Summary of Exploitation of ICT

Within this theme: IS, findings showed that the sector organizations were struggling in their efforts to exploit ICT. The sector organizations agreed their software experiences, web-development efforts and approach to manage electronic distribution channels posed various challenges for the future.

The findings showed that most of the organizations were struggling to strategically use the software applications. Generally in the Maldives, the software was under-utilised

183 due to being either too complex and sophisticated, or troublesome and cumbersome.

Most organizations used a number of applications, due to misalignment between the functionality of packages and the requirements of those implementing organization.

This resulted in replication of tasks.

The data showed that although web development was deemed important by tourism sector organizations, they generally agreed their websites were badly maintained, neglected, and required major restructuring and improvements. Due to lack of top management commitment fuelled by limited resources and industry structure, most organizations were reluctant to adopt online real-time solutions. Although many organizations expressed interest in investigating the feasibility of introducing online real-time solutions, they were reluctant due to the local unavailability of such services.

A number of organizations also expressed reluctance due to their lack of bed capacity resulting from their approach to managing their tourism product.

Closely associated with web presence, for most of the sector organizations in this study, e-distribution was seen as a strategic form of web presence. This study showed sector organizations, except international chain resorts, had developed their own websites but were engaged in strategic networks to offer online real-time solutions. Most of the interviewees deemed such Internet presence as essential, considering the customers’

travelling behaviour and the limitations in setting up e-commerce online real-time solutions.

4.7 IS Summary

Figure 12: Relationship between the theme three and its major categories

Within this theme: IS, two major categories - Perception of ICT and Exploitation of ICT - raised issues relating to technology imperatives underlying effective use of ICT.

IS

Exploitation of ICT Perception of ICT

184 As illustrated in Figure 12, the Perception of ICT within the organizational field influences the Exploitation of ICT within the sector, and vice-versa. Similarly, the low level categories technology experience, technology dependency and technology knowledge are interdependent, and software experience embraces the experience of web development and e-distribution. The major category Perception of ICT is formed based on its low level categories, whereas the low level categories emerge from Exploitation of ICT forming the theme: IS.

The two major categories, Perception of ICT and Exploitation of ICT, are focused on the understanding of IS among and within the institutional field. These two major categories reinforces the observation of Zheng (2007), who argues that a person living in a highly ICT literate environment would have high information exploiting capability.

Swanson and Ramillar (1997) also posit that perception and exploitation of ICT, which they call “organising vision”, is strongly influenced by the institutional environment within the institutional context.

The categories within this theme: IS are inextricably linked to the previous two themes:

Country and Sector. Moreover, the three themes influence and affect each other and emphasise the intricacies shaping ICT usage in the tourism sector of the Maldives.

4.8 Chapter summary

The three themes: IS, Country and Sector, are formed based on the low level and major categories, which were generated from the open codes identified from the data collection and analysis process, revealing the theoretical insight of the phenomenon in the given context. The use of a combination of grounded and multi-grounded theory has provided a richer, more realistic understanding of the issues. The low level categories reflect not only the causes and influences (factors) the tourism sector is experiencing, but also the pressure of the forces (institutional forces) impacting on the use of ICT. The sets of factors are interdependent and grouped to reflect their inextricable link to the institutional forces within each theme to give a theoretical understanding of the problem under investigation. This set of factors and institutional forces will be discussed in relation to the literature review in the following two chapters (Chapter 5 and Chapter 6

185 respectively), in order to get a deeper understanding of the issues relating to adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations of the Maldives.

186 CHAPTER 5: IDENTIFYING FACTORS

5.1 Introduction

This chapter identifies the factors (derived from the research) that can affect the adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in tourism organizations of the Maldives. The findings show that the low level categories that result from the analysis process (using a combination of grounded theory and multi-grounded theory)indicate the causes or influences affecting the problem under investigation or represent some of those factors identified in the preliminary theoretical framework (described in Chapter 2 – Literature Review). The low level categories represent a set of factors (causes) affecting the adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations of the Maldives. The findings also show the factors can be represented under three themes: Country, Sector, and IS domain. These factors, generated from the findings using a combination of grounded theory and multi-grounded theory, will be discussed in relation to the literature review (in Chapter 2) in order to get a deeper understanding of factors more pertinent to the Maldives.

By identifying these factors, this chapter also answers the first research question, and its sub-questions 1, 2, and 3 (See Chapter 1 - Introduction, section 1.4 The research objective and questions).

RQ1- What factors affect the adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations of the Maldives?

Sub-question 1: How do the conditions within the country affect adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations?

Sub-question 2: How do characteristics of the sector affect adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations?

Sub-question 3: How do the factors related to IS affect adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations?

187 This chapter provides an important foundation of the research’s theoretical framework and deals with factors arising from the three themes mentioned above: Country, Sector, and IS domain.The next chapter (Chapter 6 – Identifying Institutional Forces and building theoretical framework) will deal with the other substantial part of the tentative theoretical framework; identifying institutional forces which describe the pressure from the institutional field of the tourism sector in the Maldives. More specifically, this chapter discusses factors identified from the findings, as shown in Table 26, in relation to the literature and reveals new factors or distinct issues.

Table 26: Domains and factors affecting adoption and integration of ICT and e-business in the tourism organizations of the Maldives.

Domain (Themes) Factors (low level categories)

Country technological infrastructure

human capital

social and cultural influences vulnerability

policy

Sector governance issues

sector harmony

work culture/environment customer expectations marketing management marketing strategies pricing strategies

Information Systems (IS) technology experience (effect) technology dependency technology knowledge software experience web presence e-distribution

5.2 Theme One: Country

Within this theme: Country, the availability of resources and local conditions conducive to ICT usage are crucial to determine factors of the conceptual framework of the development and use of ICT and e-business in the tourism sector. Specifically, technological infrastructure, human capital, social and cultural influences, vulnerability, and policy are the local contextual factors affecting ICT usage. These are discussed in turn.