Effects of new
technologies on
customer satisfaction
THESIS WITHIN: General management
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Engineering Management
AUTHORS: Justas Bacinskas,
Viktor Kempers
JÖNKÖPING: May 2020
A study on how new customer-facing technologies in airports affect
the customer satisfaction
i
Master Thesis in General Management
Title: Effects of new technologies on customer satisfaction
Authors: Justas Bacinskas & Viktor Kempers
Tutor: Sambit Lenka
Date: 18/05/2020
Key terms: new customer-facing technologies, customer satisfaction, air travel, air travelling
process
Abstract
Background: New technologies have turned out to be an inseparable part of the air travel
industry over the last couple of decades, and it brought us many benefits. Nonetheless, these
new airport technologies also brought new problems that foster air travellers’ irritation. A
negative experience has a relatively worse influence on an airport than a positive; therefore,
this is an interesting topic to investigate. There is so far only limited research done about the
connection between new customer-facing technologies and customer satisfaction. Due to this
lack of analysis, this study has the goal to examine the understanding of the effects of new
airport technologies on individual’s satisfaction.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discover how new customer-facing technologies on
airports affect the customers’ satisfaction
Method: The research goal is accomplished by implementing qualitative research and
collecting the data through ten semi-structured in-depth interviews with various individuals that
had a recent air-travel experience which was no earlier than three months. The data analysis is
done by performing an inductive research approach.
Conclusion: The results show that customer satisfaction process begins at the need recognition
and how it is perceived depends on the experience of each person. The way the need is perceived
decides the priority of the factors that describe the new customer-facing technologies’ (CFT)
service, as a result of that setting the expectations towards the process of interacting with the
new CFTs. The customer then interacts with the service while assessing the performance
compared to the expectations, and subsequently, a positive or negative disconfirmation is made
upon deciding if service is better or worse than expected. A positive disconfirmation results in
a satisfied customer and a negative disconfirmation results in a dissatisfied customer.
ii
Acknowledgements
We want to direct our sincere appreciation to everyone who has helped and motivated us along
the period of writing this research paper.
First and foremost, we are especially thankful to our supervisor Sambit Lenka who always
supported, inspired, and guided us through the process of writing this thesis. He was always
ready for us in times when we needed his help and guidance. Sambit’s encouragement
contributed to our motivation to get the best result out of this research.
Secondly, we express our gratitude to all individuals that willingly agreed to participate in the
research and dedicated their time for it. They provided us with great insights that helped us to
make valuable findings; without them, we would not be able to finish this document. Moreover,
we want to say thank you to our fellow students that provided us with insightful feedback during
the seminars.
Ultimately, we are highly thankful to Wouter Kempers, who has provided us with thought-
provoking feedback that helped us to refine and finalise our thesis.
____________________ ____________________
Justas Bacinskas Viktor Kempers
Jönköping, May 2020
iii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 1
1.1. Background ................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Problem Statement ..................................................................................................... 2
1.3. Purpose and Research Question ................................................................................. 4
1.4. Delimitations .............................................................................................................. 4
2. Theoretical Framework.................................................................. 5
2.1. Airport technologies ................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1. Information kiosks ................................................................................................... 7
2.1.2. Ticketing kiosks ...................................................................................................... 7
2.1.3. CUSS Kiosks ........................................................................................................... 8
2.1.4. Adoption of self-service kiosks ............................................................................... 8
2.1.5. Airport safety technologies ..................................................................................... 9
2.2. Customer satisfaction ............................................................................................... 10
2.2.1. Consumer behaviour ............................................................................................. 13
2.2.2. Customer needs ..................................................................................................... 15
2.2.3. The relation between customer satisfaction and new CFTs .................................. 17
3. Methodology .................................................................................. 18
3.1. Research design ........................................................................................................ 18
3.2. Research philosophy ................................................................................................ 19
3.3. Research approach .................................................................................................... 20
3.4. Research strategy ...................................................................................................... 21
3.5. Data collection procedure ......................................................................................... 21
3.6. Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 24
3.7. Research quality ....................................................................................................... 26
3.8. Research ethics ......................................................................................................... 28
4. Empirical Findings ....................................................................... 29
4.1. Convenience ............................................................................................................. 29
4.2. Safety ........................................................................................................................ 32
4.3. Inconvenience ........................................................................................................... 34
4.4. Context of flying ...................................................................................................... 37
5. Analysis & Discussion................................................................... 39
5.1. Convenience ............................................................................................................. 39
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5.2. Safety ........................................................................................................................ 41
5.3. Inconvenience ........................................................................................................... 43
5.4. Context of flying ...................................................................................................... 44
5.5. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 46
6. Conclusion & implication ............................................................ 49
6.1. Purpose and research question ................................................................................. 49
6.2. Theoretical implications ........................................................................................... 50
6.3. Practical implications ............................................................................................... 50
6.4. Limitations ............................................................................................................... 51
6.5. Future research ......................................................................................................... 52
References .................................................................................................. 54
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Figures
Figure 1 Kiosk classification at airports ................................................................................. 6
Figure 2 Consumer satisfaction model ................................................................................. 15
Figure 3 Maslow's Hierarchy of needs ................................................................................. 16
Figure 4 Structure of this study ............................................................................................ 18
Figure 5 Process of data analysis ......................................................................................... 26
Figure 6 Codes within the theme convenience ..................................................................... 30
Figure 7 Codes within the theme safety ............................................................................... 32
Figure 8 Codes within the theme inconvenience ................................................................. 34
Figure 9 Codes within the theme Context of fling ............................................................... 37
Figure 10 Satisfaction as an outcome of convenience ......................................................... 41
Figure 11 Satisfaction as the outcome of safety ................................................................... 42
Figure 12 Dissatisfaction as the outcome of inconvenience ................................................ 44
Figure 13 Consumer satisfaction on airports model ............................................................. 48
Tables
Table 1 Key aspects of the fast travel program ...................................................................... 9
Table 2 Summary of conducted interviews .......................................................................... 24
Table 3 Description of themes.............................................................................................. 29
Appendix
Appendix A .......................................................................................................................... 63
Appendix B .......................................................................................................................... 64
Appendix C .......................................................................................................................... 65
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Abbreviations and acronyms
CFT – Customer Facing Technology
AIT – Advanced Imaging Technology
SST – Self-service technology
IEA - International Energy Agency
ITM – Interactive Transaction Machine
ATM – Automated Teller Machine
CUSS - Common Use Self Service
TSA - Transportation Security Administration
ID – Identification
P - Participant
1
1. Introduction
______________________________________________________________________
In the introduction chapter the research topic is provided. A background and a problem
discussion provide the base for the research gap and argue why the topic is relevant.
Besides, the goal of the research is stated together with coherent research question.
______________________________________________________________________
1.1. Background
Nowadays, more and more people travel, and since the world is becoming more
international, the aviation industry is experiencing tremendous growth (Brondoni , 2016).
Official data from IATA (2019) (International Air Transport Association) shows that the
aviation industry growth rate has been above 5% per year for the years 2010 to 2018 (see
Appendix A) and the expected growth rate for the year 2019 is 5%. Furthermore, IATA
estimated that the passenger numbers transported by airlines would reach 8.2 billion in
2037 compared with 4.3 billion in 2018. Such a rise of passengers changes the standard
of services at airports and creates a misapprehension of service expectations (Chen &
Chang, 2005).
The described development becomes even more complicated as a result of events such as
9/11, which caused an increase in the level of security checks all over the world, as well
as limitations in expanding spaces of existing infrastructures (Smit, 2003). These factors
contribute to people spending more time in airports, higher numbers of complaints, and a
decreased level of satisfaction with airport services. To reduce this problem, the IATA
has introduced the “fast travel program,” which addresses the future of travel. They now
“provide self-service options in six areas of the passenger journey” (IATA, 2019),
including fast self-check-in, self-baggage service, faster document scanning, self-re-
booking if a flight is cancelled or delayed, automated boarding gates and bag recovery if
a bag gets lost. Currently, 48,33% of the global aviation industry has implemented the
fast travel program, helping them to create a better customer travel experience and also
save billions of dollars (IATA, 2019). When everything is working steadily, efficiently
and smoothly, all services probably work fast, but when problems occur, passengers will
experience these problems as well and get disturbed (Carstens, 2019). Therefore, despite
2
this new program, the usage of the new technologies by passengers is affecting their level
of satisfaction.
Since new technologies have turned to be an inseparable portion of the travel industry
over the last couple of decades, it brought us many great things. New technological
developments, made by airport IT platforms, grant new possibilities such as, for example,
implementing the “intelligent airports” in the future (Rostworowski, 2012). Moreover,
people, in general, have gotten used to being able to fix everything with just one click of
the mouse, which can make everyday life feel like it happens at a languid pace
(RTLnieuws, 2017). Regardless of implementing new technologies in the aviation
industry, new problems occur that result in passengers being less satisfied, as was earlier
noted. The decrease in satisfaction is experienced in situations such as increasing waiting
times at airports. This usually results in passengers complaining, showing that they are
unsatisfied with airport technologies.
Because the satisfaction of the passenger is of great importance to the airports, the new
technologies should have a positive influence on customer satisfaction; unfortunately, this
is not always the case. As Kan (1995) poses “a dissatisfied customer will tell seven to 20
people about their negative experience. A satisfied customer will only tell three to five
people about their positive experience”. Hence, a negative experience has a relatively
worse impact on an airport than a positive one explicating the relevance of researching
the effects of new technologies on airports and customer satisfaction.
1.2. Problem Statement
Introducing new technologies always affects the people who are going to use it, either in
a good or a bad way. The introduction of new safety technology in airports is an example.
Due to events such as 9/11, new security check technologies were introduced (Blalock,
Kadilyali, & Simon, 2007). This is beneficial for the safety of the passengers, but also
comes with some downsides such as longer waiting times. The introduction of full-body
scanners shows another problem: these scanners reveal you restricted items, such as
weapons or knives, and also reveal the body of passengers (Welch, 2010). The fact that
these full-body scanners must have a human-operator (similar to baggage scanners)
means that the operator sees the passenger’s body through their clothes. Not everyone is
aware of this fact, but this knowledge can have a bad effect on customer satisfaction
3
(Blalock, Kadilyali, & Simon, 2007). Both these examples show both positive and
negative sides to the introduction of new technologies. On the one hand, the passenger
might feel more satisfied by the increased safety, but on the other hand, he/she might
become dissatisfied because of long waiting times and the fact that operators see their
naked bodies.
Moreover, there are many other options for flying, definitely on shorter distances. Already
we can see trends in some European countries (i.e. Sweden, the United Kingdom and the
Netherlands) where they promote the alternatives for air travel (Yuliya Talmazan, 2019;
Jocelyn Timperley, 2019). However, these new alternatives are not yet the most
convenient way of travelling (Hergesell, 2013). If the airports do not satisfy the needs of
the customer sufficiently and the inconveniences of taking another way of transport start
outweighing air travel, airports will start losing customers (Chapman, 2007). Also,
Jocelyn Timperley writes about the International Energy Agency (IEA), saying that
“Global transport emissions could peak in the 2030s if railways are not “aggressively”
expanded” (Jocelyn Timperley, 2019). From this, we can conclude that customer
satisfaction is of great importance for airports in Europe that support short-haul flights
and that they must make sure that the customers leave the airport fully satisfied. This
conclusion further explicates the importance of a better understanding of how new
customer-facing technologies (CFTs) on airports affect customer satisfaction.
Looking at the literature only shows a limited amount of research that connects new CFTs
to customer satisfaction (Bezerra & Gomes, 2016). Thus far, studies looked more at the
connection between service quality and customer satisfaction. They are overlooking some
unique aspects of the interaction between passengers and airport technologies (Bezerra &
Gomes, 2016). Therefore, Bezerra and Gomes focus on connecting the adoption of new
CFTs to customer satisfaction. However, they mention a couple of limitations. One of
them is that they only looked at the relatively larger airport hubs in the U.S. Knowing that
there are better alternatives for flights in Europe makes it more relevant to investigate
how new CFTs affect customer satisfaction on European airports.
