A Critical Realist Perspective on the Adoption of Internet Technologies in the Travel Sector

The paper adopts a critical realist perspective in examining Australian travel agents’ uptake of Internet-based technologies and associated managerial changes. The research was prompted by the observation that the advent of the Web did not seem to provide the expected proliferation of new travel agency intermediaries given that the Web had promised a new frontier with new intermediaries and radical change within the sector. A series of qualitative interviews were carried out to explore the strategic decisions the travel agents made with regard to the advent of the Internet. This research made clear the overwhelming regulatory procedures that influence the composition (incumbent agents and new entrants) of the sector. Using the philosophy of critical realism as an underlabourer the research findings document how changes experienced by a firm in the travel sector have been influenced by forces far beyond the immediate control of the individual travel agent’s appropriation of available resources and investment opportunities. Key Word; Critical Realism, Regulatory Process, Structuration, Travel agency, Travel sector, Australia.