Adoption of social media as distribution channels in tourism marketing: A qualitative analysis of consumers’ experiences

Chatzigeorgiou, Chryssoula; Christou, Evangelos Article — Published Version Adoption of social media as distribution channels in tourism marketing: A qualitative analysis of consumers’ experiences Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing Suggested Citation: Chatzigeorgiou, Chryssoula; Christou, Evangelos (2020) : Adoption of social media as distribution channels in tourism marketing: A qualitative analysis of consumers’ experiences, Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing, ISSN 2529-1947, International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, pp. 25-32, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3603355 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215483 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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Except otherwise noted, this work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Adoption of social media as distribution channels in tourism marketing: A qualitative analysis of consumers’ experiences Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou International Hellenic University, Greece Evangelos Christou International Hellenic University, Greece Abstract: The study reported in this paper explores consumers’ experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier’s paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as distribution channel in tourism scenario. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore consumers’ experiences when using social media distribution services and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. The findings are similar, suggesting that when consumers adopt online technology like social media, they can simultaneously develop positive and negative attitudes. The findings of this study also suggest that the nature of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the industry (tourism in this study) and the technology (social media in this study) being investigated. Keywords: adoption of technological innovations, social media, distribution channels, consumer attitudes, tourism marketing JEL Classification: L83, M1, O14, Z33 Biographical note: Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Organisation Management, Marketing & Tourism of the International Hellenic University, Greece. Evangelos Christou is a Professor at the Department of Organisation Management, Marketing & Tourism of the International Hellenic University, Greece. Corresponding author: Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou ([email protected]). 1 INTRODUCTION The ways consumers evaluate their service delivery outcomes significantly influence their satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction with a particular service encounter and their overall views of a firm's service quality (Lehtinen & Lehtinen, 1982; Gronroos, 1998; Yang & Jun, 2002; Chami, & Kaminyoge, 2019). Existing literature suggests that when evaluating the service delivery process, personal contact is the most significant determinant of customer satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction because customers cannot clearly distinguish the service they receive from the employees who provide it (Schneider & Bowen, 1985; Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988; Fotiadis & Williams, 2018; Mavragani et al., 2019). This suggests that a change in the series of actions that reduces human contact would result in a change in how consumers evaluate the service encounter (Gronroos, 1984; Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry 1990; Gilbert & Powell-Perry, 2003; Valachis et al., 2008; Christou & Nella, 2010, 2014, 2016). Technological advances have resulted in significant changes in how some service organisations deliver their services. In particular, services that were traditionally delivered through personal contact between an organisation's employees and its customers can now often be delivered online through social media with minimal direct contact between the two parties (Spyridou, 2017). It appears likely that this change in the service delivery process has resulted in a change in the way consumers evaluate their service encounters (Zeithaml, 2002). Researchers have begun to explore the impact of online applications like social media on service delivery processes with the general consensus being that more research is necessary for a greater understanding (Dabholkar, 1994; Bitner, Brown & Meuter, 2000; Christou & Kassianidis, 2002; Sigala et al., 2002; Christou, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2010, 2013; 2015; Murphy, 2019). The aim of the study reported here is to explore consumers' experiences with social media service encounters in the tourism industry and in particular in the tourism distribution channels’ sector. This industry sector was selected because 26 Chrysoula Chatzigeorgiou & Evangelos Christou online technological innovations have significantly changed how tourism organisations like hotels and airlines deliver their services, providing consumers with online access through social media to reservations and purchases of a wide variety of tourism products (like airline tickets, hotel accommodation, transfer services, etc). 