Barriers and drivers in the adoption of current and future mobile services in Finland

Finland has long been seen as the most successful country in Europe in terms of the adoption and use of advanced mobile services. In this paper we discuss the importance of understanding the role of (physical, cognitive, security and economic) barriers and benefits (perceived entertainment value and perceived flexibility) of mobile services as well as the role that functional differences of mobile service bundles play in the process of actual and future use of these bundles. Based on a survey we test six models for mobile travel service bundle, GPRS bundle, mobile surveillance bundle, traditional and more advanced entertainment bundles and m-commerce service bundles. Our analysis shows that understanding the actual and future use is only possible when the subtleties of the specific bundles, i.e. the characteristics of the involved services, are taken into account. Differences in technology or service attributes based on technology cannot be treated as neutral.     

The adoption and use of mobile phone in rural China: A case study of Hubei,China

This paper examines the behavioral and psychological factors influencing the adoption and use of mobile phone in rural China. Based on the diffusion of innovations and perceived needs theory, this research, through a case study of Hubei, China, supports the theoretical model that both behavioral and psychological factors can predict Chinese rural residents’ adoption and use of mobile phone. Psychological factors, however, play a weaker role in rural residents’ adoption and use of mobile phone than do behavioral factors. Moreover, behavioral factors can significantly predict some of the psychological factors. By adding behavioral factors into the theoretical model, this study supplements the perceived needs theory and extends it from urban setting to rural setting. Implications of the findings have been discussed.     

Extending the theory of planned behavior: A study of lifestyles,contextual factors,mobile viewing habits,TV content interest,and intention to adopt mobile TV

This study applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain the intentions of Hong Kong consumers to adopt mobile TV and their interests in its content. Using a probability sample of 644 respondents, this study not only demonstrated the robustness of TPB in explaining consumer behavior but also showed that channel deficiency, mobile viewing habits (which were moderated by perceived behavioral control), and content interest could significantly influence consumers’ intentions to adopt mobile TV services. Although lifestyle types were not found a significant predictor of behavioral intention, it had strong effect on content interests in mobile TV. Limitations and practical implications are provided.     

Analysis of the essential factors for the adoption of mobile learning in higher education: A case study of students of the University of Technology

This paper analyzed the adoption of using mobile learning (m-learning) in higher education. Mobile Learning as a model of e-learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes by utilizing mobile technologies. With the increasing coverage of mobile networks, learning services can play the increasing and effective role in education at any time and place. Continuous access via mobile devices creates special facilities like sending and saving the learning content to learners etc, it is accompanied with continuous education. This paper, with a study of “what is the impact of the mobile phone usage in education?” provides approaches and theories of mobile learning in training. The paper aimed to evaluate the essential factors for the adoption and application of education information system that has been created by students. The survey was based on the history of technology adoption and covered students. Furthermore, a case study from students of K. N. Toosi University in Iran was presented to indicate the performance of this method in practice. The statistical society included 300 members from Information Technology students of Iran's K. N. Toosi University of Technology. The factors related to adoption of mobile learning in higher education was classified into seven main categories as: ease of use, trust, characters and personal qualities, context, perceived usefulness of using, behavioral intention, and culture of using a research model. From the results, mobile learning could be one of the promising educational technologies for development in educational environments and culture of using. The context of applications has a significant positive effect on the ease of use factor and usefulness and the ease of use has a positive effect on the usefulness factor. The trust factor has a positive and significant effect on the behavioral intention. The personal features and characters factor have a significant positive effect on the culture of using and the culture of using the application has a significant positive effect on the behavioral intention.     

Consumer preferences of attributes of mobile payment services in South Korea

The widespread diffusion of mobile devices has led to a new method of value transfer that retains the features of mobile devices: mobile payments. Many researchers have investigated consumers’ responses to mobile payment services, which is a key indicator of the success of a service, and have examined determinants of consumer adoption. Although many studies have addressed consumer adoption of mobile payment services, only the general and abstract factors affecting adoption (e.g., perceived usefulness) have been intensively investigated. However, these studies have rarely examined the idiosyncratic and concrete aspects of mobile payment services. To improve our understanding of why consumers adopt certain mobile payment services, this study investigated consumers’ evaluations of the explicit attributes of the services. Three hundred seventy-three consumers of mobile payment services participated in an online conjoint survey. Their preference structure was generated from a conjoint analysis including five service attributes (mobile payment platform, assurance policy, mileage program, authentication method, and affiliated stores), which were identified through a literature review and focus group discussion. The results showed that an assurance policy is the most critical factor influencing consumers’ choices, and a mileage program is considered to be as imperative as the platform. We also compared the findings by two consumer clusters (safety seekers vs. platform adherers), which were classified by preference. Because this study examines concrete and specific attributes of mobile payment services beyond abstract and general adoption factors, it provides insights into consumers’ actual adoption of services.     

