Internet users' intention to purchase air travel online: an empirical investigation Adee Athiyaman School of Marketing and International Business, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown, Australia Introduction The objective of marketing is to induce customers to choose the target brand than other available options. In general, the need for a product will influence a customer to engage in mental and/or physical activities that will result in product consumption and thus need satisfaction Seth et al., 2000). The major psychological concepts that are used to explain product purchases are beliefs, evaluation, and intention Fishbein, 1967; Hogarth, 1988). Briefly, beliefs about the need-satisfying properties of a product, which the customer values, will result in an evaluation of the product and behavioural intention to consume the product Ajzen, 1988). Contemporary marketers make use of these concepts to understand the market by constructing expectancy-value, linear- compensatory models of customer behaviour East, 1998). According to this model, an individual associates positive and negative characteristics about an act beliefs). Associated with each of these characteristics is an affective or emotional response. These responses combine linearly to form the attitude or evaluative response toward the act Beckwith and Lehmann, 1973). The intensity of the evaluative response determines behavioural intentions Cohen et al., 1972). The expectancy-value model is expressed algebraically as A act  X B i e i where: A act = attitude toward the act; B i =beliefs=the probability or improbability that an outcome is associated with the behaviour; e i = the goodness or badness of the belief. As applied to customer's product class purchase decisions, the model states that the customer's attitude toward purchasing a brand include one or more salient product class characteristics or choice criteria, and brand beliefs regarding each of the choice criteria. Note that the instrumental acts necessary to purchase the product, that is, activities involved in obtaining the goal object and consuming it, can be part of the customer's choice criteria for the product. For example, a purchase criterion for a candy bar may be its availability in the neighbourhood store. In other words, the instrumental act of visiting only a particular purchase outlet that sells candy bars becomes part of the customer's attitudinal structure for the product. A technology that eases the difficulty level of instrumental acts such as visiting a purchase outlet to purchase a product is the Internet. Technically, the Internet minimises a customer's transaction costs such as time spent travelling to a store to purchase a product. Alba et al. 1997) posit that the Internet is highly relevant for purchases of comparable goods than differentiated or unique goods. This is because for comparable goods, the Internet enables comprehensive inspection of a large number of options that reduce uncertainty in decision making. Yet, in spite of its benefits, only one-in-four Internet users shop online America Online/ Roper Starch, 1999). This research addresses the question: What are the factors that influence Internet users' intention to purchase air travel a comparable good) online? The result of this research could be used to derive marketing strategies to further Internet purchases of comparable goods. The paper is organised as follows. The first section expands the introductory discussions The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-4503.htm [ 234 ] Marketing Intelligence & Planning 20/4 [2002] 234±242 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 0263-4503] [DOI 10.1108/02634500210431630] Keywords Internet, Purchasing, Consumer behaviour, Comparable worth, Australia Abstract It is recognised in marketing that the study of buyer behaviour includes analysis of instrumental acts: that is, acts necessary in obtaining the goal object and the acts involved in consuming it. A technology that eases the difficultylevelofinstrumentalacts such as visiting a purchase outlet to purchase a product is the Internet. Technically, the Internet minimises customer's transaction costs such as time spent travelling to a store to purchase a product. Yet, in spite of its benefits, only one-in-four Internet users shop online. An empirical analysis of surveyed beliefs, attitudes,andintentionsregarding Internet purchase of air tickets revealed that security concerns about the Internet make consumers avoid online purchase of air tickets. It is suggested that Internet marketers focus on modifying the attitudinal structure of consumers.