampling techniques (Henry 1990).

The three sampling techniques were used in two modes of data collection in this study, namely: paper-based and web-based questionnaires. For the paper-based questionnaire, potential respondents were selected using convenience and purposive sampling, based on the judgment of the contact persons. Snowball sampling, then, was used to find the next respondents. The contact persons asked the respondents to give recommendations of other potential respondents who had already used Indonesia airlines’ e-Services. For the web-based questionnaire, the potential respondents were selected using convenience and purposive sampling. The respondents were provided by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Western Australia. Then, snowball sampling was employed. The respondents who

56 had completed the questionnaire were then asked to recommend other respondents who met the requirements of the study.

3.4.3.3.2 Data Collection

The data were gathered using questionnaires that were distributed to respondents via paper-based and web-based media (Yun and Trumbo 2000). In the paper-based mode, the researcher nominated contact people who lived in different cities in Indonesia to assist with the administering of the questionnaire. The contact persons then distributed the questionnaires to the respondents in their cities. The survey was carried out in airports, organizations and private residences. Furthermore, the contact persons were responsible for collecting the completed questionnaires. In the web-based mode, the researcher sent e-mails to potential respondents for completing the questionnaire online via http://dekar.uii.net.id (valid as of July – August 2010). In the e-mail, the researcher also requested the potential respondents to forward the e-mail to his or her friends or relatives who had used Indonesian airline e-Services. In this way, multiple contacts were used to increase the number of respondents (Yun and Trumbo 2000).

3.4.3.4 Data Analysis Using PLS

There were two components of data analysis in this study. The first was the analysis of the influence of the antecedent factors of e-Service usage. The second was the multi-group analysis examining the moderating effects based on demographic factors. The analysis was conducted using SEM based on PLS (Chin 1998b). The use of the PLS approach was most suited to this study as it supported both confirmatory and exploratory research. With its emphasis on identifying the variance and relationships between constructs and/or variables, PLS allowed exploration of the data and was well suited to accommodate the complex theoretical and measurement models (Barclay, Higgins and Thompson 1995; Chin 1998b). The details of the analysis are provided in Chapter 6.

3.4.3.5 Interpretation of Findings

The final stage of the research was the interpretation of the results. Findings were interpreted based on the results acquired through the data analysis processes, from

57 both qualitative and quantitative approaches, as well as the literature review. The details of findings are presented in Chapter 7.