Consumer acceptance of mobile value added services: a model based on literature
Date
2016-11-05
Authors
Bandara, A.M.A.S.M.
Wickramasuriya, H.V.A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Peradeniya
Abstract
The number of mobile connections exceeded the population of Sri Lanka by the year 2014 indicating that the potential customer base is diminishing. In line with the global trend, offering different Value Added Services (VAS) to the existing customer base was identified as a potential means of growth by the mobile service providers (MSPs) where the knowhow of the influential factors on the consumer adoption of mobile VAS would be important since the earnings from VAS were reported to be not substantial due to the lower adoption levels by the consumers. On the other hand, many researches were conducted on the determinants of technology adoption and usage making it a prominent research area throughout the last few decades. However, a research gap can still be identified in relation to the adoption of technologies in the consumer context as the earlier researchers have given a prominence to the technologies in the organizational context. From an extensive literature search using Google ScholarĀ®, a total of 20 relevant articles published later than 2010 were identified and the factors that have been investigated in the selected studies were classified according to their similarity and patterns of their findings. Among the identified models, the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was selected as the theoretical base since it was specifically design for the technologies available in the consumer context. Moreover, UTAUT is an extension to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology which is a review and consolidation of the constructs of eight models that were used in explaining the information systems usage and behaviour.
The developed model consists of two constructs in addition to the constructs of UTAUT2 i.e. the Perceived English Language Proficiency (EL) and the Type of the Connection (TC). Having EL in the model is important as the MSPs use English as the primary language of nonverbal communication. Such dependency may act as a barrier to the technology use. TC on the other hand, indicates the major categories of mobile connections based on the billing method (i.e. pre-paid and post-paid) which may have an impact on the adoption and use of VAS.
In line with the UTAUT2, Use Behaviour (UB) has been identified as the dependent variable of the proposed model. UB was conceptualized to have direct relationships with Behavioural Intention (BI), Facilitation Conditions (FC), Habit (HB), and Experience on Mobile Technologies (EX), EL, TC and Demographic Factors (DF). On the other hand, BI was conceptualized to have direct relationships with all independent constructs (i.e. Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Price Value (PV), Hedonic Motivation (HM), FC, HB, EX, EL, TC and DF) making it an intermediary variable. However, the proposed model requires empirical validation before practical usage.
Description
Keywords
Value Added Services , Consumer acceptance