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1.3. Purpose and Research Question
By studying the effects of new CFTs on customer satisfaction, the purpose of this research
is to explore how new CFTs on airports affect customer satisfaction. By an exploratory
investigation within this area of study, the aim is to get a better understanding of the
effects of new technologies on airports on customer satisfaction. This research will be
useful in the development of the new CFTs because it gives a better insight into how the
customers interact with it. In accordance, the aim to fill the gap within the existing
literature is fulfilled, and a contribution is made through theory development.
The research leads to an answer to the main research question (main RQ):
“How will new customer-facing technologies at airports affect air travellers’
satisfaction?”
1.4. Delimitations
Particular perspectives and contexts have been disregarded to strengthen the research and
hedge the scope. Since some findings and prospects do not contribute to the aim of the
research, they have not been included.
Our study focuses on how new technologies at airports affect customer satisfaction.
Because of the discovery of the gap in the literature within the investigation of the
connection between new CFTs and customer satisfaction in European airports (Bezerra
& Gomes, 2016), only residents of the European Union were included in the research.
Therefore, we excluded all individuals who are not EU residents.
Moreover, we included only participants who had their latest trip with a passenger
airplane no earlier than three months ago to ensure freshness of experience and sensations.
Consequently, individuals that had their latest trip more than three months ago were
disregarded in order to keep the study more consolidated.
5
2. Theoretical Framework ______________________________________________________________________
An overall understanding of the essential theory of this research is clarified in this
chapter including different airport technologies, understanding about customer
satisfaction, behaviour, needs, and connection between customer satisfaction and new
technologies. This chapter gives a rough idea of available literature, clarification on
studies carried out, and an outline of present theories.
______________________________________________________________________
2.1. Airport technologies
Beneficial technological solutions are being designed to reach the needs of more and more
people. Such broad pervasiveness of technology across all aspects of life resulted in
technology adoption becoming a vitally important piece of fully functioning and
developed societies. Because of these technologies that facilitate daily jobs, people are
getting opportunities to stay independent for a more extended amount of time (Mitzner,
et al., 2010). Some academic researchers acknowledged that the delivery of various
services is facing the vast significance of technology (Bitner, Brown, & Meuter, 2000).
Some researchers claim that the traditional marketplace interaction is experiencing a
marketspace transaction (Rayport & Sviokla, 1994). Therefore, marketspace habits
changed because of these new developing bases of customer-company interactions. One
example of such marketspace transactions is self-service technologies (SSTs) that do not
require any contact between customers and service employees, and airports are no
exception (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, & Elabbassy, 2010).
Airports use SST’s for ticketing, self-check-in, self-baggage services, document
scanning, self-rebooking and provide competitive advantages not only for customers but
for service providers and airlines as well (Drennen, 2011). The most common form of
SST’s at the airports are various kiosks (see figure 1). Airport kiosks may be described
as a standalone desk or an interactive computer unit which gives information, services
(information kiosk) or products. Passengers may buy tickets, check baggage and track the
status of departures and arrivals at a particular airline’s kiosks (ticketing kiosk)
(Abdelaziz, Hegazy, & Elabbassy, 2010). Some airlines use kiosks for facilitating crowds
and preventing queues at check-in counters (cuss kiosk). Lastly, there are the retail kiosks
6
which improve the retailing process; however, this is not relevant for this research
because the focus goes to the retailing process instead of the process of boarding the
plane.
Figure 1 Kiosk classification at airports, source: (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, & Elabbassy, 2010)
All interactive kiosks, in general, provide a big perspective of benefits for both passengers
and airline workers. It helps in staying away from long queues at ticket desks and provides
an ability to check-in whenever the passenger feels that it is convenient for him.
Moreover, the job of customer service agents is facilitated because it repeals the need for
manually entering information and checking in all passengers before every flight. The
self-service technologies play a big role in eliminating or reducing the needs of airline
employees to interact with passengers and perform tasks for them because they can do it
themselves. It does not mean that customer service agents lose their job but, instead, they
help travellers that face any difficulties with the usage of kiosks. A great number of
airlines have a goal to keep power over ticket agents in order to deal with growing
numbers of passenger traffic, while kiosks can be adopted by almost every airline. The
airline is thereby able to maintain hundreds of kiosks for providing tickets, baggage tags,
assigning seats and getting boarding passes. The airlines that adopted this technology
claim that kiosks remove tiresome, monotonous jobs and allow airline agents to provide
“real customer service” (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, & Elabbassy, 2010).
Kiosks classification is suggested by Tung and Tan (1998) by the tasks carried out on the
system. A four-dimensional grid is suggested regarding transaction power and availability
of information (Tung & Tan, 1998). There exist four types of kiosks, but the only ones
being used at airports are types 1 & 3. Type 1 includes ticket purchasing systems that
grant low transaction power and low information accessibility. In contrast, type 3 includes
kiosks that grant information about schedules at the airports (train or bus stations as well)
and are considered as systems with low transaction power but high information
availability (Tung & Tan, 1998).
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2.1.1. Information kiosks
Information kiosks are described as a self-technology station together with interactive
information processing capacities which can be found in public places (Rowley & Slack,
2007). In general, these kiosks give the details for travellers about the airport and its
various facilities. They are composed of wall-mounted or column-type workstations with
mounted touch screen technology or just a regular personal computer. An easy graphical
interface is used together with multilingual options and gives travellers information about
airport plan and its facilities that include restaurants, rest lounges, arrival/departure
schedules, shops. Sometimes information kiosks are being used by airport operators and
passengers to give information about airport sponsored partners: hotels, car rental
companies, any tours and other valuable services to travellers (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, &
Elabbassy, 2010).
2.1.2. Ticketing kiosks
Self-service ticketing kiosks, also known as automated ticketing kiosks, are a subcategory
of one bigger class of information technology that is called Interactive Transaction
Machines (ITMs). The most popular form of ITM technology is automated teller
machines (ATMs) that were invented in 1973 and started used by banks in 1980. The
kiosks used by airline companies and banks do not operate as a standalone mechanism
and, nevertheless, this is not that common for most of ITMs. Preferably, ticketing devices
are highly networked with IT equipment that interacts with customers and provide direct
access to a service provider’s customer-service systems (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, &
Elabbassy, 2010). For a majority of airlines, digitalized self-service ticketing terminals
are usually located next to check-in counters, and passengers have opportunity to check
ticket prices, flight times, as well as an opportunity to acquire those tickets. An automated
ticketing kiosk can verify an individual’s identity by asking to type in an identification
number and put in the credit card for buying tickets. Airlines provide information
database for these kiosks; therefore, they have access to it that allows seeing payment
information right away. Benefits of such kiosks include reduced costs because of a lower
number of employees, higher customer retention rate, decreased costs for basic service
standards, smaller waiting lines for passengers and increased sales (Anitsal, 2005).
8
2.1.3. CUSS Kiosks
Regular Use Self Service (CUSS) is providing functions straight on customers self-
service devices (Sabatova, Galanda, Adamcik, Jezny, & Sulej, 2016). This kind of
installations allows travellers to check-in, receive boarding passes, check baggage, and to
run other tasks at places and times when it is convenient for them. Generally, check-in
services step by step is being shifted from the procedures being done at check-in counters
to check-in procedures made from home with the help of internet or self-service check-in
equipment at the airports (CUSS). Some researchers are aware of the incorporation of
alternative check-in choices with smart-phones for the commercial aviation industry (Lee,
Castellanos, & Chris-Choi, 2012). Self-service technologies are turning to be the general
check-in systems in European airports, USA and a big number of other airports. CUSS is
developed according to separate types of travellers which includes passengers with or
without luggage (Abdelaziz, Hegazy, & Elabbassy, 2010). In contrast with regular agent
check-in that provides services between 20 to 25 travellers per hour, a CUSS kiosk
completes the same procedures for 40 to 50 travellers per hour (E-Ticketing Comes of
Age, 2006).
There exist plenty different kinds of kiosks and specification of the configuration is
changing; therefore, they hinge on many elements, and it is crucial to place kiosks
according to visibility, travellers’ privacy and comfort, approachability and flow of
passenger traffic (Dave, 2007)
2.1.4. Adoption of self-service kiosks
All kiosks mentioned above are the critical elements of the programme called Fast Travel
that embraces a great part of self-service operations, and they have the prospect to quicken
passenger flows within airports. Table 1 shows five vital elements of this programme and
includes survey findings on how airports expected to be prepared for introducing these
services in 2018 (SITA, 2016). The goal of this programme is to suggest absolute self-
services for 80 per cent of global passengers. IATA claims that there are many examples
that airport operating costs declined when comparing standard check-in to self-service
check-in. Most airports adopted the services mentioned above and allow travellers to
access it just with the help of new technologies. These technologies keep getting more
and more popularity, as passenger surveys regarding airport technology disclose
(Marintseva, 2014).
9
Table 1 Key aspects of the fast travel program
Process Key elements Airport readiness by 2018
Check-in Automated, online, mobile,
and self-service kiosks
60% stating that mobile
check-in is the primary
method for checking-in
Bags ready-to-go Home printing, self-tagging,
and bag drops
90% offering assisted bag
drop
Document check Self-service kiosks 72% offering information
services via kiosks
Flight re-booking Online, mobile, and self-
service kiosks
61% offering passenger self-
service tools to solve
disruption problems
Self-boarding Automated boarding gates 53% implementing self-
boarding gates
Sources: IATA (2017); SITA (2016)
2.1.5. Airport safety technologies
Events, such as 9/11, has caused the improved usage of technology as well as better
quality of training amongst security staff as a method for increasing travellers’ security
(Murphy, 2006). There were few suggestions such as checking all luggage, strengthening
cockpit doors, introducing air marshals, but it did not implicate privacy interests (Cusick,
Cortes, & Rodrigues, 2017). Privacy and security risks are introduced to passengers
because they can make data files that are connected to the identity of passengers (Dekker,
2008). For instance, backscatter x-ray and millimetre wave technology are applied by the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that can get naked pictures (Noftsinger,
Newbold, & Wheeler, 2007). Moreover, x-ray registered images of travellers are in a very
high resolution; therefore, detailed human forms of passengers introduce privacy issues
(Kane, 2010). Images might be permanent, and the Electronic Privacy Information Centre
(EPIC) claims that screeners may save the body pictures to the system’s disks for
posterior observation on the system’s monitor or any consistent personal computer.
However, technology itself should be used for finding a solution for both the privacy and
security issues. Several airports in Europe use scanners that “produce images in which
the traveller is represented as a stick figure, with suspicious objects highlighted” claimed
TSA Chief on National Public Radio. A balance between assuring safety and protecting
privacy should be found. Safety technologies help to focus more attention on suspicious
travellers, which does not involve all passengers for a detailed check and results in others
not being disturbed by intensified security (Kane, 2010). Nevertheless, terrorists are
10
trying to look like regular passengers (Emerson, 2003). Security experts accepted that the
exclusion of all security dangers at the airports is impossible. The Washington Post
announced that some airports around the world such as Ben-Gurion International Airport
in Tel Aviv (Israel) have rigorous searching that passenger sometimes results in walking
through the terminals, the gates and to the airplane with no handbag, wallet or even shoes.
Israel’s system of security has a goal to gather detailed information about travellers before
their flights. In general, in most of the world’s airports, passengers already have to take
their shoes off and get their bottles of water for confiscation before security check.
Therefore, decisions that are accepted for ensuring airport safety might leave some
customers not satisfied (Frimpong, 2011).
2.2. Customer satisfaction
To be able to understand how new CFTs affect customer satisfaction, first, it is essential
to know about previous research on customer satisfaction; this helps to understand how
it works and how to use it to understand the influence of new CFTs.
