The influence of national culture on the attitude towards mobile recommender systems

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.This study aimed to identify factors that influence user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems and to examine how these factors interact with cultural values to affect attitudes towards this technology. Based on the theory of reasoned action, belief factors for mobile recommender systems are identified in three dimensions: functional, contextual, and social. Hypotheses explaining different impacts of cultural values on the factors affecting attitudes were also proposed. The research model was tested based on data collected in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that functional and social factors have significant impacts on user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems. The relationships between belief factors and attitudes are moderated by two cultural values: collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The theoretical and practical implications of applying theory of reasoned action and innovation diffusion theory to explain the adoption of new technologies in societies with different cultures are also discussed.National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean governmen

Mobile travel services: A three-country study into the impact of local circumstances

In this paper we explore the difference in acceptance patterns of mobile services that are related to travelling in three countries: Finland, The Netherlands and New Zealand. The objective of this paper is to understand differences in the use of Mobile Travel Services in three countries that differ with regard to national travel patterns. This paper also contributes to the discussion of the relevance of the Technology Acceptance Model for mobile applications by focusing on the importance of context characteristics, such as the degree of mobility of the user, the social situation people are in, and their need for social interaction. Based on surveys in the three countries as executed in 2009, we use structural equation modelling to find differences in patterns. The paper concludes that context factors have an impact on the relation between the core concepts as used in TAM and DOI approach, and that t here is a clear need for closer research in the moderating effect of physical (e.g. mobile and fixed context) and social context, as well as the need for social interaction. Moreover it is clear that country specific characteristics play a role in the acceptance of mobile travel services. As we pointed out in many of our research projects before the acceptance and use of mobile services requires deep understanding from individual, context and technology related characteristics and their mutual interactions

Exploration of location-based services adoption

As mobile technologies become more ubiquitous in the general population, it is reasonable to assume that individuals will consume services and software to enhance their aspirations and entertainment desires. This paper discusses a controlled experiment to explore aspects of user perceptions of their use of location-based services. This study examines a location-based service prototype experiment and analysis based on the UTAUT model. The results show significant indicators that suggest behavior patterns of early adopters of location-based services are being observed. We discuss these influences and attempt to explain their significance. Moreover, more curiously we discuss why some of our model was unsupported and postulate why

Mobile Commerce Adoption in China and the United States: A Cross-Cultural Study

Mobile communication technologies have penetrated consumer markets throughout the world. Mobile commerce is likely to make a strong influence on business activities, consumer behavior, as well as national and global markets. Thus the identification of factors that influence mobile commerce adoption has significant value. In a global context, this study identified nine factors affecting mobile commerce adoption based on published research in MIS. These factors were investigated in China and the United States, and a comparative examination was conducted. A survey was conducted on 190 individual mobile commerce users in China and USA. Results show that there are several significant differences among the antecedents and their impacts on consumer intention to use mobile commerce in the two cultural settings. The study provides a number of practical insights and informs vendors seeking to enter the Chinese and the US marketplace with specific information on user perspectives

An empirical study on the adoption of mobile location-based advertising

Increasing market penetration of smart phones and mobile broadband subscriptions has created new marketing communication avenues that allow interactive and highly targeted advertising based on individuals' location and contextual environment. However, the factors that guide consumers' adoption of such advertising and consumer perceptions of this new advertising channel are not yet fully understood. This research attempts to bridge this gap. Location-based services are smart phone applications that enable this avenue. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that influence consumer acceptance and adoption of one specific type of location-based service, location- based advertising, where advertising messages are customized to individuals' location, personal information and interests. Drawing theories from the fields of technology adoption, social psychology, and mobile marketing, ten constructs are identified and a modified conceptual model and hypotheses are built and tested with survey data from 138 individuals. Structural equation modeling is used to test 10 factors that influence consumer adoption of location-based advertising: (1) attitude, (2) social influence, (3) perceived usefulness, (4) perceived ease of use, (5) perceived enjoyment, (6) compatibility (7) incentives, (8) personal innovativeness, (9) privacy issues, (10) Attitude toward advertising in general. The results indicate that enjoyment - as entertainment, fun, and interactive - is the strongest driver that influence individuals' attitude that in turn, is the strongest determinant of behavioral intention to adopt location-based advertising. A strong indirect influence of compatibility, perceived usefulness and incentives to adoption is also found. The relationship between privacy issues and personal innovativeness toward adoption are not statistically significant and therefore, their importance in guiding consumer adoption of location-based advertising cannot be determined based on this research

2Drivers and Moderators of Consumer Behaviour in the Multiple Use of Mobile Phone

The emergence of m-commerce and mobile data service (MDS) attract much of the attentions in the field of m-business. Salient studies have mainly identified the critical factors that drive consumer intentions to adopt a new mobile technology or a cluster of mobile services. While various technologies and services are embedded into one consumer device, existing models have limitations in explicating how consumers respond to the phenomenon of convergent technologies and services and cannot be used to understand consumer usage or future demand. Therefore, this research aims at not only expanding the research contexts from m-commerce but also encompasses the uses of convergent technologies and services on mobile phones. An empirical model is verified through a survey of 249 general mobile phone users in Australia. Findings indicate that perceived enjoyment rather than perceived usefulness and ease of use has a greater impact on consumers’ decisions to use mobile phones for personal information management, entertainment and e-mail communication. Perceived risk is the major consideration for consumers using mobile phones for commercial transactions. Gender and PC ownership are identified as two important factors that moderate the mobile phone use for the four different purposes. The findings are expected to contribute to the understanding of using convergent technologies and services from a consumer perspective

Mobile travel services: the effect of moderating context factors

This article has two objectives: (1) to draw an international comparison regarding the acceptance of mobile travel services in three countries with different profiles when it comes to travelling and mobile telecommunications, and (2) to extend relevant literature on mobile applications, more specifically travel services, by including context-related concepts, taking moderating factors like location, mobility of users, physical, and social context into account. Based on surveys that were carried out in 2009, structural equation modelling is used to identify differences in patterns in the use of mobile travel services and in the role of context-related variables. the conclusion of this article is that context-related factors, that is, mobility and (physical and social) context, have an impact on the relationship between the core concepts of technology Acceptance model (TAM) and Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) research. many studies on the acceptance and use of mobile services indicate that a deep understanding is needed of individual, context-related, and technological characteristics and the way they interact. this is also highly relevant to the travel industry, which wants to utilize the opportunities provided by mobile technology