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Numerous studies have explored how consumers adopt technology (Wilkie, 1994; Barczak, Ellen & Pilling, 1997; Swanson, Kopecky & Tucker, 1997; Wiefels, 1997; Aggarwal, Chaj & Wilemon, 1998; Dover, 1998; Williams & Tao 1998; Otto & Chung, 2000; Christou & Kassianidis, 2002; Huang & Law, 2003; Pirnar et al., 2019). These studies can be classified into four categories based on their overall perspectives. The first category includes studies that address the stages consumers go through from awareness of the new technology's existence to adoption (Aggarwal, Chaj & Wilemon, 1998; Williams & Tao 1998; Otto & Chung, 2000; Misirlis et al., 2018). The second category involves studies that explore the amount of time that elapses between the inception and the adoption of new technology (Wilkie, 1994; Wiefels, 1997; Zafiropoulos et al., 2015). The third category consists of theories that focus on the impact of consumers' characteristics and stage in life cycle when adopting technology (Swanson, Kopecky & Tucker, 1997; Barczak, Ellen & Pilling, 1997; Vlasic et al., 2019). Finally, there are theories that address the nature of the technology being adopted (Wiefels, 1997; Dover, 1998; Frambach, Barkema & Wedel, 1998; Huang & Law, 2003; Chatzigeorgiou, 2017). All these theories emphasise consumers' behaviours leading to the adoption of new technology; for the purposes of the study reported here, social media as distribution channels in tourism are considered a new technology for consumers. Mick and Fournier’s (1998) theory of technology adoption is the most pertinent to this study as it focuses on consumers' behaviours and attitudes once they have adopted a technology. Mick and Fournier (1998) studied consumers' perceptions of technology and the development of their attitudes once they had adopted a technology. Their data collection was a two-stage process done through in-depth interviews with 29 households. During the first stage they interviewed 16 informants seeking information on their general attitudes towards technology. During the second stage they interviewed 13 informants 24 hours, six to eight weeks and six to eight months after buying and using their new technologies. The authors found that consumers experience resulted to eight paradoxes of technology: control/chaos, freedom/enslavement, new/obsolete, competence/incompetence, efficiency/inefficiency, fulfils/creates needs, assimilation/isolation and engaging/disengaging. These paradoxes are briefly discussed below. The control/chaos paradox was found to be the most prevalent among their informants. The finding was that technology evokes feelings of control when it dictates consumers' activities and feelings of chaos when it interferes with their activities resulting in confusion. Feelings of freedom are experienced when technology provides minimal restrictions and independence (Rowley, 2002). By comparison enslavement results when activities are restricted by dependence on technology. The new/obsolete paradox was found to result from new knowledge and innovations generated by science that constantly supersede previous existing knowledge. This is the case where continuous technological innovations constantly make existing technologies obsolete. Technology also evokes feelings of competence and incompetence. Competence results when consumers understand how a particular technology works and incompetence results when they are ignorant of how to use a particular technology (Yang & Fang, 2004; Chatzigeorgiou & Christou, 2016). Technology can be considered efficient when tasks can be completed in less time and with less effort. However, inefficiency may result when the same tasks require more time and effort, such as when the technology does not work like it is expected to (Long & Mellon, 2004; Avdimiotis & Christou, 2004;). Mick and Fournier’s (1998) informants stated that technology can fulfil some needs, but it can also identify unrealised needs. The fulfils/creates needs paradox appeared to be subtle and was discussed in relation to the ownership and use of computers. For instance, some informants indicated that the computers they own fulfil various needs whilst others felt the need to own computers and/or acquire the knowledge to utilise them. Technology can also result in human separation and/or human togetherness (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003). It facilitates assimilation when consumers engage in activities such as watching sports and movies on television and communicating through the use of telephones and computers. By comparison, isolation results when the time consumers spend watching television and playing video games erodes the time that they spend socialising. Mick and Fournier (1998) also found that the use of technology could be engaging and/or disengaging. It is engaging when it facilitates the flow of activities and disengaging when it leads to disruption and passivity (Mick and Fournier 1998, p. 126). Mick and Fournier’s (1998) study addressed the use of technologies such as computers, answering machines, caller identification kits and video cameras. These are products that consumers typically purchase and own for leisure-related outcomes. This study investigates the generalizability of Mick and Fournier’s (1998) eight paradoxes to the tourism industry. The emphasis is on the use of social media as distribution channels by hotels and airlines, i.e. on forms of online technology that are often not owned by the consumer and that are used to facilitate commercial transactions (for buying travel products and services) rather than leisure pastimes (Legoherel, Fischer-Lokou & Gueguen, 2000; Chatzigeorgiou et al., 2017). With