Modeling organizational information search behavior and technology adaptation in the meetings and convention industry: A comparison of CVBs and meeting planners

In this study, the two types of organizations were examined in order to identify the IT adaptation in meetings and convention industry. First, Convention and Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) were studied as an important information brokers and disseminators in the meetings and convention industry. Second, meeting planners were examined as an intermediary between convention attendees and convention suppliers. This study consists of two major parts. The first part is a comparison of CVBs and meeting planners in term of the preference and perception of advertising and communication channels. The second part is to integrate existing theories of technology and organizational IT adaptation in order to examine the proposed framework that describes the influential factors for the Internet usage in the workplace. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships between IT adaptation, and organizational characteristics, and compare the perception of advertising and communication channels between CVBs and meeting planners in order to figure out the more comprehensive picture of their marketing communication activities. By employing an on-line survey method, the study proved that findings have met the purpose of study. The results clearly revealed that there are clear channel discrepancy between CVBs and meeting planners in term of preference, attitude, and usage of communication and advertising channels. It was also observed that meeting planners clearly have positive attitude toward the Internet as a communication and marketing tool in the workplace. In regard to the model development, individual factors and organizational factors were considered in order to explain organizational IT adaptation model which is rooted in TAM in IT field. Based on the integration of these two existing factors and one concept (TAM), a model was proposed to describe the interrelationships among the constructs in terms of how each constructs influence intention to use the Internet in the workplace. The result showed that the direction and overall model fit appear to be stable though each direct effect different between the two model. Moreover, the result of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that each variable under the latent construct well support the proposed model. Except job experience, the result illustrated that all constructs are positively related to attitude and intention to use the Internet in the workplace. The strong positive relationship between attitudes and intention was also consistent with the previous IT researches. In all, this study provided more comprehensive marketing and communication channel usage, and an extensive organizational IT adaptation considering the relationship between CVBs and meeting planners. As a result, some valuable marketing insights and recommendations were also provided.