Customer satisfaction has been a research topic for many years, however, after all the
research it still seems that there is no agreement on major issues such as concepts,
constructs, definitions and measurements (Yi, 1990). It is therefore that several
approaches propose to operationalize the customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction construct.
Some of the main approaches are:
1. Equity Theory – satisfaction is reached when a balance is found between the input-
output of a given party during an exchange process, such as cost, time, and effort.
2. Attribution Theory – here they look at the outcome of purchase as successful or
as a failure, the outcome can be caused by either internal factors such as the
buyer’s perceived buying abilities or external factors such as the difficulty of the
buying task.
3. Performance Theory – this theory directly links customer satisfaction to the
product or service performance that is received by the customer.
4. Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory – this is the dominant theory used and is well
defined by Oliver and DeSarbo (1988) “Consumers are believed to form
expectations of product performance characteristics before purchase. Subsequent
purchase and usage reveal actual performance levels that are compared to
11
expectation levels using a better-than, worse-than heuristic. The judgement that
results from this comparison is labelled negative disconfirmation if the product is
worse than expected, positive disconfirmation if better than expected, simple
confirmation if as expected.” (p.495)
Within the expectancy disconfirmation theory, the determinants of
satisfaction/dissatisfaction come from the three following factors (Brookes, 1995):
1. Prior expectations - expectations that can be based on the service quality of
previous experience.
2. Performance assessment - comparing the expectations with the performance when
experiencing the product of service.
3. Disconfirmation - post-purchase judgement of the experience which can be better
or worse than expected, leading to a certain degree of satisfaction.
Many studies around the 1980th century supported the positive and negative
disconfirmation, at the end of the 1970’s there has been a wave of research on consumer
satisfaction looking at causes and effects of satisfaction cognition (Oliver R. L., 1980;
Day, 1984; Woodruff, Cadotte, & Jenkins, 1983). Some of these studies conducted a state
of the art and concluded that two significant constructs play part in satisfaction decisions,
performance-specific expectation and expectancy disconfirmation (Latour & Peat, 1978).
It is argued that the customer has an expectation; customer satisfaction is a function of
this expectation. The expectation is seen as a frame of reference, based on this frame of
reference, one makes a comparative judgment. So, when purchasing a product, the
expectation is disconfirmed, the outcome of this disconfirmation can be either positive
when the purchase exceeds the expectations, or it can be negative when the purchase
dissatisfies. This research emphasizes the cognitive side of customer satisfaction as an
intentional decision that is the result of a selected purchase (Oliver R. L., 1980). Other
studies focused more on the product performance found that product performance has a
greater influence on the satisfaction of the customer with durable goods compared to
expectancy disconfirmation (Tse & Wilton, 1988).
Nevertheless, expectations are an essential factor and knowing the nature of these
expectations is highly relevant as well, concerning the nature a variety of options are
found (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1993):
12
1. Ideal – the level of performance that the customer wishes to see.
2. Brand – the brand sets a standard, the consumer wishes that the next
product/service lives up to that standard.
3. Expected – predicted performance, based on previous experience.
4. Minimum tolerable – the lowest level of acceptable performance.
5. Deserved – what customers expect back based on time and/or money they put up
for it.
Knowing where the expectations come from is not sufficient; it is also essential to know
what influences these expectations, several factors influence expectations (Brookes,
1995):
1. The product or service itself
2. The context
3. Individual characteristics
Within later research, another vital connection is made, during the post-purchase phase,
there is not only cognitive process going on but also some emotional responses come into
play. Westbrook and Oliver (1991) conducted a study where they research the
relationships between consumption emotion and cognitive satisfaction judgement which
both occur in the post-purchase period. They confirmed the finding of Westbrook (1987),
he argues for two-dimensional emotional space, either positive or negative, which occurs
after purchase. However, the research of Westbrook and Oliver (1991) argues that the
positive emotional space is divided into two parts, rather than one. In both of these
positive dimensions, high levels of joy are experienced, but one is more focused on
surprise, and the other focusses on interest. Because of this development, combining
consumption emotion and cognitive satisfaction judgement, better explains the post-
purchase beliefs, attitudes and activities, single measures of satisfaction are not sufficient.
The psychological field of study generated five theories providing a foundation for
attitude formation and customer satisfaction (Yi, 1990):
1. Cognitive Dissonance Theory – customers adjust their previous attitude to their
judgement of the perceived performance, an assimilation process.
2. Contrast Theory – this theory emphasizes the effects of surprise; it causes
customers to enlarge the experience disconfirmation.
13
3. Generalized Negativity Theory – here they say that the one who experiences
negative expectancy confirmations has stronger feelings than when one
experiences positive confirmation.
4. Assimilation-Contrast Theory – there are degrees to what customers accept and
reject, messages about a product or service should create the highest expectancy
for the customer only to the extent that the company can follow upon; otherwise,
a negative disconfirmation might be caused.
5. Hypothesis Testing Theory – advertisement, for example, creates expectations.
This serves as hypotheses for customers when the customer utilizes the product
or service; this hypothesis will either be confirmed or disconfirmed.
Furthermore, a substantially different field appeared; first, the focus of customer
satisfaction research revolved around products. Later developments created a second field
of study regarding customer satisfaction, that is of services which became an essential
factor in developed economies. The main differences for both fields consist of (Brookes,
1995):
1. Intangibility – the vagueness of services and service encounters.
2. Inseparability – differences in production and consumption.
3. Service’s heterogeneity – every service experience is different.
4. Service’s high perishability – an unused seat for an event the profit from that ticket
is forever lost.
2.2.1. Consumer behaviour
In order to put customer satisfaction in another perspective, it is interesting to look at it
from an individual consumer behavioural standpoint. This behavioural standpoint comes
from the psychological domain were the focus their studies on understanding personal
human qualities that influence the consumer's behaviour. Relevant aspects of the
consumer behaviour are understanding how the urge of need is created, how different
stimulators influence the personal decision-making process, and how the satisfaction
sensation is created and confirmed (Mont & Plepys, 2003). It is therefore that the
following three significant processes are being studied by psychologists (Blackwell,
Miniard, & Engel, 2006);
1. information processing,
14
2. influencing attitudes and behaviour and
3. learning processes.
It is essential to look further into the information processing to understand where and how
new CFT influences customer satisfaction. When purchasing a product/service, the
consumer undergoes a process, the decision-making process. This process is captured in
the EBM model; this model combines the decision process with the influencing factors.
Because the EBM model uses this combination, it is later adopted by Mont and Plepys
(2003) and formed into the customer satisfaction process. By understanding this process,
a better understanding is created about how the new CFTs influence the behaviour of the
customer. The process shows us were and why the process starts. In the process variables
that influence the outcome are also introduced and explained, this can help us understand
how the new CFT affects the outcome of the customer is satisfied or not. The model
begins with need recognition, and the goal of the model is to satisfy this need, see Figure
2. As the model shows, consumers go through the following main steps: need recognition,
information search, pre-purchase alternative evaluation, purchase, consumption, post-
purchase alternative evaluation and divestment.
1. Need recognition – this happens when a person notices the difference between the
ideal situation and one’s current situation. One expects a purchase to fulfil this
discrepancy.
2. Information search – search has two sides internal- and external search. For
internal, knowledge is retrieved from memory and for external, information is
collected from peers, family, and the marketplace.
3. Pre-purchase alternative evaluation – evaluating the options that will satisfy the
established need by looking at some benefits that an option offers over the other
option thereby limiting down the number of options to one (or more) preferred
option(s).
4. Purchase – at this stage, the consumer decided to go for the chosen option.
5. Consumption – this is the actual moment the consumer gets hold of the product
(use of product or service).
6. Post-purchase alternative evaluation – assessment of whether the purchased
product lives up to the expectation and thereby dis-/satisfies the need.
7. Divestment – the latest stage the consumer has to get rid of the product
15
In this process, two important things are happening, the need is recognized, and before
purchase, an expectation is created. The need is vital because this is the thing that must
be satisfied; therefore, it is important to look further into this concept to know how it
applies to new CFT on airports. The expectation is essential because this is evaluated after
the purchase, and it will determine to what extent the customer is satisfied. As a result,
the next paragraph will talk about customer needs.
2.2.2. Customer needs
The consumer satisfaction model shows us that the whole process of a customer
satisfaction process starts with the need recognition. When the need is recognised, the
goal of the customer is to satisfy that need. The need is a crucial part of understanding
how a new CFTs affects satisfaction because by understanding the need, one can better
understand if the need is satisfied. The past decade much research has been conducted to
identify and classify needs (Dichter, 1964; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). As a result,
different kinds of needs are found. To fulfil one need it often comes at the expense of
another need; therefore, different needs have different priority. Maslow (1943) introduced
a well-known hierarchy, specifying the priority to different needs. The needs he used in
Figure 2 Consumer satisfaction model, source (Mont & Plepys, 2003)
16
his hierarchy are, physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs see
Figure 3. The basic needs are seen as the highest priority after these are fulfilled, one can
move up to the next level of needs which are less and less critical. Most people can relate
to the order of the hierarchy, but it certainly does not apply to every situation. The
evaluation criteria in the pre-purchase evaluation phase of the decision-making process
may change depending on what benefits are desired and what needs are to be fulfilled.
Looking more towards the satisfaction from a service businesses point of view, a satisfied
customer is more likely to repurchase a product or service and recommend it via word of
mouth (Ryu & Han, 2009). Kan (1995) emphasizes this importance even more by talking
about dissatisfied and satisfied customers. “A dissatisfied customer will tell seven to 20
people about their negative experience. A satisfied customer will only tell three to five
people about their positive experience” (Kan, 1995, p. 114). So, satisfaction is a vital
aspect to consider for any service business. However, in this study, we aim to understand
better how the new CFTs on airports affect customer satisfaction; therefore, we focus on
the cognitive/affective approach to customer satisfaction.
Figure 3 Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, source (Maslow, 1943)
17
2.2.3. The relation between customer satisfaction and new CFTs
Now that the two main constructs have been introduced the next step is to look at the
relationship between both constructs. Looking at Fodness and Murray (2007) shows us
that people at airports have expectations towards a variety of services. They divide the
services into three dimensions:
1. Servicescape – addresses spatial layout and functionality.
2. Service providers – addresses personnel service delivery.
3. Services – addresses how time is spent in airports.
Of these dimensions, only in servicescape customer-facing technology is represented, and
therefore we focus on this dimension. “The servicespace includes all the objective factors
controllable by the service provider that facilitate customer actions during the service
encounter and enhance their overall service quality perception” (Fodness & Murray,
2007, p. 496). Within this dimension, Fodness and Murray (2007) look at expectations
towards ease of navigation, waiting times in queues and the provision of flight
information. Their research shows that passengers expect clear signs that point them
towards the airport facilities. Also, passengers do not expect to wait longer than ten
minutes; if they have to wait longer, they will get upset. Lastly, passengers expect to be
informed about updates regarding their flight. Fodness and Murray (2007) however, talk
about waiting times at check-in counters, whereas nowadays, most people do their check-
in online because the introduction of this new CFT the expectations towards checking in
might have changed. These expectations influence the evaluation of the perceived service
for the customer, which together determine if the customer is satisfied with the
technology.
When taking the approach of the customer behaviours viewing point, some exciting
connections appear, starting with the satisfaction process. The satisfaction process begins
with need recognition; this need can be different per individual. Connecting this to the
interactions people have with the new CFTs might give exciting discoveries.
18
3. Methodology ______________________________________________________________________
The methodical decisions and comprehensions perceived from the researcher’s point of
view is described in this chapter. First of all, the selected research design, philosophy,
approach, and strategy are explained. Later, it presents the data collection procedure
followed by the data analysis. Ultimately, research ethical elements are imposed together
with the research’s quality features.
