Title: Visitors' involvement, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioural intention on tourist express trains in Taiwan

Authors: Li-Hsing Ho, Cheng-Wei Chung, Shu-Ping Lin, Lu-Fang Chen

Addresses: Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, No. 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., HsinChu, 300, Taiwan. ' Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, No. 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., HsinChu, 300, Taiwan. ' Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, No. 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., HsinChu, 300, Taiwan. ' Division of Natural Science, Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Xinxing Rd., XinFeng, HsinChu, 304, Taiwan

Abstract: Taiwan tourism express has become a newly-developed industry. Due to the characteristics of invisibility and of simultaneous occurrence of the production and consumption, it might be difficult to estimate the advantages and disadvantages of consumption beforehand; tourists might purchase the product through consumers| involvement. This research discusses customers| involvement, perceived value, satisfaction, and purchase behaviour. Besides, multiple-group SEM analysis was used to analyse the types of operation between the tourism agencies. The results showed: the perceived value and purchase behaviour were influenced positively by the level of customers| involvement whereas the satisfaction is negatively influenced; purchase behaviour was not affected by perceived value directly, but could be influenced indirectly through the dimension of satisfaction. The tourists| purchase behaviour had been affected when they were involved in purchasing the products. The achievement developed by the single tourism agencies is better than that by the collective ones. Some of the tourists from different routes were willing to pay much more, while others were reluctant.

Keywords: consumer involvement; perceived value; customer satisfaction; purchase behaviour; express trains; behavioural intention; multiple-group SEM analysis; Taiwan Railways Administration; transport; tourist industry; tourists; tourism; sustainability; sustainable development; services management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2010.032084

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.13 No.3/4, pp.305 - 322

Published online: 09 Mar 2010 *

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