the introduction of online travel services, as well as of tourism services through social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, hotels and airlines are able to anticipate to changes in consumers’ shopping behaviour and examine socio-demographic profiles of consumers (Go, Van Rekom & Teunissen, 1999; Bedard 2000; Zafiropoulos et al., 2015). For instance, the mounting average age of consumers will increase the need for more convenience in tourism and hospitality shopping. E-commerce in travel services through social media provides this convenience by enabling ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS IN TOURISM MARKETING 27 consumers to make hotel reservations and order airline tickets from home, and either having the tickets or vouchers subsequently delivered to the home or receiving an electronic confirmation of the reservation. Furthermore, the number of consumers experiencing time pressure is growing for many reasons; electronic travel shopping service through social media provides consumers with the opportunity to save time by making visits to a traditional travel agent redundant (Marcusen, 2001; Chatzigeorgiou & Simeli, 2017). 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A sample of 36 Facebook users was selected as informants from the population of Thessaloniki in Greece who currently use social media for online travel purchases via a snowballing technique. Researchers recommend the use of snowballing when sampling frames and information on the target populations are unavailable (Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell & Alexander, 1995; Sarantakos, 1998; Revilla Hernández et al., 2016), as was the case in this study. The snowballing process began by asking postgraduate students at a Tourism Management Program to introduce the researchers to consumers who use Facebook as a distribution channel for hotel and airline services. These informants were in turn asked to introduce the researcher to other users of social media travel services. While snowballing provides access to members of the targeted population it increases the risk of non-representative samples because the characteristics of the resulting sample may be different from those of the target population (Strangor, 1998; Sarantakos, 1998). Thus, although the resulting sample provided valuable insights into consumers' experiences with social media tourism distribution services, it is not representative of the targeted population and its small size means that the results are not easily generalizable. Instead, the objective was to provide initial insights into an area of consumer travel behaviour that has received little attention in the past. The results provide a starting point for future validating research. Data collection was done through semi-structured in-depth interviews, which are ideal in scenarios such as this where the available secondary data is limited and it is necessary to probe interviewees to gain a thorough understanding of their behaviours and attitudes (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Fontana & Frey, 1994; Minichiello et al., 1995). The interviews were conducted using a funnelling approach so as to establish rapport between the interviewer and the interviewees (Kidder et al., 1986; Fontana & Frey, 1994; Minichiello et al., 1995). Thus, interviews began with a general discussion of the interviewees' overall attitudes towards social media and online shopping, followed by questions relating specifically to the use of Facebook as a travel distribution channel and informants' experiences when using it. The in-depth interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed with the resulting data imported into NUDIST (NonNumerical Unstructured Data Information Searching, Indexing and Theorizing) software. NUDIST was selected as it facilitates analysis by allowing easy identification and classification of themes (Weitzman & Miles, 1995). The data were analysed using line-by-line coding in order to identify and note emerging themes and categories regarding the use Facebook for tourism distribution services (Strauss, 1990; Huberman & Miles, 1994). Some of the codes were developed deductively on the basis of Mick and Fournier’s (1998) paradoxes of technology adoption (Miles & Huberman, 1984; Strauss, 1990) while others were developed inductively based upon the issues raised by interviewees. 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Control Vs Chaos Mick and Fournier’s (1998) informants indicated that they experience feelings of control when technology seems to direct their affairs and chaos when it seems to disrupt their activities. The interviewees to this study alluded to this paradox. They indicated that using social media as distribution channels for hotel and airline services makes them feel like they are in control because they can conduct many transactions at their convenience. However, chaos can result when they cannot initiate or successfully complete a transaction: Control - Nikos: Hotels and airlines let you do what you want to do. You can pay, can make reservations, buy an airline ticket, or try and book hotel accommodation. Chaos - Nikos: The biggest disdain is when you go there (to a hotel’s or airline’s Facebook page) and it is not working or some of its facilities have been shut down... all of a sudden you have to deal with not being able to complete your transaction and you do not know what to do. The interviewees reported feelings of control when there are minimal restrictions