_____________________________________________________________________
3.1. Research design
The research design portrays methods that ground the principles of the research
methodology for the research project. It highlights ways of carrying out particular parts
of the research as well as the methods for the different steps of the study procedure related
to the research question (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). In
general, the structure of the research project can be described as a proper sequence which
relates the empirical data to the research question and study’s findings (Yin, 2018). The
general summary of the methodological solutions for this research study is demonstrated
below, see Figure 4. All different parts of these solutions are investigated and explained
in the further sections.
Figure 4 Structure of this study
Data analysis procedureThematic analysis
Data collection procedureSemi-constructed interviews
Research strategyQualitative research
Research approachInductive research
Philosophical suppositionConstructivism pattern Relativism viewpoint
19
3.2. Research philosophy
The philosophical approaches should be examined before collecting new information.
These approaches are critical for framing the research in connection with our research
method, question and explanation of our findings (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016).
This will contribute in finding the most appropriate method to develop the research in as
high quality as possible by reviewing epistemological, ontological and methodological
approaches (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). None of these models
is impartially right and which model to choose depends on the researchers’ views on the
world. Hence, the research model is supported by constructivism, which covers the
researchers’ views in the best way (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). We will clarify
constructivism by explaining how ontological, epistemological, and methodological
options relate to our study.
The goal of this research is to find elements that new technologies affect customers at
airports and how it affects their satisfaction. Unfortunately, there is no sole truth answer
to this question. Therefore, we are conscious of the complex nature of it. It corresponds
to the nature of reality concerning ontology because it is connected to the beliefs
preserved by researchers about how the world is functioning. As we mentioned that there
is no sole truth, but rather population building laws (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, &
Jaspersen, 2018), the conviction that the world is realistic and external may only be
observed.
Consequently, we are not convinced by the approach of realism. The two other ontologies,
nominalism and relativism, address reality from a distinct point of views. While
nominalism view claims that truth does not exist and that people build facts, relativism
claims that there are plenty of truths and that facts rely on observer’s attitude (Easterby-
Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Because of our faith that people build laws
and that their understanding relies on individuality, we go along with the relativism
viewpoint.
Next, in order, epistemology may be described as the study of the criteria that researchers
apply in order to assort what contains proper knowledge and what does not (Hellebone &
Priest, 2008). Thus, we take a subjectivist position when it comes to epistemology. As
stated earlier, the reality is built socially, and we approve that knowledge and truth belong
to people’s experience. According to Chilisa and Kawulich (2018), our study is examined
20
through the point that knowledge is related to culture and impacted by the situation.
Therefore, we reason that a plurality of elements influences the aspects of customer
satisfaction in airports, and it is unique in a certain manner. In order to completely
understand and extend knowledge of subjectively shaped reality, it is crucial to capture
the viewpoint of people taking part in it (Scotland, 2012). Consequently, we construct our
future findings by; us interacting with the target of research (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).
Eventually, a research pattern also includes which methodology has to be exploited to
implement the knowledge. We are convinced that communication between the observer
and the target of research builds knowledge. Therefore, according to the constructivist
pattern, we ground our methodology as a qualitative method (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).
3.3. Research approach
Since we decided to base our research qualitatively, our choice of the research approach
is guided. Altogether, the research approach in exploratory researches is divided into two
different categories that are known as deductive and inductive (Alvesson & Sköldberg,
2018). A deductive approach begins at the top of theory and then continues to test
hypotheses, formulation, and suggestions for a final evaluation if the theory is well-
founded. This kind of research approach does not fit our study because available
researches of customers’ effects on new technologies at airports are quite limited, and it
creates complications for testing. Moreover, this approach does not build value for
selected research goal as it is to examine how new technologies affect customer
satisfaction. The inductive research approach begins at the bottom of determining models
and creating broader themes of a phenomenon of exercising the party’s standpoints,
followed by developing theory with merging themes (Bryman A. , 2012). Since we
investigate how new technologies affect customer satisfaction at airports, we decide to
use an inductive research approach. Moreover, this topic is a new phenomenon in a
particular situation since the aim is to analyse European airports. Although this research
includes theoretical elements from former literature, this approach fits best because all
sorts of understanding come from appearing knowledge.
21
3.4. Research strategy
A research strategy gives a rough idea of a procedure for direction in order to answer the
research question (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). In the area of management and
business, research highlights words rather than quantification. Therefore, it is specified
as a qualitative research strategy (Bryman A. , 2012). This type of research strategy begins
with general research questions that usually contain terms such as why and how. The goal
of a qualitative research strategy is to comprehend how participants act and what they
communicate verbally as well as helping to understand why a particular context is vital
as a resolution (Myers, 2013). The goal of this study is to examine how new technologies
affect customer satisfaction at airports. Consequently, a qualitative research strategy is
well-suited for this study. Moreover, our purpose is to grasp deeper at how passengers get
affected in terms of new technologies, so qualitative strategy is even more suitable to this
study.
On top of that, a qualitative research method begins from actions and standpoints of the
themes investigated and includes an interpretive and naturalistic view, and this is unique
for a quantitative research method (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). Our research starts
with the outlook of airports’ passengers and their judgment on how new technologies
affect their satisfaction within this theme and gives reasons for qualitative research.
Further, a qualitative research strategy tends to be conjugated with an inductive approach
(Bryman A. , 2012), explorative nature and with a research philosophy of social
constructionism (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Therefore, a
qualitative research method is the most eligible since the philosophical suppositions of
the constructionism, and the inductive approach is related to this study.
3.5. Data collection procedure
The research strategy we chose, qualitative method, collects primary data through text
and language, for instance, interviews or observational and interactive ways that involve
participations of differing standards of the investigator performing the research (Easterby-
Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). In this type of research, there is an
explanatory nature that frequently includes researchers exploring events in the natural
environment (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). Subsequently, it tries to construct the logic
of examined phenomena, occurrence and the sense individuals leave on occurrences
22
(Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). With regard to holding a
reflective and objective way of thinking, the explanatory nature of qualitative researches
puts a great deal of liability on the ones executing the research (Alvesson & Sköldberg,
2018). With that being said, even though interviews are the most common way of
collecting qualitative data, there does not exist one sort or technique for doing interviews
in a qualitative study (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018).
For the data collection, we chose face to face interviews that leads the interviewers to
understand social actualities and collect facts regarding the comprehension and
experiences of individuals that participate in the interviews. Developing information and
high comprehension of an occurrence where participants might take some information as
susceptible gives us a conclusion that face to face interviews fit best (Easterby-Smith,
Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Moreover, we have experience of running
interviews, as well as an easy approach to interviewees so, that enhances our selection of
conducting interviews even more.
Three of the most used methods which differ in terms of the level of eligibility related to
the environment and the goal of the research are: unstructured, semi-structured and
highly-structured interviews (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). In
this thesis, by conducting interviews, we aim to get as detailed data as possible. Therefore,
we seek for the interview method, which lets us come up with spontaneous questions that
are relevant for this study, which means being flexible. However, we are still in need of
having an arranged framework for asking questions. The interviewer has to be
significantly experienced in doing interviews about technologies and its effects on
customer satisfaction and since it is our first-time conducting interviews regarding this
topic we need a structure to follow (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). Therefore, an
unstructured interview method is eliminated, and because we need to have some
flexibility and adaptation, a semi-structured interview method is invoked.
Interviews were constructed as a listing by creating questions that have to be approached
preferably in order but without having tight control over it which means that following
this order is not a must (see Appendix B). A collection of questions of what we need to
cover as part of the interview is prepared as a guide for leading the interviews and
ensuring common comprehension between the interviewees and the interviewers
(Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Our interview is organised in a
23
structure where we start by asking general questions so that the interviewee would gain
the comfort to speak. Later, we go more in-depth with the questions; these questions are
directly connected to our study. Lastly, the research does a recap of the conducted
interview, where interviewees get the chance to supply more information.
The constructed interview consists of queries about the various themes concerning the
situations of air travellers using new airport technologies that we recognized in our
theoretical framework part. The basis for our themes covers the topics that are associated
with customer satisfaction and new CFTs being used in airports. Regarding new CFTs
the suitable themes were self-check-in technologies, new security control scanners,
information, and boarding technologies. Further, we were seeking for information
regarding how the interviewee feels about each of technology, how and why it affects his
satisfaction, what he/she likes/does not like, and what could be improved.
During the last seven days of March, we carried out ten interviews where six of them
were face to face, and the other four were online because of the outbreak of the
international pandemic known as COVID-19. Therefore, 9 hours of recorded data is
collected. The composition of interviews is coherent, including the introduction part at
the beginning of each of the interviews where we presented ourselves, our research, the
goal of the research, and described the topic. We defined the significance of the
anonymity and ensured that there are no wrong or right responses. Both of us contributed
with supplementing and following up essential points of the interviews to obtain extra
data and more reflections from people that participated in our interviews (Easterby-Smith,
Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). After conducting each of the interviews, we
transcribed each of it fully while being extremely cautious about putting data into written
accurately that any data would not have been lost.
Sampling methods may be probability and non-probability sampling. While probability
indicates that each person has the same chance of being selected as a participant, non-
probability indicates framing people by selecting only ones that match features of the
study goal (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018; Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2016). The goal of this research project is to investigate customer satisfaction
from the perspective of airport technologies factors and, specifically, air travellers were
selected as participants. Therefore, we decided to use a non-probabilistic sampling design
and to implement a purposive sampling method which determines principles for
24
involvement in the matter of the aim of the research (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson,
& Jaspersen, 2018). We purposely involved participants that had a recent trip with a
passenger airplane that was no earlier than three months ago in order to assure novelty of
experience and impressions. We selected individuals that primarily travel in Europe
because in the problem statement we described a gap in research that connects new CFTs
to customer satisfaction at the European airports and, therefore, we seek to fulfil this gap
(Bezerra & Gomes, 2016). In the table below, the research illustrates a summary of
completed interviews where each participant is assigned a letter to guarantee their
anonymity.
Table 2 Summary of conducted interviews
Participator Gender
Times the
participant flies
per year
Interview’s
length
(minutes)
A Male 4-6 55
B Female 2-4 60
C Female 2 50
D Male 4 55
E Male 10 60
F Male 12 70
G Male 6 55
H Female 2-3 50
I Female 2 50
J Male 6 45
3.6. Data analysis
Our data consists of nine hours of recorded material, which counts representative for
qualitative research (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Next, all
interviews were transcribed in separate documents but afterwards they were put into one
document in order to ease the procedure of thematic data analysis which we chose because
it provides generous records of information (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Structured shaping
of the information is a significant primary move in analysing information that helps
researchers in identifying specific models (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, &
Jaspersen, 2018). In general, thematic analysis is judged as a fundamental approach in
qualitative studies (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The main goal of the thematic analysis is to
look for themes or models of collected information (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016).
Relying on how the thematic analysis is conducted, this method might be connected to a
few research paradigms (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This adaptability of taking over thematic
25
analysis to different studies let us to choose this method instead of other methods that are
more rigid, for example, grounded analysis which involves theoretical duties and focuses
on creating a new theory that is reliable and worthwhile (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill,
2016). Since the main aim of this research project is to find out effects of new
technologies on customer satisfaction and our goal is to explore, thematic analysis fits
well because it is not demanded to be pointed for developing any theory (Braun & Clarke,
2006). Thematic analysis is applied for investigating encounters, real-life actualities and
values by determining themes that could result as a structure or a model. Besides, while
grounded analysis and thematic analysis have some similarities in getting structure from
the information by making a comparison of various pieces, other methods such as
deductive methods assemble information in line with a pre-existent framework, for
instance, content analysis. Moreover, both grounded and thematic analysis seeks to
research the sense of information by the way it is built and the terms that entitle the
personal information that is collected (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe,
Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018).
