Modeling the stimulators of the behavioral intention to use mobile entertainment: Does gender really matter?

This research aims to empirically examine the stimulators that influence consumers’ behavioral intention to use (IU) mobile entertainment (ME) in Malaysia. The proposed stimulators are perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), social influence (SI), perceived self-efficacy (PSE) and perceived enjoyment (PE). PU and PEOU were derived from TAM, SI was taken from the TRA, TPB and DOI model, PE was obtained from the extended-TAM model and PSE was taken from Bandura’s theory. This is among the first study that uses a model consisting of integrated constructs from TAM, extended-TAM, TRA, TPB, DOI and Bandura’s theory in predicting acceptance of ME. Empirical data were analyzed by employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. Gender moderating effect was examined via multiple group analysis (MGA). The findings revealed that PU, PEOU, SI and PE are positively associated with consumer IU of ME. Surprisingly, there were no significant moderating effects of gender. The control variables (i.e. age, marital status, education level, number of mobile phone and experience) were found to have no confounding effects on the ME adoption. The findings have contributed theoretical and managerial implications to ME providers, mobile phone manufacturers, the music, movie and gaming industry players.     

Predicting the adoption of mobile financial services: The impacts of perceived mobility and personal habit

Mobile financial services (MFS) have become a critical issue in the financial sectors. An expanding application of mobile commerce, MFS play an important role in managing customer relationships. Thus, we proposed a model that incorporates three external variables—perceived enjoyment, perceived mobility, and personal habit—into the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the antecedents that influence continued usage intention in MFS. In addition, we examined the moderating effect of gender on customer relationships. Structural equation modeling was used, and 368 MFS users were investigated. The findings revealed that perceived mobility, personal habit, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use are the major antecedents that influence continued usage intention in MFS. However, perceived enjoyment is not significantly associated with intention. Moreover, gender moderates the relationships between the variables in the proposed model. Perceived mobility affecting usage intention will be stronger for men than for women, whereas personal habit affecting usage intention will be stronger for women than for men.     

Exploring students' awareness and perceptions: Influencing factors and individual differences driving m-learning adoption

This study investigates students' awareness and perceptions of m-learning and examines the factors affecting students' behavioral intention to adopt m-learning, by using a modified research model that integrate technology acceptance model (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (social influence) along with other factors (m-learning services and mobile limitations). In addition, control (gender, field of study, study level) and moderator variables (mobile capabilities, level of mobile usage, and frequent use of m-services) were introduced to verify the individual differences between respondents on the key factors affecting the adoption and usage of m-learning. Structural equations modeling and path analysis were used to test the hypotheses and the proposed model. The results revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were found to be the primary factors driving students' intentions to use m-learning. Both m-learning services and social influence have positive effects on the acceptance of m-learning, while mobile limitations were found to be the main obstacle restraining students' participation in a m-learning environment. Most of the control variables yield no significant differences between students, but all the moderator variables were found to be significant determinants that can influence students to adopt m-learning. Overall, students have great potential to engage and integrate mobile technology into their educational environment.     

Predicting Drivers of Mobile Entertainment Adoption: A Two-Stage SEM-Artificial-Neural-Network Analysis

This study aims to understand users’ motivations to adopt mobile entertainment (m-entertainment). Extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study examined the effects of trust, perceived financial cost (PFC), and quality of the service on consumers’ decision in adopting the m-entertainment. Survey data were collected from 524 mobile users and analyzed using both structural equation modeling (SEM) and neural network (NN) . The result showed that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and quality of service (QS) are important predictors of m-entertainment adoption. The study contributes to the existing literature by extending the TAM model as well as examining m-entertainment, an important and emerging business model in mobile commerce. A new analytical approach using both SEM and NN was also employed in this study.     

Exploring the impact of use context on mobile hedonic services adoption: An empirical study on mobile gaming in China

Unlike traditional technologies, the use of mobile technology is exposed to shifting use contexts. Use context has frequently been described as an important factor influencing the adoption of mobile innovations. However, empirical evidence about the impact of use context is limited. This paper investigated the effect of use context on the formation of users’ perceptions of mobile hedonic services by using mobile gaming as an example. Through the employment of structural equation modelling technology, an adoption model of mobile gaming is proposed and assessed based on results from 267 questionnaires. The results show that use context is the strongest predictor of mobile game adoption. It directly or indirectly affects all different perceptions of mobile gaming in significant ways, including perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, cognitive concentration, attitude and behavioral intention. Additionally, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and cognitive concentration all have a positive influence on the attitudinal variables of mobile game acceptance. We concluded that the formation of people’s perceptions about mobile gaming is conditional and based on the special consideration of certain use contexts. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Determinants of behavioral intention to mobile banking

