Determinants of theWillingness to Use Mobile Location-Based Services - An Empirical Analysis of Residential Mobile Phone Customers

This article develops 11 hypotheses on impacts of six customer characteristics on an individual’s willingness to use mobile location based services (LBS). Hypotheses are tested in a sample of 217 mobile communications customers in Germany who participated in a standardized online-survey. PLS analysis suggests that reported frequency of “on the move” information needs, perceived assessment of LBS in a customer’s social environment and extent of past use of other mobile data services have statistically as well as practically significant effects on adoption intentions for pull LBS. Data privacy risks and cost/bill size concerns are only weakly or not related to such intentions

Mobile Water Payment Innovations in Urban Africa

This study assess mobile payment options for water service bills in four urban African contexts. Systems are evaluated to identify differences in adoption levels and motivations and barriers to uptake; how costs are distributed among water service providers, mobile network operators, and customers; and mobile payment applications and designs. Data was collected through interviews with water service providers, mobile network operators and service regulators, as well as a household survey in one of the study regions and the aid of World Bank and national water regulator data. Mobile water payment adoption rates were low, but there was also evidence that key barriers such as limited awareness, lack of physical proof of payment, and high transaction tariffs, could be overcome. Increased mobile water payment is found to result in considerable savings in time and money for consumers, revenue for mobile network operators, and perhaps most importantly, strengthened finances for water service providers to improve their ability to provide sustainable service

DETERMINANTS OF USERS’ WILLINGNESS TO USE MOBILE PAYMENT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN TONGREN UNIVERISITY, CHINA

The purpose of this paper is to establish and assess the determinants of users’ willingness to use mobile payment: an empirical study in Tongren University, China. After conducting a rigorous literature review with theoretical underpinning, this research has come up with the proper methodology to move forward. According to the comprehensive guideline, the total number of Tongren College and Tongren Vocational College is more than 38,000, so the minimum sample is finally determined to be 380. Besides, after conducting Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), the measuring modelling was done by taking into account all the variables concurrently in order to verify the appropriateness of the overall model. All the hypotheses of this study have been tested through the application of SEM. For the overall model as a whole, the statistical result indicates a good fit. From the model, it can be seen that all the variables uphold a positive value. Findings revealed that perceived performance risk perceived financial risk and perceived privacy risk have substantial positive impacts on acceptance intention of mobile payment. Therefore, since a myriad of factors decides the attitude toward mobile payment use, further studies can also be developed by adding more constructs in the theoretical model in this paper.  Article visualizations

zwei empirische Untersuchungen zur Erkundung betriebswirtschaftlicher Absatzperspektiven für innovative mobilfunkbasierte Datendienste

Kumulative Dissertatio

Telecommunication reforms, access regulation, and Internet adoption in Latin America

The authors review the stylized facts on regulatory reform in telecommunications and its effects on telecommunications development and Internet penetration in Latin America. Relying on data from the International Telecommunication Union, the Information for Development Program (InfoDev), and the World Bank for 1990-99, the authors then test econometrically the determinants of the differences in Internet penetration rates across Latin America. The results show that effective implementation of the reform agenda in telecommunications regulation could accelerate adoption of the Internet in Latin America-even though it is only part of the solution (income levels, income distribution, and access to primary infrastructure are the main determinants of growth in Internet connections and use). Regulation will work by cutting costs. Cost cutting will require that regulators in the region take a much closer look at the design of interconnection rules and at the tradeoffs that emerge from the complex issues involved. It will also require a commitment to developing analytical instruments, such as cost models, to sort out many of the problems. Appropriate cost models will generate benchmarks that are much more consistent with the local issues and with the local cost of capital than international benchmarks will ever be for countries in unstable macroeconomic situations. Cost cutting will require an equally strong commitment to imposing regulatory accounting systems that reduce the information asymmetrics that incumbents use to reduce the risks of entry. All these changes will ultimately require a stronger commitment by competition agencies, since in many countries a failure to negotiate interconnection agreements will raise competition issues just as often as it will raise regulatory questions.Rural Communications,Information Technology,Telecommunications Infrastructure,Knowledge Economy,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Knowledge Economy,Information Technology,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Rural Communications,Education for the Knowledge Economy

What determines online consumers to migrate from PC to Mobile Terminals? -An empirical research on consumers’online channel-migration behaviors

