Conceptual Model of E-commerce Businesses in Tourism Based on Meta-Synthesis Method

E-business has branched off the important work models of the twenty-first century that, in addition to building strong relationships with current customers, seek to attract more and more customers in today's dynamic and complex market environment. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework for e-commerce businesses in the field of tourism. The indicators of this study are combined using the meta-synthesis method.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The meta-synthesis method was used to collect the required data. The study population was electronic databases. The research sample population in the present research included scientific sources from 2000 to 2020. The value of the Kappa index was equal to 0.712 and the articles extracted and analyzed through the hyper-combined method had a considerable and good level of reliability. The seven-step method of Sandlowski and Barroso was used to perform the meta-synthesis method.

In this study, six criteria (customer relationship, hardware network, software network, business efficiency, content (employee behavior), and business structure) have been identified, among which 29 sub-criteria were introduced as well.

Real-world managers and users have been advised to develop e-commerce businesses in the field of tourism; besides focusing on six main categories including customer relationship, hardware network, software network, business performance, employee behavior, business model, and variables, they should pay attention to related sub-sections.

Originality/value:

 The extracted new components of tourism e-commerce businesses in the northern region of the country and the categorization of codes for the final analysis and interpretation in the meta-combination method and presenting a conceptual model are innovations of this research.