With the improvement of mobile technologies and devices, banking users are able to conduct banking services at anyplace and at anytime. Recently, many banks in the world have provided mobile access to financial information. The reason to understand what factors contribute to users’ intention to use mobile banking is important issue of research. The purpose of this research is to examine and validate determinants of users’ intention to mobile banking. This research used a structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the causalities in the proposed model.The results indicated strong support for the validity of proposed model with 72.2% of the variance in behavioral intention to mobile banking. This study found that self-efficiency was the strongest antecedent of perceived ease-of-use, which directly and indirectly affected behavioral intention through perceived usefulness in mobile banking. Structural assurances are the strongest antecedent of trust, which could increase behavioral intention of mobile banking. This research verified the effect of perceived usefulness, trust and perceived ease-of-use on behavioral intention in mobile banking. The results have several implications for mobile banking managers.     

Increasing trust in mobile commerce through design aesthetics

The growth of mobile commerce (m-commerce) has motivated a better understanding of how trust can be built on a mobile device. Researchers have previously examined design aesthetics (or visual aesthetics) of mobile website and incorporated a hedonic component of enjoyment in m-commerce domain, but the relationship between design aesthetics of mobile website design and customer trust in m-commerce has been rarely investigated. In this study, design aesthetics was enhanced to include a website characteristics component as important to trust development on the mobile Internet. This model was examined through an empirical study involving 200 subjects using structural equation modeling techniques. Our research found that design aesthetics did significantly impact website characteristics component, especially customization, perceived usefulness and ease of use, all of which were ultimately shown to have significant explanatory power in affecting customer trust.     

Towards an understanding of the consumer acceptance of mobile wallet

This study seeks to validate a comprehensive model of consumer acceptance in the context of mobile payment. It uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model with constructs of security, trust, social influence, and self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling is used to construct a predictive model of attitudes toward the mobile wallet. Individuals’ responses to questions about attitude and intention to adopt/use a mobile wallet were collected and analyzed with various factors modified from UTAUT. While the model confirms the classical role of technology acceptance factors (i.e., perceived usefulness and ease of use are key antecedents to users’ attitude), the results also show that users’ attitudes and intentions are influenced by perceived security and trust. In the extended model, the moderating effects of demographics on the relations among the variables were found to be significant. The proposed model brings together extant research on mobile payment and provides an important cluster of antecedents to eventual technology acceptance via constructs of behavioral intention to use and actual system usage.     

Determinants of accepting wireless mobile data services in China

Data services via wireless networks and mobile devices have experienced rapid growth worldwide. We investigated the factors influencing adoption of wireless mobile data services (WMDS) in China and tested our model for explaining adoption intentions there. We argued that individuals form their intention to adopt WMDS under the influence of wireless mobile technology, the social environment, personal innovativeness of IT, trust awareness, and the facilitating conditions. We examined the simultaneous effects of these five influences on beliefs in the context of wireless Internet data services via mobile phones. Survey data were collected from 1432 participants in several metro cities across China. The findings suggest that WMDS adoption intention in China is determined by consumers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of WMDS. Theoretical and practical implications are included in our paper.     

The influence of design aesthetics in usability testing: Effects on user performance and perceived usability

This article examined the effects of product aesthetics on several outcome variables in usability tests. Employing a computer simulation of a mobile phone, 60 adolescents (14-17 yrs) were asked to complete a number of typical tasks of mobile phone users. Two functionally identical mobile phones were manipulated with regard to their visual appearance (highly appealing vs not appealing) to determine the influence of appearance on perceived usability, performance measures and perceived attractiveness. The results showed that participants using the highly appealing phone rated their appliance as being more usable than participants operating the unappealing model. Furthermore, the visual appearance of the phone had a positive effect on performance, leading to reduced task completion times for the attractive model. The study discusses the implications for the use of adolescents in ergonomic research.     