This research project the interview’s questions were not used as themes; alternatively, we
determined themes during the whole transcription procedure by examining the
information collected. Thematic analysis reduces the natural difficulty of qualitative
research with the help of an incremental procedure (Braun & Clarke, 2006). We started
by getting more familiar with the collected information by reading the interview
transcripts more carefully, underlining some critical comments that could be useful for
our study. We did not sort out the collected data regarding the goal of our research because
we made our study as a blank page. We began generating our first level codes by reading
the collected data after a few times. Our level codes were finished by holding up very
close to the collected information (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Easterby-Smith, Thorpe,
Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). Therefore, we wrote all codes down in a new document in
order to get a better summary to facilitate collation or elimination of codes with separate
labels but the similar meaning. Later we analysed all meanings and templates within all
codes for further grouping and preparation for labelling them into themes. In the last step,
we summed up the complete story and meanings of our collected data by analysing them
and defining discoveries. The last step resulted in us creating three themes that are:
convenience, safety, and inconvenience (see Figure 5).
26
Faster
Comfortability Convenience
Safety
Health issues
Inconvenience
Easier usage
Check-in
Trust
Luggage check-in
Faster
Safe enough
Feeling safer
Less convinient
Slower
Information
Updates on phone
Clear information
Lack of information
Feeling safer
Faster
Boarding Slower
Online check-in
Self service kiosk
Counter
Metal detector
Body scanner
Airport navigation
Flight information
Person
Selfscan
Security check
Codes Themes
Trust
Less convinient
Feeling safer
Context of flying
Flying experience
Part of the holiday
Way of transport
Business
Figure 5 Process of data analysis
3.7. Research quality
This qualitative research aims at an internal generalization, meaning an explanation of
research within a given setting. One of the disadvantages of conducting qualitative
research is that it has always been criticised for its difficulties with replication and
generalisation, this is the result of producing biased results and lacking precision in
measurement (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Jackson, & Jaspersen, 2018). However, as
mentioned by Janesick (2003), the contribution of qualitative research often lies in its
uniqueness, not in whether it can be replicated. To avoid this criticism and to ensure the
study’s quality and trustworthiness the four criteria provided by Guba (1981) are applied:
credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.
Credibility – the first criteria to consider, credibility, is focussed on the perceived reality
by the interviewee. It is the researcher’s task to describe an event as clear as possible so
that the interviewee recognises this in the same way the event is perceived. In other words,
27
credibility aims to mirror the collected data with the interviewee’s interpretation
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). There are several ways to ensure this criterion, for
example, using triangulation (Shenton, 2004). Using triangulation means the use of more
than one method and/or source that makes up the data collection. Therefore, during the
interviews, notes are taken, and all the interviews are recorded, both are put together
during transcription. To further increase the credibility, during the interviews, the
technique of summarising the interviewee’s answers is applied as a test to see if the
correct interpretation is made by the interviewer, another form of triangulation (Saunders,
Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009).
Transferability – secondly, transferability, looks at the research-setting, to increase this
criterion sufficient information of this setting is needed. In a way, it shows to what extent
the research findings can be copied to other settings or context besides the one that is
already studied (Shenton, 2004). Because of the social constructionist research
perspective, the transferability refers to related or similar contexts instead of a
generalisation of this study (Guba, 1981). Earlier in this chapter, the context of this study
is explained; this enables the reader to transfer the findings for this research.
Dependability – the third criteria, dependability, concerns the reliability of the data, this
data should be able to be reproduced by future researchers. By explaining every step of
the research process, one can produce a more stable and reliable explanation of the
research; this helps other researchers with their understanding of the study (Saunders,
Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). This criterion is covered in this chapter, methodology, were a
clear description of the context and procedures of the research is provided. This
contributes to the ability of other researchers, reproducing our research as closely as
possible.
Confirmability – lastly within, confirmability, the aim is to virtually eliminate any biases
that could have, unconsciously, turned up in the research. It is essential for this criterion
to stay objective towards the research findings. Therefore, it is essential that the research
findings correspond to the experiences and ideas of the interviewees and preferences or
characteristics of the researchers must, at all cost be avoided. To overcome this problem,
there is again made use of triangulation to avoid the potential for bias, which is as vital
for credibility as for confirmability (Shenton, 2004). Moreover, when conducting the
analysis, the coding process is done together. By doing this together, a common
28
understanding and agreement of the codes are created. Next to triangulation, there is
consistently made use of feedback from students and the supervisor.
3.8. Research ethics
It is essential to deliberate ethics because ethical problems can show up at any time even
though this research is not assumed to be mentally or physically detrimental. Ethics have
to be intently looked into and cannot be ignored, particularly when research includes the
participation of people (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). Ethics specifies the
behaviour norms which affect the approach the research is done in regard to people taking
place in the research. Key principles suggested by Bell and Bryman (2007) are followed
to lead us through the progress of ethical reflection, and those principles examine
participants’ protection and research’s solidity.
Consequently, deliberate resolutions were made in order to be ethically careful in this
research project. First of all, before each interview, all interviewees were enlightened
about the concept of the research so that they will make a final decision if they still want
to participate in this research in such a way protecting them. Second, to reverence
participants dignity and to guarantee their anonymity and privacy before asking for
permission for recording the interviews, interviewees were told that their personal details
such as names would not be collected, and recordings are deleted after transcription.
Recording and transcription were conducted that any misapprehension or mistaken details
would be avoided. Third, the covertness of the collected information is reached by
keeping this data in a storage that is only approachable for the investigators. Ultimately,
there is no objection of concern connected to this research project because of the
circumstances of this project: it is not reliant on a third party and not financed by anyone.
29
4. Empirical Findings ______________________________________________________________________
This chapter presents a review of the empirical findings from the collected data. Codes
are described that resulted in emerging themes that are related to the goal of the research.
The findings are presented and explained in different sub-chapters by describing each
emerged theme separately with relying on reflections from the interviews.
______________________________________________________________________
By applying the thematic analysis to the data, 23 codes were created; from these codes,
four themes emerged. Table 3 shows a short description of the themes, how they emerged
and where they originate from is elaborated upon in the following sections.
Table 3 Description of themes
Themes Description
Convenience Convenience is the theme that overarches all the subjects where the interviewee’s expectations were met and were perceived as positive experiences.
Safety Safety consists out of concerns the interviewees had towards health security and trust issues.
Inconvenience Within inconvenience, the interviewees showed room for improvement things they did not like and where they had some bad experience.
Context of flying The theme purpose covers the different approaches towards air travelling of the interviewees; this theme can be found throughout all the previous themes.
4.1. Convenience
The first theme that stood out when analysing, when the interviewees talked about the
new technologies they faced as a customer, is convenience. The theme convenience is
comprised out of 4 codes, with some of these codes emerging several times when asking
about different technologies, see Figure 6. The essence of the codes that make up
convenience shows a positive experience for using a certain technology.
30
Faster – the main driver of the convenience theme is the speed at what people can move
through the airport. It starts with the process of checking in, here the interviewees talked
mostly about the time-saving aspect of the new online check-in technology: “I always do
check-in online…I think it is nice because you can go to the airport later” (p (participant),
H), “I liked checking in online better because it is faster” (p, C), “When I can check-in by
myself…why shouldn’t I? …it is just faster” (p, B). However, this factor did not only
appear at the check-in process also at the security checks and boarding process the
interviewees mentioned that they prefer a certain approach because it decreases the time
spent on the airport or waiting in line: “With the new scanners there are longer lines so,
this one of the reasons why I do not like them, they are making people wait” (p, G), “I am
very satisfied with the use of the self-check-in because it reduces the waiting times and it
is a lot more convenient” (p, D), “Normally I check-in online through my phone because
I do not like spending much time at the airport” (p, E).
Comfortability – the next factor that shapes convenience is comfortability, some of the
technologies offer the customer something that makes travelling more comfortable for
them. The interviewees talked about several things, mainly the ticket on their phone is
something they liked because they didn’t have to carry the printed paper and also comes
with several other comfortability improvements: “I prefer online mobile ticket because it
is more convenient, I always have my phone with me and you also can get all your
notifications on there, it actually is way better because you don’t need to have papers
with you” (p, A), “I always check-in online through my phone so I always have my
boarding pass on my phone” (p, G), “once I had a delay and I got a text on my phone, it
was quick since nowadays we have good developed communication and you don’t need
to listen to voice announcements at airports” (p, H) One other addition to this which
improved the comfortability of traveling is that the customer doesn’t have to think about
Figure 6 Codes within the theme convenience
Convenience
Faster Comfortability Easier usageClear
information
31
the process before going to the airport which sets there mind at ease: “I just want to be
safe and have my check-in done already so I don’t have to think about it anymore” (p, I)
Easier usage – yet another code that is created that also adds to convenience ‘easier to
use’, this code emerged mostly at the self-check-in kiosk. The interviewees mentioned
that sometimes when carrying bigger luggage, they will make use of particular technology
because this is easier to use: “I like to use the self-check-in kiosk because I like doing
things by myself, even in shops I use self-scanning technologies. I see it is a
straightforward process and I do not see any sense in a person doing this job” (p, F),
“With the new tech it is faster and is a lot easier. This is one of the main reasons to do
the online or kiosk check-in” (p, D). However, not all the interviewees talk about the same
technology within this code as can be seen by the next statement: “I always go to the
counter when I have luggage with me. I do not use self-check baggage kiosks because it
is easier and you can ask the counter workers some questions, so it is more convenient”
(p, A)
Clear information – the last element of the theme convenience is clarity of information;
the most answers related to this topic originated within the navigation in the airport and
flight information. Almost all of the interviewees were positive about the navigation
information, which mostly consisted out of signs throughout the airport: “signs at the
airport and layout are always clear for me” (p, A), “all information is pretty clear in all
airports I have been to” (p, J). Two interviewees gave some interesting comments on this
topic, however: “I think it is easy to see on an airport where to go, sometimes they even
show how long it takes you to get to your gate which is nice” (p, B), here the interviewee
talks about additional information that indicates how long it takes to get to the gate, which
is received well. Also, the next comment shows that if one receives the info on their phone
is received positively: “normally you get the flight information on your phone when you
do the online check-in which is nice” (p, B)
32
4.2. Safety
The second theme that emerged during the analysis of the interviewee’s answers is safety.
The theme safety is comprised out of 3 codes, again as with convenience, some of these
codes turned up several times when asking about different technologies, see Figure 7. The
bottom line of these codes is the discomfort mentioned by the interviewees because of
concerns about trust and security.
Trust – the code trust appeared in two forms; both, however, give a feeling of safety to
the customer. At first, there is trust in the airport for using technology that is properly
tested; the interviewees mentioned this at several technologies. It came to our attention
that within Europe people’s identification (ID) is not always tested; however, some of the
interviewees trust the airports to have this security issue covered and see this as an
improvement: “they do not check my ID always, and I think this is nice. If they can do
this safely, then this improves the smoothness of travelling. I trust them that they can
make sure this is safe” (p, E), “I would trust the airport if they would not check my
ID because it is within the EU, I assume airport done their due diligence” (p, D), “I have
noticed that sometimes they do not check IDs when you check-in with your phone but I
know that air security regulations are very strict and I think they have a good reason for
not checking IDs” (p, G). Also, the security checks came forward, here the health issues
were discussed and it appeared that the interviewees trust the airport to have done
sufficient testing to be able to use this technology: “I did not really think about the health
issues, but now that you say it maybe next time I will think about it. Same as I mentioned
Figure 7 Codes within the theme safety
Safety
Trust
Airport
Person
Safe enough
Feeling safer
33
before I trust that the airport introduces something new only when it is tested and
approved, so I feel safe to use it” (p, E).
On the other hand of the safety code, there is trust in a person, who can make the customer
feel at ease because the customer trusts the personnel to do all the procedures right. These
people would rather make use of the option without technology because they will second
guess themselves after using this: “I would always go to the counter because I feel safer
when someone else does it for me, I trust them to do it right. When I do it alone, I always
keep second-guessing myself” (p, C).
