E‐commerce usage and business performance in the Malaysian tourism sector: empirical analysis

Purpose Based upon the E‐VALUE model developed, this paper aims to investigate the impact of e‐commerce usage on business performance in the tourism sector. Design/methodology/approach A cross‐sectional survey is carried out on 165 Malaysian firms involved in the tourism sector (hotels, resorts, and hospitals engaged in health tourism) through the use of a structured questionnaire. Findings The structural equation modeling results indicate that technology competency, firm size, firm scope, web‐technology investment, pressure intensity, and back‐end usage have significant influence on e‐commerce usage. Among these variables, back‐end integration is found to function as a mediator. E‐commerce experience (in years) is found to moderate the relationship between e‐commerce usage and business performance. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on the tourism sector in Malaysia and concentrates only on the management perspective of e‐commerce adoption. Practical implications The results provide insights to the Malaysian tourism sector and other organizations of similar structures of how they could improve upon their e‐commerce adoption and/or usage for improved business performance. Originality/value This paper is perhaps one of the first to investigate e‐commerce usage in the tourism sector using a comprehensive set of variables through an interactive, comprehensive and multi‐dimensional theoretical model (the E‐VALUE model) in investigating their influences on business performance.