Towards an understanding of the behavioral intention to use 3G mobile value-added services

As profit margins gradually decline, and market competition becomes increasingly intensive, 3G telecom operators must provide various mobile value-added services, as well as traditional voice services, to attract new subscribers and retain old ones. However, for many 3G mobile value-added services, whether ARPU (average revenue per user) can be effectively enhanced depends on the consumer behavioral intentions. Therefore, this study uses the Technology Acceptance Model as the foundation and incorporate personal innovativeness and perceived cost to further understand consumer’s behavioral intention to use 3G mobile value-added services. The following conclusions can be reached from the research findings: (1) consumer usage rate of current 3G value-added services remains low; (2) increased personal innovativeness will directly enhance the perceived ease of use of 3G mobile value-added services; (3) the perceived usefulness is enhanced when consumers perceive higher ease of use of value-added services; (4) perceived usefulness has the strongest effect on consumer attitude, followed by perceived ease of use and perceived cost, and (5) the most important factor in increasing consumer’s behavioral intention to use 3G mobile value-added services is attitude, followed by perceived ease of use, perceived cost and perceived usefulness. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for service providers to develop mobile value-added services.     

Mobile social commerce: The booster for brand loyalty?

In view of the deficiencies in current literature, this study seeks to examine if mobile social commerce continuance usage influences brand loyalty among customers, and assessed the inhibitor role of privacy concern in mobile social commerce usage intention. Privacy concern was measured by using concern for social media information privacy (CFSMIP). Therefore, this study proposes and empirically validated a model that combines CFSMIP, brand loyalty, and Expectation Confirmation Model, in the Asian context. The results suggested that users' CFSMIP does not inhibit them from the continuous usage of mobile social commerce, and influences their perceived usefulness on mobile social commerce positively. Moreover, all the paths in the baseline model of Expectation Confirmation Model have been reconfirmed in this study. Besides, users' continuance usage and satisfaction on mobile social commerce are proven to be boosters for brand loyalty. Relevant managerial implications are then discussed.     

Understanding Continuance Intention of Mobile Payment Services: An Empirical Study

Research on continued use of mobile payment services is scarce. To address part of this research gap, we examine a research model, derived from IT continuance, risk-trust, and affect-cognition literature. The results show that user satisfaction with mobile payment services has a substantive positive impact on continuance intention with such services; the disconfirmation of preadoption perceived usefulness about mobile payment services positively impacts user satisfaction and postadoption perceived usefulness; the disconfirmation of preadoption perceived risk about mobile payment services negatively impacts user satisfaction and positively impacts postadoption perceived risk; postadoption perceived usefulness is positively associated with continuance intention; user satisfaction positively impacts both institution-based trust in mobile payment technologies and trust beliefs in service providers; institution-based trust shows a positive impact on postadoption perceived usefulness and a negative impact on postadoption perceived risk.     

Examining influencing factors of post-adoption usage of mobile internet: Focus on the user perception of supplier-side attributes

Key supplier-side factors that affect the usage level of mobile Internet were identified and the procedural mechanism among the independent and dependent variables was investigated. For this, a research model was introduced to describe associations among four external variables (access quality, service variety, cost rationality, and ease of use), an intermediate variable (usefulness) and a dependent variable (the usage level of mobile Internet). Through the on-line survey, data were gathered from actual mobile Internet users. Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were applied to test the overall integrity of the research model and of proposed hypotheses. All four external variables affected user perceptions on the usefulness of mobile Internet. Among them, service variety and cost rationality had a relatively larger influence on perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness of the mobile Internet had a positive effect on its usage, confirming the important role of usefulness as a significant mediator between the four external variables and the dependent variable. Meanwhile, the cost rationality was the only external variable with direct influence on the MI usage. Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed.     

Mobile Technology in the Classroom: What Drives Student-Lecturer Interactions?

Online learning when combined with mobile technology transforms the traditional classrooms from teacher-centered to student-centered classrooms. Despite the widespread use of mobile technology among students and educators today, limited researches have been conducted to study the effects of using mobile technology to enhance student–lecturer interactions. In addition, existing theories of technology acceptances, chiefly Information System Success Model (ISSM), Motivational Model (MM), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Cultural Dimension Theory (CDT) are widely recognized for their predictive power in determining adoption intentions. In this study, determinants from all five theories were unified and examined, namely system quality and information quality from ISSM, enjoyment from MM, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use from TAM, self-efficacy from SCT, and uncertainty avoidance from CDT as predictors of adoption intention in the context of predicting student–lecturer interactions. This empirical study was conducted using an online survey. Data collected from the samples (n = 328) were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results obtained exhibited adequate explanatory power, where information quality, system quality, enjoyment, and uncertainty avoidance significantly predict adoption intention, while perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and self-efficacy were insignificant. Secondly, each theory was independently analyzed, and the predictive power and relevance of ISSM, MM, TAM, and UDT confirmed the importance and relevance of these theories. Results obtained provided a comprehensive understanding of the factors that significantly affect students’ intentions to use mobile technology to interact with their lecturers on academic matters. The discussions and implications of this study are crucial for researchers and practitioners of educational technologies in higher education.     