Safe enough – some of the interviewees said that they were feeling safe enough, which is
an interesting code. We told the interviewees that the new security scanners might
improve safety; however, their experience is not so good with those new scanners, and
therefore some interviewees explained that the old scanner is safe enough for them. So,
they were saying that the inconveniences outweighed the possible safety improvements:
“whenever there is this new scanner and old one, I would choose the old one because I
feel safe enough with those” (p, G), “but even if the new technology is slower but provides
better safety I do not need it because the old scanner is already safe enough for me” (p,
H), “this new technology is less satisfying even though it might be safer. They should
explain more about the benefits for me to understand why they use it. I feel that airplanes
are safe enough already” (p, D)
Feeling safer – the last code that makes up the theme safety is, feeling safer, again, this
code turned up several times. The first time this is mentioned is with the check-in, here
someone mentioned that going to a real person makes her feel safer: “I would always go
to the counter because I feel safer when someone else does it for me” (p, C). Further
along, with the security check several interviewees pointed out to feel safer with newer
technologies, this seemed more advanced which they associate with a higher level of
safety: “I like the new technology because it seems advanced, so I feel safer with
this development” (p, E), “I feel safer with newer and more advanced technology” (p, I).
Yet another factor of ‘feeling safer’ came forward during the unfortunate event of a
delayed flight, when this happens the interviewee is notified through a message on their
phone giving information about what is going on, this feels safer than the time no
massages are sent: “I had a delay, then I got notifications on my phone giving all
34
information which was nice, this way you know what is going on which is nice and helps
you to feel safer and more relaxed” (p, B)
4.3. Inconvenience
The third theme that caught attention while analysing were the times the interviewees
were not happy with something which is represented in the theme inconvenience. The
theme inconvenience is comprised out of 5 codes, were the same thing appeared, which
is that some of these codes emerging several times when asking about different
technologies, see Figure 8.
Less convenient (complaints) – in the first theme, things are making the processes
smoother; however, this is not always the case. Many times, the interviewees talked about
annoying things and did not like. Most times, when complaining, they were compared
with the preferable technology; this is why the code less convenient emerged. This code
turned up in quite a few different technologies, starting with the check-in technology the
new technology made some interviewees feel unease: “I felt that it was a little insecure
cause I could go through the whole airport with my boarding pass without anybody
checking my ID” (p, F). Most of the complaints appeared during the security check
process; it is interesting to see the appearance of some contradicting experiences.
On the one hand, some interviewees see less convenient elements on the old technology;
“always have to remove my shoes with the regular metal detector, and I do not like this”
(p, H), “I do not like if people want to check you and when you use this old scanner it
happens more often” (p, A), and on the other hand some interviewees complain about the
new CFT; “I prefer the metal detector because I do not have anything to hide and the
other one is very invasive. Because they scan my whole body and I do not know where
they store all that data, so actually I am concerned about my privacy and do not feel
comfortable about it” (p, D), “for the new version, I get that it is saver, but it is also
Figure 8 Codes within the theme inconvenience
Inconvenience
Less convenient
Slower Heath issuesLack of
informationUpdates on
phone
35
annoying because you have to stand in the right position, and this takes too long, and I
feel super weird standing there” (p, B). Lastly, the use of interactive navigation screens
is not perceived well, as mentioned by one of the interviewees, it should be easy to use
instead of making it more confusing: “some of the airports have interactive information
screens, those are annoying to me. They take much time to use it is slow, and the
usability is bad, and there is a lack of logic in the use of the technology” (p, D).
Slower – next up is the speed factor ‘slower’ which, as mentioned earlier, is an important
factor for the convenience theme. For the theme inconvenience, the speed factor is also
import; however, this time, the interviewees complained about the speed of certain
processes. This time issue is mentioned many times at all the technologies the customers
interacted with, meaning this is high on the priority list of the customers. Many
interviewees talked about that at one point they have to wait in line which most of them
find annoying: “if I could choose between a self-kiosk and a counter, I would go for the
one that has a shorter queue. Lines bother me a bit” (p, J), “Lines that are too long can
be very annoying, and this feels like I have to rush more” (p, D). It is interesting to see
that when having the option, the interviewees will go for the fastest option, this is their
main priority when being on the airport: “I use the self-service kiosk because it is more
convenient, and it is faster. If there would not be a long waiting line at the service counter;
however, I would go there for some personal contact I would even prefer this because
then they can do it for me. The main reason for is thus time” (p, D).
Health issues – within one of the technologies, the body scanner, a health issue is part of
the process. The interviewees did not always acknowledge this before, but when asked
about this, it is something they will consider next time and were not always happy about:
“it will bother me if this technology affects my health because safety first” (p, J), “I do not
like the new scanners, it works with a kind of x-ray, and I feel sceptical about this because
x-ray is not good for my health” (p, G).
Lack of information – on the airport there is much information shared with the customers;
however, this is not always received well: “I feel like I have a bit of a lack of information,
I always find it hard to find the information I need” (p, I). So, one of the codes of contains
the problems concerning information. This problem first arises during the check-in
process; when people are going to the airport with additional luggage, they have to check-
in some of the interviewees mention the lack of information about the self-service-kiosk.
36
Because this lack of information they do not use this technology: “there are not that many
of those self-check-in kiosks in the airports and if there are then I think there is a lack of
information about these kiosks, probably I would use machines if I see them” (p, G). After
checking in and going through the security check, the interviewees talk about some
improvements that can be made regarding navigational information which at the moment
is not always clear to them: “what could improve is that you would see your walking
direction displayed on the screen next to your gate number because sometimes those
regular direction signs are confusing me” (p, F). What also happened to many of the
interviewees is that their flight had a delay. This causes the passengers to wait until the
plane is ready to depart, during this waiting, a lack of information about the reason of the
delay and waiting time is upsetting: “there was no information about the reason of my
delay, and I would like to get this information” (p, A), “what I do not like is a lack of
information when your flight is delayed, then you are just waiting without knowing how
long it will take and what is going on” (p, I). When arriving at the gate, yet another
information problem appears, this time in the form of the lack of clear communication.
Because the process of boarding section for section is not communicated well enough
instead of improving it only made the process more confusing: “the section coding
system I experience once, but I did not understand it, it was not well enough
communicated to me so I entered the plane last” (p, B), “I think this category system
should be improved because it was unclear and is still not good enough” (p, F). Lastly,
something that applies to the whole process of air travelling is information on the waiting
times; the interviewees feel that by having the information about how long they need to
wait for this improves the experience: “if they showed how long I need to wait, it would
improve people’s experience because they would feel better prepared for that” (p, F).
Better informed updates on phones – finally because the interviewees can compare certain
processes to similar experiences, they have expectations to towards technologies. This is
also the case with flight information; people are so used to receiving information on their
phone that they start expecting this everywhere. Also, because some airlines already send
personal updates about flight information to people’s phone this is something the
interviewees now expect from the airlines and complain about when this is not the case:
“airlines should always provide information on our smartphones because everyone has
37
it, like sending an SMS because you do not hear voice messages at the airport” (p, A).
Therefore, the last code is better-informed updates on phones.
4.4. Context of flying
The fourth and last theme that is part of the analysis is the context of flying, meaning that
when the participants described a different purpose, we saw a change in how they perceive
their air travelling process. It turned out that there are several perspectives to this air
travelling process. The three main perspectives that appeared are air travelling as part of
the holiday, air travelling just as a way of transport, and flying for business. Also, it came
to light that these perceptions changed over time which is, therefore, the fourth
influencing factor on the context of flying theme, see Figure 9.
Part of the holiday – the first code that makes up this, concept of flying theme is where
the participants see the process of air travel as a part of the holiday. The interviewees that
see air travel this way mentioned that their purpose is leisure, therefore, they do not have
high expectations towards waiting times when going to the airport, it is their own
(vacation) time. They do not mind waiting a bit on the airport: “when going to the airport
I do not mind waiting because you have to be there on time anyway” (p, C), “people that
go on vacation, they have more time so then I expect to wait a little bit longer” (p, B).
Way of transport – with the second code for context of flying, way of transport, the
interviewees perceive the air travelling process differently. Within this part of the theme,
the interviewees have different expectations towards the processes and technologies at
the airport: “I see flying as transportation, so I do not care about al the shops on the
airport, so I do not need al kind of info what is available on the airport I just need to know
how to get to my gate” (p, E). The participants who look at the air travelling process this
way want a smooth and fast process, including all the interactions with technologies.
Figure 9 Codes within the theme Context of fling
Context of flying
Part of holiday Way of transportFlying for business
Flying experience
38
Flying for business – then there are the participants that flown for business, here people
are not flying in their own time and have higher expectations towards the air travelling
process: “it is time I spend for work this is not my own time, so I expect everything to go
faster and smooth” (p, I), “on a business trip I expect you to have less time so everything
should be done quite easily and fast so that you do not have to wait for a long time” (p,
B). Here we see that the purpose of flying changes, which then affects the customers’
expectations.
Flying experience – lastly, there are three different contexts described; however,
perceptions change when experiencing something several times, as the interviewees told
us: “my expectations changed because I flew many times” (p, D). We see that there is a
relation between the experience and how the participants perceive their flight, the more
they fly, the more they see flying as a way of transport, which changes their expectations.
39
5. Analysis & Discussion ______________________________________________________________________
The empirical findings are investigated and relation to customer satisfaction is clarified.
Different topics are examined with the goal to outline each theme’s influence on customer
satisfaction. Discussion section introduces a model that explains how new CFTs affect
the customer satisfaction.
______________________________________________________________________
5.1. Convenience
Our data show that the new CFTs partially have a positive influence on customer
experience. The theme convenience confirms that technologies improve the processes at
the airport. If we want to understand how and why this theme affects customer
satisfaction, we have to look back at what previous research said about satisfaction.
Looking at the data, we see that the interviewees have all flown more than once and,
therefore, can rely on and compare previous experiences when forming an expectation.
Our theoretical framework has shown us that several approaches propose to
operationalize customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction construct. Here we are looking at the
Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory. Subsequent usage reveals actual performance levels
that are compared to expectation levels using, among other things, a better-than heuristic,
which relate to the codes that make up the theme convenience; faster, comfortability,
easier usage, clarity of information. The judgement in this case that results from this
comparison is labelled positive disconfirmation, meaning that the customers are satisfied.
Within the expectancy disconfirmation theory, there are three determinants of satisfaction
(Brookes, 1995):
1. Prior expectations – We know that all of our interviewees have had at least one
experience in the last three months, because this is one criterion for selection of
the participants, and they told us that they had several more before that.
2. Performance assessment – Because all participants can compare with prior
experience, they can do a comparative assessment of the service performance the
technologies offer.
40
3. Disconfirmation – After this experience, the participants made a post-performance
judgement, and for the theme convenience, this judgement is better than expected,
meaning that the customers experienced a certain degree of satisfaction.
Now we know that the participants made a comparative performance assessment, with a
positive disconfirmation, which resulted in satisfaction. An essential factor in our
understanding is knowing the nature of these expectations. Several factors come in to play
when forming these expectations (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1993):
1. Ideal – there seems to be a certain level of performance that the customer wishes
to see, this is best seen within the comments that talked about inconveniences:
“airlines should always provide information on our smartphones because
everyone has it” (p, A).
2. Brand – the brand can be seen as the airport and airline which the customer uses,
there are definitely ‘brands’ that set a standard, and therefore people complain
when this standard is not met: “even though the airport is small I expect the airport
to have all the services and updated technology” (p, D). The customers expect the
next experience to live up to their standard.
3. Expected – the ideal is created through comparison with previous experiences and
therefore when talking about what is expected comparisons are made: I prefer the
metal detector because I do not have anything to hide and the other one is very
invasive” (p, D).
4. Minimum tolerable – there is a certain lowest level of expectancy for the customer
to become satisfied the interviewees also mention this: “when going to smaller
airports I expect less fancy technology, but still the basics like Wi-Fi should be
available” (p, E).