and they can conduct any of their travel planning transactions with the use of online technology. Once they are accustomed to conducting their own transactions chaos can result when they expect to use the online technology through Facebook, and it is unavailable. The meaning of control appears to differ between the studies. Mick and Fournier’s (1998) informants suggested that technology controls them, directing them and their activities. Their informants gave an example of a computer that could wake them up and answering machines that needed constant checking (Mick & Fournier, 1998). The interviewees to this study indicated that by using online technology through social media they could control their own travel planning activities. Specifically, they can conduct their transactions with the hotel or airline when, where and how they choose. The significance of control is consistent with existing literature which suggests that the more control consumers feel they have during the service encounter the more positive their attitudes (Bateson, 1985; Dabholkar, 1996; Sigala & Christou, 2000, 2002; Christou et al., 2004). 4.2 Freedom Vs Enslavement In this study the perception of control was related to that of freedom. The interviewees indicated that online technology through social media gives them freedom to conduct their travel planning transactions whenever and wherever they choose. They can buy airline tickets, book hotel accommodation and perform other transactions at their own convenience. In years gone by consumers could only find travel information and buy travel products and services 28 Chrysoula Chatzigeorgiou & Evangelos Christou during office hours when their travel agents’ shops were open. Online technology through Facebook evokes feelings of freedom because it has reduced these restrictions by allowing consumers to perform travel planning transactions at their convenience. Freedom - Fotini: You can buy an airline ticket by using social media without having to go to the agent or the airline’s website, and without having to wait to queues. If you do online reservations, you can monitor the status of your request through the Internet whenever you like. However, some interviewees indicated that though they do most of their travel transactions electronically there are limits to what they can achieve. In particular, they discussed restrictions imposed on the number of transactions and the nature of transactions they can conduct. Enslavement - George: I mean for simple services it works. But if you have a particular question it is not very good because sometimes, they have limited services on social media. Enslavement - Aphroditi: They say you are allowed 2 airline tickets without commission. That is what I do. The perceptions of enslavement appear to differ between the two studies. Mick and Fournier’s (1998) informants indicated that technology results in feelings of enslavement when they become dependent on it, indicating that they feel like slaves to technology. Interviewees in the present study alluded to feelings of enslavement as a result of the limitations of online reservations and buying through social media, such as limitations on complex travel itineraries and the limitations that result from the nature of the online reservations. 4.3 New Vs Obsolete Continuous technological innovations constantly make existing technologies obsolete. In the scenario examined here, this would result from an increase in new online technologies through social media that make existing ones obsolete. Some informants made reference to this paradox, referring to the rate at which hotels’ and airlines’ electronic services are changing and the implications for customers having to continually learn new online procedures. Achileas: I started using telephone reservations and ticketing, and by the time I got accustomed to them I was getting pushed into online bookings and electronic tickets; now, I fell that I am pushed to getting used to deal with social media for my transactions with hotels and airlines. One informant conceived of a situation in the future where a small device (like artificial intelligence sperctacles) will be owned by consumers that facilitates all travel purchasing activities. Many other informants visualised that all nearfuture transactions with hotels and airlines will be performed over their smart watches (w-commerce). Niki: Well, next all these services will be available through your smart watch, that can allow you to do all your travel shopping from any place without even the need to use a smart phone. While some interviewees noted the tendency for online hotels’ and airlines’ technologies to change over time, the new/obsolete paradox was not as salient to the interviewees in this study as for those in Mick and Fournier’s study. The difference may result from the nature of the technologies being discussed in both studies. Mick and Fournier’s informants discussed products such as computers, music records, and answering machines that are normally purchased for recreational use and become regularly outdated. Interviewees to this study discussed online travel technology through social media, which is used for service delivery processes. Hotels and airlines purchase the software necessary for the service delivery process through social media and it is therefore likely that the technological innovation and their obsolescence would have a greater impact on the hotels and airlines than on consumers. 