Resumo

The use of computers and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has been part of our lives making us dependents of the technology in all aspects, today exist more mobile devices than people in the world because gadgets like tablets, smartphones and not-so-smart phones are multiplying five times faster than people are (Boren, 2014). As travelers and consumers are now spending more and more time on their mobile devices than ever before, they are expressing a growing preference to engage in business transactions from their own mobile devices.

The aim of this research is investigating the difference between the cohort generations forward the adoption of a new technologies (mobile devices and applications). We propose as research question: What are the influence of cohort (Generation X and Generation Y) in perceived risk, trust, perceived utility, perceived usefulness in attitude and intention to use mobile devices and applications in the hospitality sector?

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a parsimonious model established to predict the technology acceptance (Venkatesh & Morris, 2000). The TAM model is the base to examine the impact of external factors and internal beliefs in attitudes and intention to use the technologies based in products and services (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989). The model employs two internal beliefs, perceived utility and perceived usefulness as antecedents’ variables that affect the consumer intentions in use technological services and devices.

To analyses the proposed model , we used the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). In advance, as the literature recommends, we verify the assumptions for the application of this regressive technique. Furthermore, multiple group analyses were calculated in a hierarchical approach comparing two sub-samples which were selected according their cohort strata. The measurement scales were developed from the reviewed literature on the construction of the conceptual model. The total number of respondents were 498 divided in 243 for Generation X and 255 for Generation Y.

Trust shown a positive relationship with Usefulness and is stronger in Gen Y than in Gen X. Trust shown a positive relationship with Utility and is stronger in Gen X than in Gen Y. The positive relationship between Trust and Risk are evident when we compare the Gen Yand Gen X. Usefulness shown a positive relationship with Utility and is stronger in Gen Y than in Gen X. However, the relationship between Usefulness and Attitude and Utility and Attitude despite being significant the relationship is not equal among the two cohorts.

This study examines the effect of cohort segmentation on perceived risk and trust toward the attitude and intention to use mobile devices and respective applications by Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) in hospitality sector. The findings of this study provide some valuable insights to mobile service providers regarding the difference in service perceptions between Generation X and Generation Y. The results of the study entailed the following implications.

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