9Exploring the antecedents of trust and users’ continuance intention in hybrid online travel platforms: the role of network externalities and platform quality

ABSTRACTDrawing from network externalities perspective in the Economics literature, this study investigates the antecedents of trust and users’ continuance intention in the context of hybrid online travel platforms (HOTPs). Data were obtained by surveying 489 users of HOTPs in China. The empirical results based on the PLS-SEM model showed that indirect and direct network externalities positively influence functional quality and hedonic quality respectively. Furthermore, both functional quality and hedonic quality of HOTPs positively affect users’ trust, which in turn positively affects users’ continuance intention and negatively affects perceived risks.KEYWORDS: Platform qualitynetwork externalitiestrustusers’ continuance intentionhybrid online travel platforms Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementData used to support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China [grant number 22YJA630040].