4.4 Competence Vs Incompetence The interviewees indicated they feel competent when they feel they have the ability to complete their own online transactions successfully through social media. However, their ignorance of how some electronic air ticket and checkin modes work and their inability to comprehend the full capabilities of some online hotel reservations’ modes can make them feel incompetent. Competence - Eleftheria: I find online ticketing (through airlines’ social media) easy to use. I have also mastered the electronic check-in system, which is good. I even use the seat selection service and I have had no problems with it. Incompetence - Apostolos: So, I visited that e-ticketing service and I thought I do not know how to do this, I know that you can buy and issue an electronic ticket through social media, but I do not know how... I do not always trust myself with services through Facebook because I am not totally familiar with them. Mick and Fournier's informants made reference to technologies that are normally accompanied by operational manuals. They indicated that after using the manuals if they understood how and why a technology works like it does, they felt competent. If they still did not understand how the particular technology works, they felt incompetent. Hotel and airline distribution channels through social media for reservations and purchasing modes have no equivalent to operational manuals that can assist consumers with their transactions. Thus, consumers who require assistance with the different online travel service modes have to directly access the hotels and airlines, and cannot make effective use of social media services. This perceived lack of resources and training may influence consumers’ feelings of incompetence. 4.5 Efficiency Vs Inefficiency The use of technology may result in some tasks taking less time and effort. It can also result in inefficiency when tasks require more time and effort: Efficiency - Panagiotis: (Ticketing through social media for air travel) is straight forward straight through. You are not waiting for somebody to pick up the phone, and you are not listening to music. Inefficiency - Ioanna: For me I just hate to waste my time. It is just aimless sitting there on the smartphone screen with a website giving you orders like “press this button here, click this link after that, etc”. This paradox was discussed relative to transactions through social media and transactions conducted in travel agents’ stores with human travel consultants; online transactions through Facebook were generally felt by interviewees to be more efficient than dealing with an employee. Electronic ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS IN TOURISM MARKETING 29 travel transactions are considered efficient when consumers can perform their requests and complete their transactions without going through numerous visual cues and “steps” provided by the hotel’s or the airline’s social media website, and without visiting a travel agent’s bricks-and-mortar store. However, these transactions are perceived to sometimes result in inefficiency when consumers have to follow each of the cues/steps provided by both booking/purchasing modes in order to perform their transactions or when the failure of an electronic booking/purchasing mode results in the consumer having to visit a travel agent’s outlet. 4.6 Fulfils Vs Creates Mick and Fournier found this paradox to be subtle and only discussed in relation to the ownership and use of computers. Some of their informants indicated that the computers they own help fulfil various needs, whilst others felt pressure to own computers and/or acquire the knowledge required to utilise them. Similarly, the interviewees in this study indicated that online hotels’ and airlines’ technology through social media has led to the fulfilment of many of their travel needs, such as the easy booking of hotel accommodation and paperless airline tickets. However, for some interviewees the advent of electronic travel services through Facebook has resulted in the identification of previously unrealised needs. Examples of such needs are the desire to own latest models of smartphones and the need to learn and understand how to conduct electronic travel transactions through social media. Fulfils needs - Antonis: I find social smartphones are good. They are very good when I want to buy an airline ticket at any time of the day, seven days a week. Creates needs - Anestis: I would like to do it (online travel services through social media). But I haven’t got a good smartphone. The most salient need amongst the interviewees that related to this paradox seemed to be the need to own and/or understand how to use social media through mobile devices. They implied that if they owned latest models of mobile devices and fully understood how they work and how to use them, they would be more inclined to tourism distribution channels through social media. 