Social media in the airline industry: acceptance of social seating

This paper aims to analyze influences on the adoption of an application launched by some airlines and independent providers, called “social seating”, which is based on user profiles from or similar to social networks. These applications have not been widely successful, and therefore constitute an interesting exception within the area of social networking, warranting further investigation.

An empirical study based on the technology acceptance model and using survey methodology has been undertaken to understand antecedents of adoption and use of such applications.

Results show a consistent influence of perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness, as well as a strong role of privacy and data security.

Due to the limited adoption, the actual use could only be investigated using a small data set, while the majority of results rely on stated intentions.

This is one of a few studies that focuses on a social networking application that both crosses into the physical world, and that has been very limited in adoption and success.