RELATIONSHIPS CAUSED BY THE USE OF TICS AND PERCEPTION OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN TRAVEL AGENCIES.
Travel agencies. Comercial relations. Information and Communication Technology. Business performance.
With the rise of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), there have been many changes in interpersonal and commercial relationships around the world. ICTs facilitate business transactions through networking with business partners, distribution of services and products, as well as providing information to consumers worldwide, which facilitates the relationship between companies and their employees, suppliers and customers. The present work aims to investigate the existing relationships between variables capable of influencing the business performance of travel agencies based on the relationships facilitated by the use of ICT. For this, a research instrument was developed containing variables and dimensions based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) theory and on the theoretical model Relationships and Business Performance (RE-BP), adapting a measurement model and developing a structural model. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, an exploratory, hypothetical-deductive research, of a descriptive nature, with a quantitative treatment was developed. The method chosen to capture the data was the application of 636 questionnaires with the managers of travel agencies in the Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil. The data obtained were treated by descriptive and inferential statistics, with the help of SPSS and the AMOS package, version 22.0. From the results it is possible to confirm satisfactory adjustment rates and factor loads for the proposed structural model. Thus, the study concludes that travel agencies should use ICTs to facilitate their relations with their employees, suppliers and customers, whose strategies allow for better business performance.