4.7 Assimilation Vs Isolation The interviewees made no direct or implicit references to travel services through social media fostering human togetherness, however they indicated that it can result in isolation. Forman and Sriram (1991) state that for lonely consumers the purpose of shopping is not only to gain goods and services but also to gain and maintain social contacts. Similarly, some interviewees enjoyed personal interaction with travel consultants, viewing their travel shopping activities as social events. For these interviewees, online travel services through Facebook are creating isolation by destroying their interaction and relationships with travel agents’ or hotels’ personnel. Rena: I want the service at the travel agent’s store. I want the local travel agent. I want to go to a travel consultant who knows me and who has helped me before. They have closed the travel agents’ stores that bring in the trade to all these shops. The quote suggests that the traditional travel shopping methods encouraged human togetherness as a result of the interactions between customers and travel agents’ staff and interaction of consumers at shopping centres. The quote implies that electronic travel services through social media facilitate isolation because it leads to the closure of the brick and mortar travel agents consequently reducing the traffic in shopping and business centres. 4.8 Engaging Vs Disengaging Mick and Fournier found that technology is engaging when it facilitates certain tasks and disengaging when it results in confusion and chaos. Online travel services through Facebook are engaging when they facilitate the flow of activities such as easy access to accommodation reservations, airline tickets issuing and electronic check-ins. However, it is disengaging when the electronic travel service mode does not facilitate the transactions required by the respondent. Engaging - Kostas: I think the biggest benefit of it is that you have got access to not just the hotel or airline but to all other companies offering travel products, like tour guides, cruising and car rental. You can access their offers and make up your own holiday package. Disengaging - Andreas: The most annoying thing I have had on social media is something happened to my security certificate on my computer. It meant wasting all that time and starting from scratch again. Mick and Fournier found this paradox to be hypothetical, stating that it is a noteworthy paradox even though their informants rarely alluded to it. The paradox was more prevalent in this study with informants suggesting that they are motivated to use online travel services technology through social media because it facilitates their travelling; it allows them to perform all their travel purchases. The difference in perception of this paradox may be a result of the technologies being discussed. The processual (as opposed to recreational) use of hotels’ and airlines’ technologies may lead consumers to place particular emphasis on their engaging aspects. 5 CONCLUSIONS This study sought to explore consumers’ experiences with technology-assisted service encounters by investigating the applicability of Mick and Fournier's paradoxes of technology adoption to social media as distribution channels in tourism. The findings support those of existing research which suggests that consumers can develop multiple attitudes towards certain source elements, resulting in existence of contradictory views and attitudes (Kidder et al., 1986; Minichiello et al., 1995; Mick & Fournier, 1998; Schneider & Currim, 2001; Gretzel, et al., 2012; Sigala & Christou, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2014; Nair & George, 2016). In terms of Mick and Fournier’s paradoxes, the findings of this study indicate that when consumers use social media technology assisted service encounters for hotels’ and airlines’ services they are most likely to experience control/chaos, freedom/enslavement, competence/incompetence, efficiency/ inefficiency, engaging/disengaging, 30 Chrysoula Chatzigeorgiou & Evangelos Christou assimilation/isolation paradoxes and least likely to experience the new/obsolete paradox. While most of the discussions of the paradoxes were similar between the two studies, there were areas of difference in the control/chaos, freedom/enslavement, new/obsolete and engaging/ disengaging paradoxes. It appears likely that a central cause of these differences was the types of technologies investigated. In terms of the new/obsolete paradox, while consumers can own computers and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, they typically own these items for purposes beyond electronic travel shopping through social media. They are not responsible for the hotels’ and airlines’ software programs that require constant innovation. As such, the notions of new and obsolete appear to have less relevance to users of electronic travel services through social media. In regard to the control/chaos paradox, perceptions of control differed markedly between the two studies. Mick and Fournier’s informants indicated that technology is powerful, and it controls them and directs their activities. The interviewees of this study suggested that hotels’ and airlines’ social media technology gives them the power to control their travel shopping activities. In terms of the freedom/enslavement paradox, Mick and Fournier’s informants indicated that they sometimes feel like slaves to technology, while the interviewees in this study did not feel the same way. Instead, they felt that their activities are limited by the nature of the tourism distribution channels’ technologies. Finally, Mick and Fournier did not find the engaging/disengaging as paradox prevalent as it was in this study. This again may be because of the products used in their analyses. This study has several limitations. The generalisability of these findings is limited by the small sample of 36 interviewees used. It is not known the extent to which factors such as the nature of the technology selected and the demographic characteristics of those sampled influenced the interpretation. 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