The Effects of Personality Traits on User Acceptance of Mobile Commerce

Existing research on user acceptance of mobile commerce has found that technological perceptions—such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived compatibility—had significant effects on user behavior. However, the effects of personality traits have seldom been examined. The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of five personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism on user adoption of mobile commerce. Partial least squares was employed to conduct data analysis. The results show that extraversion has a strong effect on trust, whereas neuroticism has significantly negative effects on trust and perceived usefulness, both of which determine user intention to adopt mobile commerce.     

Understanding the behavior of mobile data services consumers

Due to rapid advances in the Internet and wireless technologies, a ubiquitous computing world is becoming a reality in the form of mobile computing. At the center of this phenomenon is mobile data services which arise from the convergence of advanced mobile communication technologies with data services. Despite the rapid growth in mobile data services, research into consumers’ usage behavior is scarce. This study attempts to identify and empirically assess the factors that drive consumers’ acceptance of mobile data services. A research model based on the decomposed theory of planned behavior and incorporating factors that represent personal needs and motivations in using mobile data services is presented. The model is tested via an online survey of 811 consumers of four categories of mobile data services (i.e., communications, information content, entertainment, and commercial transactions) associated with different usage contexts. We found that attitude, social influence, media influence, perceived mobility, and perceived monetary value influence consumers’ intention to continue usage of mobile data services. In addition, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment influence attitude toward continued usage of mobile data services. Finally, separate analysis of the different categories of mobile data services highlights the influence of individual usage context on consumers’ behavior.

Incorporating user satisfaction into the look-and-feel of mobile phone design

The look-and-feel of the mobile phone was investigated using a consumer survey. Seventy-eight participants evaluated the design of 50 different mobile telephones on the perceived scale of image/impression characteristics, including: luxuriousness, simplicity, attractiveness, colourfulness, texture, delicacy, harmoniousness, salience, rigidity, and overall satisfaction. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were used to evaluate results. The results showed that the image and impression characteristics of the products were closely related to the human-product interface specifications as well as overall shape of the product. Design variables such as texture, use of surface curvature, surface treatment, operating sound, and control response ratio were perceived as important by customers. This study also suggested a series of statistical processes for selecting and screening the critical design variables closely related to the customer's impression of a product. The product evaluation and analysis methods could be generalized to other consumer products.     

Toward an understanding of the behavioral intention to use mobile banking

Although millions of dollars have been spent on building mobile banking systems, reports on mobile banking show that potential users may not be using the systems, despite their availability. Thus, research is needed to identify the factors determining users' acceptance of mobile banking. While there has been considerable research on the technology acceptance model (TAM) that predicts whether individuals will accept and voluntarily use information systems, limitations of the TAM include the omission of an important trust-based construct in the context of electronic/mobile commerce, and the assumption that there are no barriers preventing an individual from using an IS if he or she chooses to do so. Based on literature relating to the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the TAM, this study extends the applicability of the TAM in a mobile banking context, by adding one trust-based construct (“perceived credibility”) and two resource-based constructs (“perceived self-efficacy” and “perceived financial cost”) to the model, while paying careful attention to the placing of these constructs in the TAM's existing nomological structure. Data collected from 180 users in Taiwan were tested against the extended TAM, using the structural equation modeling approach. The results strongly support the extended TAM in predicting users' intentions to adopt mobile banking. Several implications for IT/IS acceptance research and mobile banking management practices are discussed.     

Discovering determinants of users perception of mobile device functionality fit

In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in the use of mobile devices. The ubiquitous and multifunctional nature of these devices with internet connectivity and personalization features make them a unique context to investigate what factors shape mobile users perception of their mobile device functionality fit with their needs. In order to answer this question, we proposed a research model in which we introduced multifunctional use and perceived device-functionality fit as two new constructs. The results of our study show that a significant portion of individuals’ perceived device-functionality fit can be explained by their perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and symbolic value of the device. In terms of the theoretical contribution, our research suggests revamping the concept of device-functionality fit when it comes to mobile devices by accounting for both hedonic and utilitarian aspects of mobile devices. In terms of practical implications, our study highlights the importance of the social image that mobile devices create in the society for their users as well as the importance of look-and-feel aspects of mobile devices in shaping users perception of fit between functionalities of their mobile devices and their needs.