Analysis of the factors that influence the relationship between business air travel and videoconferencing

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between business air travel and videoconferencing for intra-firm communication using econometric models developed through survey data from Taiwan’s technology industry. The survey respondents include business firms that either use or do not use videoconferencing currently. Based on survey data analyses, negative binomial models are developed for the set of current adopters of videoconferencing, and a Poisson regression model is developed for the non-adopters. They suggest substitution relationships between business air travel and videoconferencing for the two groups. However, the substitution effect is perceptibly stronger when videoconferencing is used as a substitute for business air travel. The analysis highlights that the meeting context significantly influences the choice of the communication mechanism; meeting contexts that do not specifically require face-to-face interaction tend to foster increased videoconferencing usage. Further, the perceptions of the respondents in terms of the relative benefits and weaknesses of each communication option influence the likelihood of substitution.