Multi-Dimensional Classification and Evaluation of B2E Mobile Services for the Tourism Industry

Abstract

Even mobile commerce is a hot topic; the development of mobile services for intra-organizational use is still rare and slow. As being agile, mobile, experience-based, and knowledge-oriented, the tourism industry casts strong needs for mobile communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among employees including tour guides, tour operators, line controllers, and other support teams. In this paper, we present a multi-dimensional B2E mobile service classification and evaluation approach for the tourism industry. For service design and classification concerns, managerial and functional dimensions are taken into account simultaneously. In the management dimension, four management levels are strategic planning, management control, knowledge sharing, and operational control. In the functional dimension, three functional categories of mobile services include wireless communication, location-based support, and context-based support respectively. For service evaluation concerns, three criteria including importance, feasibility, and cost-benefit effectiveness are adopted to evaluate and rank identified mobile services. Based on research findings, suggestions and recommendations are provided to mobile service providers as well as tourism agencies and operators for efficiently and effectively developing and delivering employee-oriented mobile services.