With the improvement of telecommunication and wireless Internet-access technologies, smart mobile terminals have been extensively applied for mobile shopping. In this paper, PPM Model is taken as a theoretical framework and an empirical research method is employed to determine the antecedents influencing consumers’ decisions on migrating from PC-based shopping to mobile shopping. We found that inconvenience, security, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use are the significant antecedents influencing consumers’channel migration intention of choosing mobile shopping

Committed to Content Provider or Mobile Channel? Determinants of Continuous Mobile Multimedia Service Use

The focus of the article is analysis of relationships between value perceptions, commitment and intentions to use mobile multimedia service (MMS) content. Attracting a committed wide audience end-user base that uses multimedia content frequently is essential for success of the services. Customers’ preferences for both the content provider and for the channel used are included. This is necessary for exploring further how to increase continuous use and revenue per user in the mobile field. In the empirical case of mobile multimedia services in the real estate business, intentions to use the same service provider again were found to be directly influenced by commitment to use the same provider, and indirectly by emotional and social value perceptions of MMS content. The usefulness of the content had no effect on intentions to use the same provider. However, it influenced intentions to use the mobile channel as such. Implications for theory and marketers are discussed

Street Markets Influencing Consumer Behavior in Urban Habitat

This study explores the influence of street markets in urban geo-demographic settings and analyzes vending patterns with ethnic values enhancing the consumer satisfaction. Interrelationship among urban dwellers, marketplace ambiance, and conventional shopping wisdom of customers and interactive customer relations are also addressed in the study based on empirical survey. Research on street markets is very limited though some studies are available on street vendors with focus on spatial planning, political interventions, and legal rights. This study on street markets contributes significantly to the existing literature in reference to shopping behavior and perceptional values of urban consumers..Street markets, consumer behavior, ethnic markets, sales differentiation, market attractiveness, consumer satisfaction

The Economic Value of Electricity Reliability

Unreliable access to electricity is the norm rather than the exception in many developing countries. This dissertation analyzes the causes and consequences of outages and evaluates the economic benefits of addressing them. The first chapter investigates how the demand for electricity reliability can be estimated in the absence of markets for it. Employing two complementary pieces of information from a nationally representative sample of grid-connected consumers in Nepal - coping behavior and stated willingness to pay (WTP) - demand electricity reliability is estimated. The results indicate substantial heterogeneity in ex-ante demand for reliability and ex-post increase in electricity consumption levels, even within the same tariff categories. For policy-making purposes, the findings highlight the importance of conducting a detailed analysis of information on households’ preferences and firms’ opportunity costs when evaluating the benefits from reliability investments.Chapter two focuses on evaluating the economic benefits of mitigating the risk of unplanned outages in overloaded electric networks. Although electric utilities meter the amount of electricity consumed by individual customers, the physical structure of electricity distribution networks creates a shared level of reliability. The question that arises here is whether the shared nature of electric networks makes them susceptible to the common-pool resource (CPR) problem. Using firm- and substation-level data from a nationally representative sample of Nepalese firms, the findings indicate that the CPR problem would be largely solved if private firms were allowed to own and operate iii substations. The cost-benefit analysis presented in this chapter demonstrates that the annual gain from eliminating this restriction would be on the order of 0.32 USD million. The third chapter estimates the extent to which electricity consumers of different income levels would increase their use of high-load appliances in response to improvements in grid reliability. The results indicate that although grid-connected households are counted in the electrification statistics, unreliable electricity service significantly constrains their electric appliance ownership and, consequently, electricity consumption. Putting this paper’s findings into Sustainable Development Goal 7’s perspective, a connection to the grid by itself does not necessarily translate to realized benefits from electricity consumption. The availability and reliability of the service play a critical role for households at all income levels

Household Demand for Broadband Internet Service

As part of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) National Broadband Report to Congress, we have been asked to conduct a survey to help determine consumer valuations of different aspects of broadband Internet service. This report details our methodology, sample and preliminary results. We do not provide policy recommendations. This draft report uses data obtained from a nationwide survey during late December 2009 and early January 2010 to estimate household demand for broadband Internet service. The report combines household data, obtained from choices in a real market and an experimental setting, with a discrete-choice model to estimate the marginal willingness-to-pay (WTP) for improvements in eight Internet service characteristics.