Overall, the participants mentioned at the end of the interviews that in general the new
CFTs meet their expectations and make them satisfied: “in general the new technologies
satisfy my expectations” (p, E). Therefore, from the previous argumentation can be
concluded that the theme ‘convenience’ has as outcome customer satisfaction (see Figure
10).
41
Figure 10 Satisfaction as an outcome of convenience
5.2. Safety
In chapter 5.1 the theme convenience is analysed; safety works similarly as convenience.
Whenever participant use codes that indicate safety, research shows how that is linked to
satisfaction, as mentioned in chapter 5.1. Because safety works similar to convenience,
all the codes used by the participants that indicate safety are linked to satisfaction
(Brookes, 1995). Safety emerged as the outcome out of trust and two safety elements.
Trust turned up when the interviewees talked about the airport personnel and the
technologies used in airports. It is believed that without trust, all social relations would
operate irregularly or even collapse. Customer trust is considered as feelings, thoughts,
emotions or manners that appear when customers have a sensation that a giver might
depend on when behaviour is in their most adequate concern (Patrick, 2002).
Moreover, it is underlined that trust is a more powerful emotion than satisfaction
(Ranaweera & Prahbu, 2003). Dabholkar and Sheng (2012), Yoon (2002), Crosby, Evans
& Cowles (1990) carried out researches and discovered an essential relation between
satisfaction and trust. It can thus be stated that there is a positive connection between
customer trust and customer satisfaction. Trust usually appears before satisfaction,
because firstly customers trust the service depending on several elements that have an
outcome as customer satisfaction (Lin & Wang, 2006; Erics, Unal, Candan, & Yildirim,
2012; Gul, 2014).
Factors, which include being safe enough and feeling safer appeared when the participants
used the check-in procedure, security scanners and information technologies. It is
SatisfactionConvenience
Faster
Comfortability
Easier usage
Clarity of information
42
perceived from the collected data that some of the air travellers are feeling safe enough
with the old type body scanners, while others claim that they feel safer with newer
technologies. If failure or delayed flight occurs, the amount of the time between reaction
and informing must be kept to a minimum because “…is nice and helps you to feel safer
and more relaxed” (p, B). A research conducted by Ceccato & Masci (2017) found that
11 out of 14 studies´ variables resulted as passenger safety that had the outcome of
satisfaction. When looking at the collected data, travellers who claim that feeling safe
enough with the overall services and technologies of the airports are likely to recognize
themselves as satisfied. Respectively the same applies to the ones that feel even safer.
Passengers that feel safe enough or much safer prefer safety over waiting times at
checkpoints because they trust the technology or competence of the airport personnel. In
general, security checkpoints are usually the origin of passenger stress that is received for
standard safety (Kirschenbaum, 2013; Oliveira, Ferrer, & Parasuraman, 2012). Passenger
security is a significant interpretative element on customer satisfaction (Güreş et al.,
2017), and this relationship is supported by previous researches (Bezerra & Gomes,
2015). Outcomes of safety factors are not only customer satisfaction but also the ones that
have affirmative experience about overall airport security are more likely to use flying
for longer distances and do it more frequently (Srinivasan, Bhat, & Holguin-Veras, 2006).
Consequently, passengers´ positive experience attracts more travellers and enlarge
prospects of airports and airlines.
To conclude, all safety theme’s factors that include codes of trust, being safe enough, and
feeling safer are directly related to satisfaction. Therefore, from the arguments above, it
comes that the theme of safety has the outcome of customer satisfaction (see Figure 11).
Figure 11 Satisfaction as the outcome of safety
SatisfactionSafety
Trust
Airport
Person
Safe enough
Feeling safer
43
5.3. Inconvenience
In chapter 5.1 the theme convenience is analysed; inconvenience is the counterpart of
convenience. Whenever participant use codes that indicate convenience research shows
how that is linked to satisfaction, as mentioned in chapter 5.1. Because inconvenience is
convenience’s counterpart, all the codes used by the participants that indicate
inconvenience are linked to dissatisfaction (Brookes, 1995). Inconvenience consists of 5
codes that emerged during the interviews (i.e. less convenient, slower, health issues,
improvements needed, better updates on the phone). In general, all codes are strongly
related to the discomfort that creates troubles or difficulties to one’s requirements or
comfort. Code called ‘less convenient’ emerged when interviewees complained about the
smoothness of airport processes and personal preferences to certain technologies. A next
code ‘Slower’ emerged when individuals were complaining about the speed factor of
specific procedures that make them frustrated. ‘Health issues’ appeared when
interviewees were concerned about certain health effects of the technologies. Codes
named ‘improvement needed’ and ‘better-informed updates on phones’ originated
because of issues regarding getting too less information and preferences in particular
means to get this information.
As suggested, all these codes mentioned above fit perfectly under the same frame
‘inconvenience’. In general, service convenience is agreed to be as a way of bringing
value to customers that is achieved when lowering the time and effort an individual has
to spend for the wanted service (Colwell, Aung, Kanetkar, & Holden, 2008). When this
is not achieved, it can be oppositely called service inconvenience. Consequences of
provided services can involve a rise of reliability, rightness, perceived quality, and
common satisfaction (Olsen & Johnson, 2003). Emerged codes represent complaints
which appear when the customer’s expectations are not met; therefore, it can be arguably
assessed as dissatisfaction. On the contrary, when customer expectations are met, it can
be assessed as satisfaction (Colwell, Aung, Kanetkar, & Holden, 2008). Moreover,
consumer’s inconvenience is more likely to decrease preferences for automated services
which is not the outcome airport is looking for.
To sum up, codes that include ‘less convenient’, ‘slower’, ‘health issues’, ‘’improvements
needed’, ‘better updates on the phone’ are related to theme ‘inconvenience’ which is
44
rationally associated to dissatisfaction. Consequently, all arguments discussed verify that
inconvenience has the outcome of customer dissatisfaction (see Figure 12).
Figure 12 Dissatisfaction as the outcome of inconvenience
5.4. Context of flying
The theme context of flying is standing on its own and influences all the previous
described themes. The emphasis of this theme is on the psychological part of customer
satisfaction. Within this psychological area, two interesting processes of customer
behaviour have been studied: learning processes and cognitive dissonance theory
(Blackwell, Miniard, & Engel, 2006; Yi, 1990). The cognitive dissonance theory can be
seen as a learning process; it describes the customer adjusting their previous attitude to
their judgement of the perceived performance, also called an assimilation process. This
is precisely what the research notices with the different perceptions the interviewees have
towards the air travelling process. The participants with less flying experience have
different expectancies than the participants with more experience, as they mentioned
themselves, these expectations change when flying more often or when the purpose of
flying changes.
Now, this can be combined with the first stage of the customer decision-making process,
need recognition (Mont & Plepys, 2003). The ‘need recognition’ happens when a person
notices the difference between the ideal situation and one’s current situation. However,
the research sees a difference within this need recognition between the participants, some
DissatisfactionInconvenience
Less convenient
Slower
Health issues
Imrovements needed
Better updates on phone
45
are going on a holiday and recognise the need to fly to their destination, therefore, seeing
flying as a way of transportation: “I see flying as transportation, so I do not care about
all the shops on the airport, see I do not need all kind of info what is available on the
airport I just need to know how to get to my gate” (p, E). More or less the same goes for
flying for business, here the participants see flying more as a way of transportation, and
because it is not in their own time, they expect the air travelling process to be faster and
smoother. The other participants recognise the need to go on a holiday and see flying
more as a part of this holiday; therefore, their whole perception of the air travelling
process is different “people that go on vacation, they have more time, so then I expect to
wait a little bit longer” (p, B). When analysing the needs, we also have to look at the well-
known hierarchy introduced by Maslow (1943). Both the needs fall into the same, self-
actualisation section of the hierarchy; however, the perception tends to show that the
participants that perceive flying as a way of transport prioritise certain aspects (codes)
above others. For the participants that see the flying as a way of transportation they want
to get to their destination and get the air travelling process out of the way as quickly as
possible, therefore prioritizing the speed (fast) and smoothness (comfort & easier). On
the other hand, the people that see flying as part of their holiday prioritize feeling safer
and trust in a real person higher, and therefore being fine with a longer process.
This concept becomes more interesting when taking the flying experience of the
participants into account because we can see that the more people fly influences their
perception. The more people fly, the more people approach flying as a way of transport
instead of part of the holiday. We see a change of purpose appear; this shows a similar
effect as for people that instead of flying for leisure fly for business. Therefore, their
expectations for the air travelling process change. Because these people have different
expectations, meeting these expectations changes, and therefore it changes their
satisfaction. The more experienced flyers have more comparative material and therefore
know better what to expect. We see that these more experienced flyers change their
expectations towards a faster and smoother process; they prioritize these factors more. If
their (higher) expectation towards these a smaller selection of factors is not met, they are
dissatisfied. So, from this, we can take that when people fly and use CFTs more often,
they are dissatisfied sooner.
46
5.5. Discussion
Having analysed all the data makes us understand what the themes mean and how they
relate to the known theory of customer satisfaction. The data suggest that the new CFTs
affect customer satisfaction in two ways, either the customers are satisfied with the
technology or they are dissatisfied. A variety of codes and themes determines these
outcomes. These codes and themes are the foundation for customers that decide their
expectations and therefore, after the service, they either feel satisfied or dissatisfied. As a
result of this, the research found how the new CFTs affect the customer’s satisfaction in
airports, which is further elaborated upon below.
As the analysis shows, there are four themes (i.e. convenience, safety, inconvenience, and
context of flying), further analysis shows a relation between these themes and previous
research. As mentioned earlier, several factors influence expectations (Brookes, 1995),
‘the service itself’, ‘the context’, ‘individual characteristics’.
Identifying the factors that influence expectations helps us to understand how new CFTs
affect customer satisfaction on airports, as we know from the ‘Expectancy
Disconfirmation Theory’ from Oliver and DeSarbo (1988) that “Consumers are believed
to form expectations of product performance characteristics before purchase. Subsequent
purchase and usage reveal actual performance levels that are compared to expectation
levels using a better-than, worse-than heuristic. The judgement that results from this
comparison is labelled negative disconfirmation if the product is worse than expected,
positive disconfirmation if better than expected” (p. 495). As customers, forming
expectations is the foundation of the expectancy disconfirmation theory, so, determining
the factors influencing expectations is an essential step in understanding how new CFTs
affect customer satisfaction on airports.
Linking the data to the literature shows that the themes and codes are the factors
influencing expectations. The research found that the first determinant of expectations are
the themes ‘convenience’, ‘safety’, and ‘inconvenience’. They are the factors determining
the 'service itself’, which is the first influencing factor of expectations described by
Brookes. Secondly, the theme ‘context of flying’ is a determinant factor that influences
expectations, described as a second factor by Brookes. Lastly, the code ‘flying
experience’ is an ‘individual character’ making it the last determinant factor that
influences expectations (Brookes, 1995).
47
The influencing factors for expectations are the basis for the further process of customer
satisfaction. As seen in the previous analysis, the themes, convenience, safety and
inconvenience all work according to the Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory’ from
Oliver and DeSarbo (1988). With the set of expectations, the customer will approach the
air travelling process facing all the new technologies: “subsequent usage of the new CFTs
reveals actual performance levels that are compared to expectation levels using a better-
than, worse-than heuristic” (Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988, p. 495). The judgement that
results from this comparison is one of the three themes, convenience, safety, or
inconvenience, with each having their disconfirmation outcome.