Acceptance and rejection of mobile TV among young adults: A case of college students in South Korea

Employing the definition of “adopter types” as the continuum of adoption rate, this study attempts to examine the factors influencing young people’s mobile TV adoption behaviors ranging from non- and discontinuous to actual adoption. Demographic and innovative attributes were found to have a non-significant influence on the adoption likelihood. The findings also revealed that information needs and newspaper reading were negatively associated with mobile TV adoption, while entertainment needs were found to be a significant positive predictor of the adoption likelihood. The results imply that young adults tend to adopt and use mobile TV for entertainment purpose, rather than for informational purpose. Additionally, the results showed that perceived value predicted the adoption. On the other hand, perceived price as an available resource did not have an impact on the adoption. Inconsistent with the prior findings of people’s mobile TV adoption and use as both positive information and entertainment sources, the findings suggest that young adults are likely to adopt and use mobile TV for entertainment and portability. When considering the capabilities of the technology, the findings imply young adults’ perceptual and behavioral tendency toward the different use of the technology in the convergent media environment in which they have grown up.     

Modeling predictors of COVID-19 health behaviour adoption,sustenance and discontinuation among social media users in Nigeria

The aim of this study was to suggest a model that explains the predictors of COVID-19 health behaviour adoption, sustenance and discontinuation among social media users in Nigeria. Survey research design was used for the study. The sample size was made of 600 social media users with questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to analyse the result for the study. It was found that six variables-risk vulnerability, risk severity, barriers to action, benefits of action, self-efficacy, and cue to behaviour-predict COVID-19 health behaviour adoption. Also, two variables-risk vulnerability and risk severity-predict COVID-19 health behaviour sustenance. Finally, two variables-behaviour fatigue and behaviour discomfort-predict COVID-19 health behaviour discontinuation. The result of the current study has provided information that could guide health experts in dealing with the issue of behaviour fatigue and behaviour discomfort, which have been identified as responsible for health behaviour discontinuation. In addition, a model for predicting health behaviour adoption, sustenance and discontinuation has been suggested.     

Satisfaction and switching intention in mobile services: Comparing lock-in and free contracts in the Spanish market

Switching costs are a relevant issue affecting market competition in the mobile services industry. However, customer switching costs have not disappeared, since numerous leading mobile services companies use lock-in strategies, such as obliged long-term contractual relationships. The present study provides and empirically test a conceptual model in order to analyze the creation of customer satisfaction and switching intention with mobile services, as well as to examine the differences between lock-in and free contracts in a South European mature market – Spain. For this purpose, drawing on a sample of 370 customers, we developed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through a multi-group analysis. Our findings suggest that service quality is one of the key determinants of satisfaction, while the availability of attractive alternatives is the main switching barrier. Moreover, some interesting differences were found between the two type of contracts analyzed. Consequently, we suggest shifting resources to customer retention through improved service quality for reducing customer churn rate.     

Factors influencing the adoption of e-Government services in Mauritius

This research seeks to investigate the antecedents of e-Government adoption in a small island developing state. An extended model comprising of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 and the e-Government adoption model was employed. Results from a cross-sectional survey of 247 citizens show that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, perceived value are positively related to behavioural intention. Computer self-efficacy is shown to have a significant negative relationship with behavioural intention and resistance to change. Our results further demonstrate that trustworthiness is inversely related to resistance to change. Small island developing states should engage in proper awareness campaigns of e-Government services offered and focusing their efforts on citizens aged 18–39 years old to obtain a critical mass of users. Website design and information quality should be improved paying particular attention to security and privacy, thereby increasing trust and reducing resistance to change.     

