Análisis de los factores que condicionan la elección del canal de compra por parte del consumidor: evidencias empíricas en la industria hotelera

This work focuses on analyzing the economic factors that influence the consumer's distribution channel choice. With this aim, we use the Agency Theory in order to understand the influence of related problems such as information asymmetries and opportunism. All of this is taken into account to examine the booking process of a particular tourism service: a hotel overnight. The analysis of a sample of 1,029 tourists who had made their booking either through Internet or through traditional channels has revealed interesting findings: (1) the main sources of uncertainty in the phases prior to the purchase choice are determined by the lack of trust towards the Internet, (2) signals emitted by firms to mitigate information asymmetries contribute to build trust towards the company chosen, and (3) trust towards selected firms shows how the buyer makes the reservation through the channel with the lowest perceived risk.