Airport mobile internet an innovation

Abstract

This paper studies the adoption of mobile Internet by airports. Using a new theoretical model, the study tests whether early adopters of mobile Internet for airports can be considered real innovators. Seventy-five international airports from four different geographical areas and of three different sizes are analyzed. The paper complements the analysis with an additional innovation adoption, the PC-Website, and two dimensions are analyzed: the time of adoption and the degree of maturation. Our findings show that there are four real innovator airports: London Heathrow, London Stansted, Amsterdam Schiphol and Copenhagen. Airport innovation is found to be related to geographical location and commercial revenue rather than to airport size. The four real innovator airports iPhone apps are used as case studies to identity best practices for the delivery of airport mobile services.