Access to premium content on mobile television platforms: The case of mobile sports

As broadcasting sports content has proved to be a popular strategy for driving the growth of the digital premium content marketplace in the past, mobile service operators aim to enter the sports rights market. However, as the markets for live sports broadcasting are still dominated by established broadcasters, mobile network operators are facing significant barriers to access premium content creating bottlenecks in the construction of business models. Therefore, content regulation is seen as essential for the development of mobile television platforms. This article aims to stress the strategic importance of content in the development of sustainable business models for mobile broadcasting services and will discuss the implications of bundling strategies and regulations for the viability of these emerging platforms.     

Over-the-top bundled services in the Korean broadcasting and telecommunications market: Consumer preference analysis using a mixed logit model

Platform service providers in Korea and worldwide have launched over-the-top (OTT) bundled services, which increase market competitiveness. Forecasting the market expansion strategies of these providers can thus shed light on their future actions and influence government policies. In this context, this is the first study to analyze consumer preferences for bundled pay-TV and OTT services. However, due to a lack of market data availability, we conducted a discrete choice experiment and analyzed the marginal utilities of attributes using a mixed logit model. The results demonstrate that consumers expect an additional discount for pay-TV services when bundled with OTT services and that the more bundled services they currently use, the less sensitive they are to the discount rate. Furthermore, we found that OTT and TV broadcasting services have a complementary, rather than a substitute, relationship. Finally, according to a simulation analysis for the Korean broadcasting market, bundling OTT services to expand the market share of pay-TV service providers was largely ineffective.     

Biased choice of a mobile telephony tariff type:: Exploring usage boundary perceptions as a cognitive cause in choosing between a use-based or a flat rate plan

Most mobile network operators provide newly acquired or existing customers with the possibility to choose between a monthly flat rate for unlimited voice calls and pay-per-minute price schemes. Consumers who maximize their utility should select the tariff type that leads to the lowest invoice amount given their anticipated service usage volume. However, previous research looking at users of fixed network telephony, broadband Internet access and other services suggests that a significant share of consumers prefers a flat rate to use-dependent price plans even though their invoice will be higher. One cognitive explanation for such biased choices is that consumers consider the ratio of the likelihood of calling enough to justify a flat rate to the probability of not calling enough to save money with a fixed price (= “ratio rule”) when choosing between the two tariff types. In this assessment they overestimate the first likelihood in proportion to the second one. Drawing on a sample of 203 mobile telephony customers in Germany the present study shows that mobile users are biased in favor of a flat rate because they overestimate their future call usage and behave in line with the “ratio rule” when choosing a tariff type. Correlates of cognitively biased tariff choices are explored. With regard to pricing practices it is concluded that managers should not follow the temptation to exploit the overestimation bias in designing pricing and advertising policies pushing customers into fixed price schemes, which do not fit their actual calling patterns.     

The effects of cultural dimension on ICT innovation: Empirical analysis of mobile phone services

ICT Innovation is one of the major forces for socioeconomic development. It is the key element to spur growth of the economy of a nation. Several studies have shown that culture is a crucial determinant of innovations. This study examines the effect of socio-cultural factors on ICT innovation with specific focus on the mobile banking services. Research was conducted on 220 respondents from sampled population in South Africa. The questionnaire used in this study was developed based on previous studies that have proven validity. The findings indicate that culture is an appropriate concept to describe how innovation in information and communication technology can be influenced by human behavior.     

Students’ thoughts about the importance and costs of their mobile devices’ features and services

In recent years, handheld devices have become one of the fastest growing communication gadgets. Mobile technology is becoming widespread and research in this area is urgently needed. Using a survey instrument, the thoughts of male and female students regarding the importance and costs of mobile devices were investigated. It was found that students tend to consider the following features important: battery life, mp3 player, video camera, photo camera, storage memory, Bluetooth, design and elegance, clock, calendar, organizer and reminder. Also, they are eager to spend an amount of money so as their mobile device to support them. On average, both genders would pay extra money for such features. However, the majority of females think less of the price than males do. On the contrary, most of the respondents do not consider the following important: touch screen, voice commands, chat, teleconference, encryption and cryptography, common use of files, printing. Therefore, they would not spend any money for these features. Interested decision makers would try to increase their interest on such features. Moreover, all respondents appear to own a mobile phone while most of them do not have Internet connection at home. In general, some gender differences are found in the importance and costs of the mobile devices, but they are not statistically significant.     