Chapter 5.4 describes how this process relates to the first stage of the customer decision-
making process - need recognition (Mont & Plepys, 2003). This is the beginning of the
customer satisfaction process, and therefore at this moment, the customer starts forming
their expectations. Within the needs the research sees differences appear that are
determined by the influencing factors for the expectations, a need recognition might be
that someone needs to fly for business. These participants see flying as a way of
transportation, and because it is not in their own time, they expect the air travelling
process to be faster and smoother, compared to another need recognition such as flying
as a part of the holiday. The research shows how these needs are prioritised by the
individuals using the hierarchy of needs, introduced by Maslow (1943). This connection
shows that the participants, when having a different need-recognition (i.e. flying for
business, flying as part of the holiday, or flying as a way of transport), prioritise certain
aspects (codes) above others. For the participants that see the flying as a way of
transportation, they want to get to their destination fast and get the air travelling process
out of the way as quickly as possible, therefore prioritizing the speed (fast) and
smoothness (comfort & easier). On the other hand, the people that see flying as part of
their holiday feel more relaxed and prioritize feeling safer and trust in a real person higher,
and therefore are fine with a longer process.
Introducing the last influencing factor of expectations ‘individual characteristics’ shows
that the flying experience of the participants determines which need is recognised. The
more people fly, the more people approach flying as a way of transport instead of part of
the holiday. The more experienced flyers have more comparative material and therefore
know better what to expect. We see that these more experienced flyers change their
48
expectations and prioritise a faster and smoother process. If their (higher) expectation
towards this smaller selection of factors is not met, they are dissatisfied. So, from this, we
can take that when people fly and use customer-facing technologies more often, they are
dissatisfied sooner.
To sum up, this research confirmed the finding of earlier research and applied this to the
process a customer at the airport undergoes, illustrated in Figure 13. The research,
therefore, confirms that the process of customer satisfaction at airports starts at the need
recognition. How the need recognition is perceived depends on the experience of the
customer (individual characteristic). The way the need is perceived decides the priority
of the factors that describe the new CFTs service, thereby setting the expectations towards
the process of interacting with the new CFTs. The customer then interacts with the
service, meanwhile assessing the performance (comparing to the expectations), and
afterwards a positive or negative disconfirmation is made upon deciding if service is
better or worse than expected. A positive disconfirmation leaves the customer satisfied,
and a negative disconfirmation leaves the customer dissatisfied. This process answers the
main RQ: ‘how will new customer-facing technologies at airports affect the air travellers’
satisfaction?’. The research enriches customer satisfaction literature by shedding light on
how this applies to new CFTs on airports; it also introduces the factors travellers use to
assess the air travelling experience.
NEED RECOGNITION
FLYING FOR BUSINESS | WAY OF TRANSPORT | PART OF HOLIDAY
PRIORITISE FACTORS
FORM EXPECTATIONS
EXPERIENCE THE SERVICE
THE SERVICE ITSELF
THE CONTEXT
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS
PERFORMANCE ASSESMENT
DISCONFIRMATION OF EXPECTATION
SATISFACTION
CONVENIENCE SAFETY INCONVENIENCE
DISSATISFACTION
Figure 13 Consumer satisfaction on airports model
49
6. Conclusion & implication
______________________________________________________________________
The purpose of this chapter is to comprise the results of the data analysis with the goal
to answer the research question. Implications within various fields are presented
including theoretical, practical, and societal areas. Ultimately, this chapter includes the
ideas and suggestions for the future research.
______________________________________________________________________
6.1. Purpose and research question
New CFTs became a big part of the airport industry over the last couple of decades, and
it brought us many great things (Brida & Moreno-Izquierdo, 2016). Nevertheless, these
new airport technologies also brought new problems that result in air travellers having
some issues that might get them irritated (Carstens, 2019). In the existing literature, there
is so far only limited research that relates new CFTs to customer satisfaction (Bezerra &
Gomes, 2016); instead, these studies analysed the connection amongst service quality and
customer satisfaction. Aspects of the interaction between passengers and new CFTs are
overlooked. Due to this lack of analysis, this research has the aim to investigate the effects
of new CFTs on customer satisfaction. Therefore, within an explorative goal and
performing inductive research, the outcome of this research can answer the main research
question: How will new customer-facing technologies at airports affect the air travellers’
satisfaction?
So, directly answering this question gives; the study constructed a model explaining the
process of customer satisfaction on airports. The process starts at the need recognition;
how the need is perceived depends on the experience of the individual. The way the need
is perceived decides the priority of the factors that describe the new CFTs service, thereby
setting the expectations towards the process of interacting with the new CFTs. The
customer then interacts with the service, meanwhile assessing the performance
(comparing to the expectations), and afterwards a positive or negative disconfirmation is
made upon deciding if service is better or worse than expected. A positive disconfirmation
leaves the customer satisfied, and a negative disconfirmation leaves the customer
dissatisfied.
50
6.2. Theoretical implications
Previous studies in the area of customer satisfaction at airports have principally been
concentrating on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality
(Bezerra & Gomes, 2016), while the relation between customer satisfaction and new
airport technologies is overlooked. However, Bezzera & Gomes (2016) tried to connect
the adoption of new CFTs to customer satisfaction, but they stated a few limitations and
one of them asserts that they only examined large airports in the United States.
By implementing qualitative research on the link between new airport technologies to
customer satisfaction, the research contributes to theory with a novel finding by merely
focusing on new CFTs in European airports and studying only European air-travellers,
hence this new theory is particularly useful for the European airport network. With the
process of an inductive approach, the discovery is made about how customer satisfaction
is connected to new CFTs on airports and introduces the factors travellers use to assess
the air travelling experience. Such a path to air-travellers satisfaction or dissatisfaction on
airports has not been recognized within former literature; thus, this research enriches
customer satisfaction literature about CFTs on airports.
Additionally, the research introduces a new model that helps to explain the path to
customer satisfaction by having a connection between new CFTs and passengers using
these technologies. This new model covers relevant issues associated with the process of
passenger expectations that impact their satisfaction. All this has induced awareness of
how customers get affected by the usage of new technologies at the airport depending on
several personal factors. Hence, this research has developed theoretical awareness of the
phenomena of passenger-technologies correlation as well as previous extended research
with new relevant findings.
6.3. Practical implications
Outlining from the discoveries of this study, the research expects that managers of sectors
related to airport services and technologies can take advantage of this research and exploit
it to create new knowledge. This knowledge can help to introduce new CFTs successfully.
As it is stated in this study, there exist several customer context factors that affect the way
the customer is pleased. Therefore, when hiring new managers, this new information
51
could be introduced to them because this thesis demonstrates the significance of having
a satisfied customer. Likewise, it is useful for broadening managers’ current
understanding of risks that could arise when new CFTs are introduced.
Manufactures of CFTs can use the research to their advantage; this research shows the
factors customers use to express their experience. This can be adopted in brainstorm
sessions for the development of new products. Using this research can create an advantage
over competitors when being able to improve the factors customers were dissatisfied with.
This study has extended the current literature and built the foundation to further
understanding the effects of new CFTs on customer satisfaction. It thereby combines two
topics that help the airport’s management to improve their customer satisfaction.
6.4. Limitations
Fundamentally, the qualitative nature of this study includes general limitations. As
qualitative research requires the researchers to interpret social constructs and interactions
in a particular context, it leads to an inevitable bias which is typical for qualitative
research (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Besides, the small sample size of this study limits the
generalisability of findings (Bryman & Bell, 2011). So, even though the analysis and
discussion of data were defined to support generalisability, findings of this study are not
applicable to the airports all over the world, air-travellers might have different
expectations towards the air travelling experience elsewhere.
Another limitation of this study is a time constraint; this mainly affected the data
collection procedure. Because of this time constraint, there was no other option to only
interview individuals currently living in. The research got further limited by the time
constraint in the selection of participants, as the research selected mostly individuals that
are known in person. Hence, the issues caused by the time constraints have resulted in a
relatively lower amount of collected data diversity. Also, only selecting known
participants makes the sampling biased, most of the known people, reasonably young
people, fly relatively often, compared to older people (Kunst, 2019). Hence, they are used
to airport technology and give a different reaction when you interview them. Moreover,
interviewing only people that are in Sweden brings bias into the sampling. The most
recent used airport is Swedish, and an airport in Sweden may give a very different
experience than an airport in another country.
52
Additionally, more limitations arose within this research in the way the qualitative data
collection is carried out; some of the interviews were conducted using online video call
platforms. The reason for this is that some of the individuals were aware regarding the
prevalence of international pandemic caused by Coronavirus disease 2019; therefore, they
agreed only on conducting interviews via online video call platforms. The conversations
were occasionally suffering from poor audio and video quality and, consequently, it might
have resulted in some inaccuracies in the data. Moreover, video interviews can cause the
interviewees to be more stressed because the interviewees might not be comfortable with
being on camera. Also, the video call could be an obstacle that holds interviewees’ real
personality from coming through; therefore, this could affect collecting as comprehensive
data as possible.
6.5. Future research
Since this research performed a qualitative study, it focussed on understanding how the
relation works between the new CFTs and customer satisfaction. With the discovery of
customer satisfaction on airports model, future research should consider quantifying and
verifying the findings of this study. The research now shows how the process works.
However, it does not give any information about the level of satisfaction that is perceived.
A quantitative approach can verify the results and test the specific technologies to give
more insight into the level of satisfaction that is perceived. This can give a better
understanding of which of the technologies are performing to which extent. Also, it might
show similarities, therefore, showing why certain technologies work better than the
others.
During the process of this research, a disaster hit the aviation, which unrecognizably
changed the industry. The reason behind this is the spread of Coronavirus disease, which
affected all the aviation industry and the majority of countries all around the world
introduced travel restrictions. Therefore, airlines were forced to cut numbers of flights
which resulted in lots of airplanes being grounded for an unknown amount of time, Air
France-KLM, for instance, had to cut their capacity by up to 90 per cent (Reid, 2020).
Future research could be conducted, analysing how the relationship between air-traveller
satisfaction and new CFTs has changed because of the introduction of long-term travel
53
restrictions. A possible hypothesis might be that this lowers the passengers’ expectations
because people will appreciate being able to fly more and therefore are more accepting.
54
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Appendix A
Source: IATA, 2019
64
Appendix B
Opening, general questions:
1. How often do you fly (times/year)? How often do you fly inside Europe?
2. What was your purpose for flying most recently?
3. What are your other purposes when you are flying?
More in depth questions:
4. When going to an airport what technologies do you face/use? How do these
technologies help you? What are your expectations of these technologies? Do
they satisfy you? Can you give an example of some of these technologies when
using them and how you felt about it?
5. Can you now describe, with examples, the process of entering the airport till
leaving the airport and what technologies you used, what was good/bad about
the experience?
a. First encounter (probably check-in). What did you expect of the service? Was
this expectation met, or was it better or worse than expected? Did you feel satisfied with this service? Why?
b. Second encounter (probably security check) What did you expect of the service? Was this expectation met, or was it better or worse than expected? Did you feel satisfied with this service? Why?
c. Third encounter (probably information kiosks?) What did you expect of the service? Was this expectation met, or was it better or worse than expected? Did you feel satisfied with this service? Why?
d. Fourth encounter (probably boarding) What did you expect of the service? Was this expectation met, or was it better or worse than expected? Did you feel satisfied with this service? Why?
e. Fifth encounter? What did you expect of the service? Was this expectation met, or was it better or worse than expected? Did you feel satisfied with this service? Why?
6. What airport did you like the most in the EU? Why? Which airport did you like the least in the EU? Why? Explain your worst experience at an airport?
Closure questions:
7. In general, what do you think about the technologies at the airport, which are positive, and which still need to improve?
8. Does the technology on airports influence your satisfaction?
65
Appendix C
Faster
Comfortability Convenience
Safety
Health issues
Inconvenience
Easier usage
Check-in
Trust
Luggage check-in
Faster
Safe enough
Feeling safer
Less convinient
Slower
Information
Updates on phone
Clear information
Lack of information
Feeling safer
Faster
Boarding Slower
Online check-in
Self service kiosk
Counter
Metal detector
Body scanner
Airport navigation
Flight information
Person
Selfscan
Security check
Codes Themes
Trust
Less convinient
Feeling safer
Context of flying
Flying experience
Part of the holiday
Way of transport
Business