Product use and welfare: The case of mobile phones in Africa

Traditional consumption theory assumes that the welfare from goods and technologies occurs at the point where they are purchased and hence that what matters from this point of view is the extent of adoption by society. But as Sen (1985) and others have pointed out, account also needs to be taken of the use to which technologies are put. (In the extreme case new technologies may not be used at all.) This paper asks in particular whether use of mobile phones is such as to offset or exacerbate the inequality in the adoption process. From what I can tell, there is some tendency for the former to occur, part of which can be explained but much remains to be understood. The paper uses recent survey data from a large and recent set that includes nationally representative information from 11 African countries.     

Examining the factors that influence early adopters’ smartphone adoption: The case of college students

The influence of early adopters on potential adopters’ decisions of whether or not to adopt a product is known to be critical. In this paper, we examine the factors that influence the adoption behavior of smartphone early adopters by looking at smartphone adoption behavior of college students, because a large portion of the early adopters of smartphones are college students. Our focus is on the effect of normative peer influence on a college student’s smartphone adoption. We also examine the influence of other factors such as self-innovativeness, self-efficacy, the decision maker’s attitudes towards a product, financial burden of using the product, familial influence, and other demographic factors (e.g., age and gender). College students’ adoption behavior is studied using logit and probit choice models developed based on random utility theory. The discrete choice models are empirically estimated using survey data. We find important influence of friends, financial burden, and other family members on the smartphone adoption of college students who adopted smartphones earlier than other students.     

The role of regulatory focus in decision making of mobile app download: A study of Chinese college students

This paper aims to map out college consumers’ decision making process in mobile application download. Regulatory focus (RF) is examined as an important factor affecting gratifications sought (GS) and information processing (IP), app selection style and the ultimate mobile app download behavior. Results show that RF has effects on hedonic GS, and heuristic IP and systematic IP. Hedonic GS positively predicts equally both heuristic processing and systematic processing. Both heuristic processing and systematic processing predict selection style. Although selection style does not affect download app type diversity, impulsive style consumers are more likely to download the app. The study also shows college consumers in general have high likelihood in downloading an app after they considered it. Hedonic GS mediates the relation between RF and both heuristic processing and systematic processing. Systematic processing mediates hedonic GS and selection style. Hence mobile app download decision involves both heuristic and systematic processing.     

Identifying critical challenges in the adoption of cloud‐based services

Cloud computing provides a way to integrate and share information on a real‐time basis across an organization. The current organizations are adopting the cloud services to gain competitive advantage in real‐time data sharing. To meet the current demand in semiconductor industries, they must develop better techniques to produce electronic products at low cost and in a large scale. Adoption of cloud‐based services may resolve the fastest growing demand of technical advancement of semiconductor industries. The research presented in this paper is based on an analysis of the data obtained from the semiconductor sector. This study identifies the critical challenges associated with the cloud service adoption in semiconductor industries. Twelve critical challenges have been identified that need to be overcome for adopting the cloud services for any semiconductor industry. These are network/Internet availability, data security, integration of various services, monitoring of data and services, maintenance of computing performance, liability, power outage, service interruption, organizational change, business complexity, legal issues, and lack of awareness.     

Understanding emotions experienced when using a mobile phone in public: The social usability of mobile (cellular) telephones

The widespread and continued growth of mobile telephony within society means that protocols regarding acceptable public use are being continually redefined. In order to understand the different needs and motivations of mobile phone users and to assist with the development of effective policy, it is important first to consider the phone-related behaviours with which people are comfortable and those with which they become annoyed. A survey of 184 young adults was undertaken to explore the relationships between their comfort making and receiving mobile phone calls in different social contexts, their affective responses to public mobile phone use by others, and how such factors relate to key personal attributes and specific beliefs regarding calling behaviour. Mobile phone users differed in the extent to which they felt comfortable making and receiving calls in different social contexts and were less annoyed by others using mobile phones in locations where they themselves felt most comfortable making calls. Three important influences which predicted behavioural measures of phone use were found to be views regarding the application of public restrictions, desire to remain personally contactable and ‘social usability’ or anxiety regarding phone use in the presence of others. User personality and individual attributes such as age and gender were also found to be differentially associated with some aspects of phone-related behaviours.